OTIPUA RD
Take the road that runs through the park from Otipua Rd Zig Zag to Gleniti. Or walk the 3.5km walkway.
FORMER QUARRY, WALKING AND MOUNTAIN BIKING TRACKS AND PICNIC SPOT
Did you know? A huge effort by volunteers and the City Council turned the former basalt quarry into one of our Districts premier parks. The bones of the extinct Moa bird baked beneath 14m of solidified lava, and were discovered here in 1889.
Can you follow? the tracks from a train that transported basalt boulders to build the harbour.
WuHoo Challenge: Loop around the pond, and post a selfie at each playground with #WuHooTimaru.
The park was purchased by the Timaru City Council from the Harbour Board in 1934, and dedicated in 1940 to mark the Dominion's centenary, the 52 hectare Centennial Park is a haven of rural peacefulness on the edge of Timaru City.
At the entrance is a large bluestone arch called the Bowker Gateway. It stands as a memorial to Charles Bowker, whose son George gave 7ha of land to the council to provide access to the park from Otipua Rd. From the gateway and the hilltop area just inside there are magnificent view of Mt Cook, 125km away beyond the Tekapo Addle. You can see it best in the early morning when Aoraki Mt Cooks three snow covered peaks, (3,593m, 3,722m and 3,764m south to north) catch the first sun light of the day.
See if you can find the sign for Kings Quarry at the foot of the zig zag. From 1901, the Harbour Board took stone for the eastward extensions to the harbour. A tramline followed the gradual slope of Quarry Rd, continued along Otipua Rd and James St, crossed under the railway line at Pat-iti Street, then followed the south beach to the mole.
Trains of flat top wagons, laden by cranes at the quarry and groaning under the weight of the massive rocks, they rumbled to the harbour for decades until 1958 when the supply from Kings Quarry ran out. The line was extended a further 1.6km up the valley, crossing Otipua Creek by a strong wooden bridge. The remaining piles of this bridge now support a new footbridge which forms on end of the park walkway.
The north branch of the Otipua Creek winds its way through willows and shrubs on the parks eastern edge. It's wonderful natural playground for children, ducks are never far away, including kingfishers, grey warblers, fantails, wax eyes, bellbirds and if you are really luck tui. The quarry tramline once climbed its way through here.
There are some really interesting geology spots. the bluestone (basalt) in this gully is part of the thick layer of volcanic rock which , as molten lava, once oozed from an earth fault near Mt Horrible. The lava flowed over the layer of loess, which is clay that built up over time from the dust from the glaciers. The lava heated the clay and baked it into a yellow orange layer below the rock face. See of you can see tiny trails of of tiny gas bubbles which struggled up through the lava as it slowly cooled.
Moa remains were uncovered nearby when excavations began in 1889 for stone to build the north mole of the harbour. Surprisingly the bones were exposed as 23m below ground level, baked beneath the 14m of solidified lava with a thick layer of clay above.
Pine trees were planted during the depression of the 1930s but were damaged by gale in August 1975. The Council and volunteers continue to clear the gully and area with replanting and the regeneration of native bush and biking and walking tracks.
Quarry Tramline: there is a neat flat walk along the quarry tramline to Fyfe's quarry which operated 1888-1890. The rock was used for the north mole and taken to the north mole of the harbour via Wai-iti road. Quarrying resumed when the Kings Quarry was depleted in the 1930s, and the eastern extension in the 1940s and 1950s. A bridge was laid across the creek. In 1957 the Harbour Boards steam crane came out of retirement to to lift rocks from the quarry. The footbridge is the remaining track, crosses Claremont Rd and climbs the hill to finish at the old Gleniti School.
