Woo-hoo Timaru

Or, why you shouldn’t just pass through on the way to Dunedin, Christchurch, or Oamaru

ALMOST exactly halfway between Christchurch and Dunedin, Timaru is a town that is perhaps more often passed through than enjoyed.

If people have to choose between a stop in Timaru and a stop in Oamaru, they will probably choose Oamaru, because it is more touristy these days.

But to just keep passing through Timaru is a mistake, and in this article, I will add some more reasons why.

The Hectors’ Coastal Track and the Otipua Wetland

Last week, I mentioned the Hectors’ Coastal Track, along the Timaru waterfront, which joins up with the trail to the Jacks Point Lighthouse. This is a great trail on which to go for a long ramble, all the more because it goes past Caroline Bay (of which more below).

Toward the southern end of the Hectors’ Coastal Track, on Saltwater Creek, there is the Otipua Wetland, sixty to seventy hectares or a bit less than two hundred acres of marshy habitat that has been under restoration, by an army of volunteers, for more than twenty years.