Fairlie, the gateway to New Zealand's high country
May 25th 2010 08:46
In 1855 James Mackenzie stole 1000 sheep from a Timaru station and led them away to graze on the rugged slopes of the Southern Alps. The station owner and two Maori trackers followed him and discovered his secret pastures. Over the next decade other graziers followed the Mackenzie trail into the mountains and around 1865, the settlement of Fairlie Creek was estabished. In 1884, the New Zealand locomotive legend, the Fairlie Flyer, launched a rail service that was to run between the port of Timaru and the town, now known simply as Fairlie, until 1968.
Sitting at the seam of the tussock-clad mountains and the rolling hills that slope down to the distant coast, Fairlie is a beautiful town with lovely old colonial buildings, tidy modern bungalows, lush gardens and beautiful trees. The most striking of these are the five hundred that make up the Peace Avenue. Running from one side of the town to the other, they commemorate the signing of the Peace Treaty at the end of World War I. Fairlie had more reason than most small New Zealand towns admonish to peace. In the 1914-18 alone it lost 72 of its sons. It was to lose more still to World War II. Their names and those of Korean and Vietnam War heroes are etched on the War Memorial in the centre of the town.
Jack Lovelock, New Zealand’s first gold medallist in athletics is also a son of Fairlie and his name is immortalised in the Jack Lovelock track.
But Fairlie’s fame doesn’t end with sheep rustlers, war heroes and star athletes. It also boasts one of the largest agricultural and pastoral shows in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Fairlie show, held annually on Easter Monday is certainly a huge event.
The pride of the region’s livestock is on display. Prize dogs show their stuff and show ponies of every size are trucked in aboard luxury floats and trailers, containing every imaginable convenience, as well as the kitchen sink, to strut theirs. There are turkeys, ducks, geese and chooks of every imaginable feather. The very latest in farm machinery is lined up for inspection; trucks, tractors, headers, and motorbikes. There are state of the art sheds and barns. There’s up to the minute fencing. There are men with computers introducing the very latest in farm technology.
Competitions draw in axemen and dancers, both Highland and Irish.
There are crafts stalls and food stalls and tents housing bars cafes and restaurants.
For the kids there are jumping castles, mazes and pony rides. Then of course, in the birthplace of bungy, there’s a miniature jump for the juniors.
The highlight of the day is the grand parade, when pipe bands, buggies, costumed people, horses and animals do a circuit of the giant central showground. It culminates in a mega-lolly-scramble, which has all the kids leaping from the fences where they’ve hovered in readiness throughout the procession and tearing across the empty parade ground, side stepping the dung deposits, to scrabble in a rain of sweets.
Yet, for all its great size and even greater reputation, the Fairlie show has a very local, small community feel. Groups of families greet and congregate in circles. Gangs of young friends hang out together. Bands of kids weave in and out of the crowds. Farmers lean on fences and size up the stock and the vehicles. The ladies of the Country Women’s Institute man the teapots and the craft stalls. Finally the Scottish heritage of Mackenzie and his legacy to the community are well remembered, consciously or inadvertently, in the strong turnout of tartan and tweed.
Heading into the Mackenzie Country
Sitting at the seam of the tussock-clad mountains and the rolling hills that slope down to the distant coast, Fairlie is a beautiful town with lovely old colonial buildings, tidy modern bungalows, lush gardens and beautiful trees. The most striking of these are the five hundred that make up the Peace Avenue. Running from one side of the town to the other, they commemorate the signing of the Peace Treaty at the end of World War I. Fairlie had more reason than most small New Zealand towns admonish to peace. In the 1914-18 alone it lost 72 of its sons. It was to lose more still to World War II. Their names and those of Korean and Vietnam War heroes are etched on the War Memorial in the centre of the town.
Jack Lovelock, New Zealand’s first gold medallist in athletics is also a son of Fairlie and his name is immortalised in the Jack Lovelock track.
But Fairlie’s fame doesn’t end with sheep rustlers, war heroes and star athletes. It also boasts one of the largest agricultural and pastoral shows in the Southern Hemisphere.
A show pony
The Fairlie show, held annually on Easter Monday is certainly a huge event.
The pride of the region’s livestock is on display. Prize dogs show their stuff and show ponies of every size are trucked in aboard luxury floats and trailers, containing every imaginable convenience, as well as the kitchen sink, to strut theirs. There are turkeys, ducks, geese and chooks of every imaginable feather. The very latest in farm machinery is lined up for inspection; trucks, tractors, headers, and motorbikes. There are state of the art sheds and barns. There’s up to the minute fencing. There are men with computers introducing the very latest in farm technology.
Competitions draw in axemen and dancers, both Highland and Irish.
There are crafts stalls and food stalls and tents housing bars cafes and restaurants.
The Junior Bungy Jump
For the kids there are jumping castles, mazes and pony rides. Then of course, in the birthplace of bungy, there’s a miniature jump for the juniors.
The highlight of the day is the grand parade, when pipe bands, buggies, costumed people, horses and animals do a circuit of the giant central showground. It culminates in a mega-lolly-scramble, which has all the kids leaping from the fences where they’ve hovered in readiness throughout the procession and tearing across the empty parade ground, side stepping the dung deposits, to scrabble in a rain of sweets.
A part of the big parade
Yet, for all its great size and even greater reputation, the Fairlie show has a very local, small community feel. Groups of families greet and congregate in circles. Gangs of young friends hang out together. Bands of kids weave in and out of the crowds. Farmers lean on fences and size up the stock and the vehicles. The ladies of the Country Women’s Institute man the teapots and the craft stalls. Finally the Scottish heritage of Mackenzie and his legacy to the community are well remembered, consciously or inadvertently, in the strong turnout of tartan and tweed.
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