Hell Is A Slow Day In Timaru !!!
The Green Beach at Timaru (New Zealand, South Island)
fascinated me, but otherwise it was not a place to celebrate my
birthday. Had I known, undoubtedly I would have not have stopped
in Timaru, continuing instead down the coast to Omaru, a charming
little Town, fetchingly clad in White Limestone & Dinosaur
Footprints!
Timaru's Accursed Green Beach
ŠTony Sims!
... But I knew not and Timaru it was to be. The bus was gone
by the time I realised my error. The Green Beach had a bizarre
appeal; so I wandered down to it (once I had established a bed
for the night). As I walked along the said Green Beach, it became
perfectly clear that its Essential Greenness was no mere optical
illusion from a distance: from so close that I was actually on it,
etching transient footprint fossils within its mad psycho-delic
substance, it was apparent, that when wet, the sand was the
appearance of a Greenish Wet Cement, whilst when dry, it had the
appearance of a Greenish Dry Cement. Apparently the Essential
Greenness was due to Silt, spewn up by the dredging for the port.
That Night I went out ... or rather, I was outside in the Mid-Winter
Air, but had not "gone out" in the socially understood
sense, for there was Nothing to go out to. ... Well, there was
this Coffee Shop, the one thing open, which was run by three
young people, apparently Christians of some sort, who had far
more interest in playing a video game machine, than in serving
their sole customer (this may account for certain links that [once
were] on My Index Page!).
Timaru's Accursed Green Beach,
yet again ŠTony Sims - Timaru's Accursed Green Beach, upside
down ŠTony Sims!
Alas Poor Timaru, I knew it better than I would have wished.
... And such a disappointment after My Beloved Christchurch.
There is something decidedly Charming about a City which builds
numerous Stone Bridges over a "River" so slight, that a
Callous Metropolis, like a Sydney or a Brisbane, would turn it
into an underground storm water drain. And miss the Pleasures of
the Riverbank Promenade ...
No! Not the
Riverbank! This is Christchurch's New Brighton Beach - where the
Sand is Yellow!!!! Not Timaru Green. Nor Hokatika Black. [image Š Tony Sims; yeah, me again]
(and this is not ironic, as my regard for Christchurch has
always been utterly sincere).
ŠTony Sims,
2000- text, photographs, formatting & ego.
Return
to Index or Christchurch or New Brighton Beach