New town suits Derek just fine

After living in Timaru for 34 years I was a little apprehensive about severing longheld ties and starting life in a new community. I needn’t have worried. While there are obviously many people I miss from my days in South Canterbury, residents of our new home of Leeston couldn’t be more welcoming.

There still exists in Leeston the old-fashioned close-knit community feel that probably now survives only in rural townships. A great example of this instantaneous friendship by locals can best be illustrated by a visit I made to a local garage.

A few days ago, Jill and I went on an exploration trip to familiarise ourselves with the surrounding countryside. During the journey we hit a stretch of gravel road – I say hit because we were probably travelling a little too fast for the terrain.

My wife, who was driving, considers herself as a bit of a Hayden Paddon, probably because, like the rally driver, she once lived in Geraldine.

Anyway, the upshot was the car subsequently developed a nasty vibration when reverse was engaged. Hence my trip to the garage.

I fell into conversation with the garage’s owner, Kevin Stephens, and we struck a chord when I revealed I had recently moved to Leeston from Timaru.

Kevin, who is probably now in his 70s, has fond memories of South Canterbury because of his many triumphs there as a competitive cyclist. A contemporary of one of Timaru’s top cyclists, Colin Ryan, Kevin won many trophies and awards competing in the district right up until the 1980s.

I know this for a fact because he kindly took me to his home to show me his prizes and also his speedway awards – ‘‘I used to knock around with [world champion] Ivan Mauger’’.

Kevin’s garage houses not only his trophies, certificates and a drawer full of medals from his days as a supremely competitive cyclist, runner and speedway driver, but also his remaining speedway TQ and two immaculate classic motorcycles, a Matchless and a Harley-Davidson.

Kevin, who was born in Leeston, then gave me a fascinating tour of the town, pointing out various places of interest, such as the old saw milling site. After an acquaintance of only about 20 minutes, I felt as though I had known Kevin for years.

Incidentally, he diagnosed the mystery noise on our car as either a broken engine mount or a bent exhaust. I will find out more tomorrow when I return the vehicle to be lifted on the garage hoist.

One of the shops of interest Kevin pointed out during our impromptu tour of Leeston was the Hammer Hardware store, which years ago had been a car showroom where he had worked selling Holdens and Bedfords.

I was already well acquainted with the hardware shop, having made several trips there in the previous few days keeping my brother-in-law provided with essentials while he tackled some significant alterations to our garden.

Again, the staff at the shop couldn’t have been more friendly or helpful, especially to a customer who didn’t know his washers from his wrenches.

Each time I was able to return home with just the correct gear I had been dispatched to buy.

Another example of community spirit existing in Leeston came on Christmas Day when our cat, Flynn, decided to go AWOL, probably because we had a large family gathering.

When he hadn’t returned by 11pm, Jill put out an SOS on the local Facebook community page and within minutes we had several people promising to keep an eye out for him.

Flynn actually turned up of his own accord just before midnight but he had helped prove what we already suspected – our new home town was populated by many caring and friendly people.

If a safe, regulated cannabis market is the way to go, and corporates are bestplaced to deliver that outcome, what’s the objection? It can only be ideological.