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About Timaru
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Timaru is a major port city in the southern
Canterbury region of
New Zealand, located 160 kilometres south of
Christchurch and about 200 kilometres north of
Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the
South Island. Timaru is one of the major cargo ports of the
South Island, with a number of light manufacturing plants associated with the export and import trade. Many of these producers are concerned with processing, packing, and distributing meat, dairy and other agricultural produce. Timaru is the second largest fishing port in
New Zealand. |
Transportation and Accommodation
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There are regular coach and minibus services to
Christchurch,
Dunedin, Invercargill, Queenstown and the Mackenzie Country, leaving from outside the Visitor Information Centre, which provides booking facilities and other travel services.
Richard
Pearse
Airport is located to the north of the city. It is equipped to handle light aircraft and short haul domestic flights, with regular services to
Wellington.
Timaru has a wide variety of accommodation such as B&B, motels, homestays, farmstays etc.
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Visitor Attractions
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The
South
Canterbury
Museum is the main museum for the region, containing exhibits relating to physical geography and the environment, fossil remains, Māori rock art, the early settlement of the district and local maritime history. Timaru is graced with a number of open spaces, public gardens and parks. The Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden at
Caroline
Bay
Park is an attractive feature of the Timaru Piazza development. The parkland of the Bay Area contains a mini golf course, a roller skating rink, a maze and staging for musical events.
Moeraki boulders
About an hour drive towards the south of Timaru are the Moeraki Boulders which are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of
Koekohe
Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of
South Island between Moeraki and Hampden. The most striking aspect of the boulders is their unusually large size and highly spherical shape, with a distinct bimodal size distribution. These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene some 60 million years ago. |
Tips for Travelers
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Usually Timaru is a stop over along the drive from
Christchurch to
Dunedin or visa versa. |
Traveler Resources
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