W for Waimate, Wandering and a White Horse

Jul 9, 2025
3 min read

Thursday 3 July

A low key day in Waimate - wandered into town in the morning, had a lovely chat with the owner of Suzie (a wee black oodle of sorts) outside the Waimate Bakery then sidled in to share a delicious cheese & chive scone while Louis had a $4 latte in his takeaway cup - bargain!

We passed an interesting mural on the wall of the one of the older buildings and paused to investigate. Back in 1959 they ran a street race here, the Waimate 50, which went 50 laps around the town - the winner was no less than Bruce McLaren, F1 driver and founder of the McLaren racing team currently headquartered in Woking, just along from where we used to live in Surrey, in a Cooper Climax. The race ran in that form until 1966 and has had various revivals over the years in the form of street sprints, thunder sprints and a rally sprint; its most recent running was as a hill climb event up to the Waimate White horse - see next paragraph - and this is due to run again on Labour Weekend this year.

We then spotted a sign in town all about the Waimate White Horse so hopped in the Pajero and set off inland to find it up on the hillside. From the 1850s onwards, horses, particularly Shires and Clydesdales had played a huge part in the agriculture of the region, pulling ploughs and drays before tractors came along in the 1930s and had completely replaced all the working horses by 1950. Norman Hayman was a local champion ploughman in the first half of the 20th Century - he found the arrival of the tractor rather a let down as his horses seemed so much stronger and more reliable. He wanted these stalwarts of the land to be commemorated and after several trial options and a few disputes with the local council who did not want to fund it, he and his colleagues created the outline of a Clydesdale high up on the ridge using 1220 concrete, whitewashed slabs. The landmark has remained in place since 1968 and has had a few makeovers & refurbs, most recently in 2023. I'm not sure when the Chrysler hub cap was added as its eye!

The white horse was a bit odd but the love was there in its creation 🤍

We also found a rather fabulous property for sale up there… great place but not quite the right location!

Louis was keen to return with Jez one day as there are heaps of mountain bike trails in the hills there too.

We could see Banjo from up there, parked up against the hedge in the NZMCA site - but it would take some serious zooming to spot her in the landscape above.

On the way back we detoured to check out an alternative campsite (bit rubbish) and found a wee DOC walk through Kelcey’s Bush to a waterfall to explore. The waterfall was not super exciting, but the intertwined vines above our heads did give us flashbacks to Vietnam and their impossible power cable spaghetti around each pole & junction box on every street corner!