S. Island Synopsis....
Mar 18 Timaru
The road from Ashburton south to Timaru follows the main line railway across the Canterbury Plain. And plain much of it is. Fearing that She who drives the car might fall asleep I organised a detour inland to a small town of Fairlie. This is McKenzie Country and thereby hangs a tale.

James McKenzie was a sheep rustler who evaded prosecution for a considerable time as he was always in the pub with plenty of witnesses when the sheep were stolen. But he is not really the hero of this story. True, McKenzie had found a pass through the mountains which was unknown to others but when he taught his dog to do the rustling all alone, that's when it became the stuff of folk heroism.



Timaru is a very pleasant sea-side town but has a secret.










How is it they have a photograph from the 1950s which shows She who drives the car fifty years before she ever went to New Zealand?