Lighting up the night
Take a drive one night and follow the bright lights around South Canterbury, writes Joanne Holden.
Festive lights and decorations have begun embellishing South Canterbury as Christmas approaches, a 127-year-old homestead in Timaru the latest to get into the spirit of the season.
Multi-coloured floodlights will light up Radius Elloughton Gardens’ Grange building on Pages Rd from 9.30pm on Saturday – joining the big star off Wai-iti Rd, cherubs along Stafford St, and many homes across South Canterbury in illuminating the region for Christmas.
‘‘I just hope the community enjoys the display and involves us in their drive-bys,’’ Radius Elloughton Gardens facility manager Kim Harris said.
‘‘It’s a stunning building and a bit of a landmark, so we invite people to come in and have a look.’’
Elloughton Grange first joined the region’s trail of Christmasdecorated houses in 2018, after village residents asked if they could hang some lights from the historic building.
Rest home staff decided to get Vibrant Lighting on board to design a light show. With more than 20 floodlights installed on the east and south sides of the building, it would change colour between yellow, green, pink, and blue every five to seven minutes.
Harris said this year’s display, which will run 9.30-11.30pm each night until December 26, would be ‘‘more colourful’’ and include laser-generated images – such as snowflakes falling – in a few windows.
The building was built in 1893 as a 17-room mansion.
Today, it provides a dining room and lounge for the rest home’s 65 residents aged from their 40s to late 90s. When lit up, it can be seen from close to a kilometre away.
Timaru District Council land transport manager Susannah Ratahi said the big star atop the Champagne tree off Wai-iti Rd had been installed on November 20 and would continue illuminating the Timaru skyline until January 15, 2021.
‘‘The light has been going up since 2013,’’ Ratahi said.
‘‘Council provides a range of decorations around the district to support Christmas festivities, for the enjoyment of the community.’’
Ratahi said the light’s control panel was destroyed by last year’s hailstorm, and cost $4148.57 to fix.
‘‘To fix this, the decoration had to be removed, a new control panel installed and the decorations reinstalled.’’