BAZflyer: Te Maru

Weather is one of the biggest variables in general aviation flight. While pilots, and that includes the Bazflyers, may never control the weather there are many ways we can avoid unplanned encounters with Mother Nature. Sometimes that will involve taking shelter on the ground.

For the past few days the Bazflyers have been visiting family in the familiar South Island east coast town of Timaru. As far as New Zealand’s colonial history goes, Timaru is an old settlement, first surveyed in 1853. It’s indigenous (Māori) name is “Te Maru” meaning “place of shelter”. With potentially damaging northwesterly winds forecast for our stay in Timaru, “a place of shelter” for the trusty Comanche ZK-BAZ while parked at the airport, was important. That would be it’s usual tie-down position on the leeward side of the South Canterbury Aero Club hanger.

Timaru Airport is known locally as Richard Pearce Airport, named after a local pioneer aviator who allegedly flew in powered flight before the Wright Brothers. Witnesses interviewed many years afterward claimed that Pearse flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903, nine months before the Wright brothers flew. True or not, the aviation exploits of Richard Pearce are staunchly embedded in local history. A replica of his flying machine has (almost) flown and a memorial proudly overlooks the rural site on which legend decrees the pioneering flight took place.

But there are even more legends to be discovered at Timaru, like Bob Fitzsimmons for example. ‘Fitz’ was a local lad who learned to box. Defeating all opponents, he was obliged to travel abroad and in 1891 became World Middleweight Champion. Then in 1897 at the age of 34, he captured the sporting world’s greatest prize, the Heavyweight Crown. In 1903 Fitz won the Light-Heavyweight title to become the first man ever to win three different world championship weight divisions.

Another local lad was John (Jack) Lovelock, Head Prefect and ‘Dux’ at Timaru Boys High School before taking up a Rhodes Scholarship in 1931 to study medicine at Oxford. However, it was his Gold Medal and World 1500m Record at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games for which Jack is probably best known. On the the cusp of a brilliant medical career Jack was just 39 years of age when he tragically died as the result of a New York accident in 1946…but his legend lives on as an inspiration for today’s students at Timaru Boys High.

Any mention of Timaru legends would not be complete without including the local connection to that famous race horse ‘Phar Lap’. The champion racehorse was born and bred at Timaru, but never raced in New Zealand before being sold to an Australian owner. He won 37 of his 51 races and 32 of his last 35, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup. In the gloom of the Great Depression, Phar Lap's racing exploits thrilled many followers across two countries. These days in Timaru, the Phar Lap legend continues in the name of hospitality establishments and of course the local racecourse where there is a statue of the famous horse.