Timaru, Part 1

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend for a conference—a weekend of church meetings. The Assembly in Timaru had invited a number of speakers, and four came, two from Australia and two from the north part of the North Island. It was a wonderful weekend of Scripture teaching and fellowshipping! We went last year, and enjoyed it so much that we had been talking all year of going again. (And now, the boys are talking about NEXT year already! So, if anyone from Timaru reads this, know that some people will be very much disappointed if you don’t hold the Easter Conference again!)

We left here about 8:00 on Good Friday morning, and didn’t have to stop once! We made it to Timaru in time for lunch at noon, and attended both the services in the afternoon. After tea at church, we returned to the house at which we were staying, and got our camp set up. Esther and I and the baby slept in the pop-top camper we borrowed for the trip, that night, and Gayle and all the boys slept in three tents in the yard. After the tents were pitched we visited in the house for awhile, and then just as we were getting ready to send the children out to bed, they found a distraction—stories read by the man of the house!

Saturday, there was only one service, mid afternoon, so everyone who stayed at the house we did went to a park and the beach in the morning. Timaru is beautiful! There was a fire in the late 1800s that wiped out the business district, so everything was rebuilt with stone. The buildings are gorgeous!The boys really enjoyed the park. A man was there with several miniature horses, which you could ride for $5. It was free to sit on them, though, and Mr. Imagination loved that.

The man in the red jersey here was one of the speakers. He had had to leave his wife and six children behind to come, and was missing them.The boys loved the playground equipment, too. Left to right are the man with the  horses, Gayle, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Sweetie, ?, Mr. Handy Man, and Mr. Inventor.

Mr. Sweetie on the swing.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Imagination, upside down on the swings!

Left to right are Mr. Diligence, Mr. Inventor, ?, ?, and Mr. Handy Man.

One thing that fascinated me about the beach was how it is receding. When the port was built, it changed the currents. Now, sand is deposited in Caroline Bay.When Europeans first came, the beach was at the base of the cliffs those buildings are on! Our host remembers when it was about halfway between there and where it is now, over a quarter mile out!

The port was at the edge of the park, clearly visible from where we were, so after we left the park, we drove through what we could of the port before we went back for lunch. They were loading a couple of huge freight liners. The four cranes you can see in the middle of this picture are all on one ship!

This is a view of the beach and town from the port.

After leaving the port, we drove past this row of old warehouses.