Ōamaru Public Gardens parkrun

09/10/2026

It’s time to enjoy the highs of parkrun again!

See you all tomorrow morning - nice and early!

7:50am for our first timers welcome
7:55am for main briefing
8am start!

08/10/2026

06/10/2026

This Saturday we are excited to celebrate the 150th birthday of the Oamaru Public Gardens.

If you love a dress up, we can’t wait to see your best gardens birthday celebrating effort! Flowers, spring animals, Oamaru, birds, bridges, fountains….. don’t be limited! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

As a weekly user of the gardens, we can’t wait to celebrate its birthday with you!

05/10/2026

Happy Milestone Monday to our milestone achievers on the weekend!

💫 George Ovens worked hard to outrun his mum and achieved his 10th parkrun.

💫 Peter Cook from NSW came over to New Zealand to run his 50th parkrun here at Oamaru!

💫 Ruth Davison achieved her 10th parkrun volunteer as our dog leg marshal!

💫 Audric Oliveros volunteered for the first time ever as one of our barcode scanners!

A big congratulations to you all - a fantastic achievement! Bring on the next milestone!

03/10/2026

15 people joined us at parkrun for their very first time ever! Another 15 joined us for their first parkrun in Oamaru!

Well done to George Ovens who achieved his 10 parkrun milestone and Peter Cook who achieved his 50th parkrun!

parkrun celebrated 22 years of existence which welcomed the tutus for another run around the garden!

Amazing work to all those who come time and time again and achieved the fantastic honour of claiming a personal best - 23 of you claimed this honour!

Thank you to all our volunteers who made the event possible including Audric Oliveros who volunteered for the first time and Ruth Davison who celebrated 10 volunteer days!

Scorch the puppy enjoyed his first time attending parkrun and cheered on all the parkrunners, parkwalkers and barkrunners!

Next week we celebrate the 150th birthday of the Oamaru Public Gardens so think flowers, spring animals, birthday celebrations and your favourite 5km event! Bring the cheer and enthusiasm for the 2nd 8am start and our 20th parkrun!

02/10/2026

When the early mornings hit hard - we love seeing all your happy faces despite the earlier start of 8am this morning!

Pyjamas are most definitely welcome!!!

02/10/2026

Happy 22nd birthday parkrun!

We know our Waitaki walkers and runners and parkrun tourists will be excited to celebrate this morning at our 19th parkrun in the beautiful Oamaru Public Gardens! The celebrations for the 150th celebrations of the gardens are underway too although we will primarily celebrate this next weekend! Too much excitement to have all in one parkrun!

See you all very soon for our FIRST 8am parkrun EVER!

02/10/2026

Unfamiliar with our parkrun course? Here is a guide!

Our three lap course includes 1x 2km lap which has an out and back dog leg to start you off and then two shorter 1.5km laps before you finish just passed the start line.

We have 3-4 marshals out on course depending on volunteer numbers to help guide you around our course and provide assistance. Because of the direction of our course, we ask you to keep right and ensure that in narrow areas, you allow space for faster participants to pass on your left.

There are 4 areas that can be considered hazardous. The metal plate on the back section of the course, the wooden sleeper as you leave the aviary area, the red bridge and the tree roots along the path.

If you look ahead and see a marker cone, along the concrete path section, it's to help keep you on the right path, the wee gravel off shoots to your left will take you off course so please keep right and this will take you to the fountain.

We can't wait to see you out on course tomorrow for an 8am start. If you'd like to wear a tutu to celebrate parkrun's 22nd birthday - even better!

Volunteer's briefing: 7:40am
First timer's welcome: 7:50am
Main briefing: 7:55am
parkrun underway: 8am

30/09/2026

Hope you are all adjusting to the extra light thanks to daylight savings. This weekend is our first ever 8am start, the celebration of 22 years of parkrun and the start of our Oamaru Public Gardens 150th birthday celebrations!

Please ensure you have changed your default Saturday alarm to allow you to be up nice and early to start parkrun at 8am this Saturday!

27/09/2026

Run Report Event 18

5am the start of the adventure to check out Oamaru parkrun for the first time
along with my Dad making a exception to our normal rule of traveling up to 2 hours on
the morning to 3 hours on this occasion making use of the final 9am start before daylight savings
will see all the lower South Island events move to 8am start next week with the rest of us

It was fantastic quarter past 8 and seeing some volunteers already out on course and going for a warm up to suss out
where to go.

117 runners and 21 Volunteers for today's event where had off and on showers before 8.30 but clear through the run itself
the course had good variety and scenery to it being a 3 looper with an extra out and back section to begin with to fit in the 5k
got a mixture of gravel trail paths tarmac paths 2 bridge crossings and small grass section also run directly past the bird aviaries
meeting local legend Jimmy the Cockatoo afterwards to get a few sound effects.

Another highlight being the big parkrun frame with snazzy penguins!

I could get a good sense of what this event means to the community, a 4 year process to make it come together and regularly
over 100 participants in a small town with the full age spectrum with some as young as 7 and up to their 80s with Margaret at the back
getting quite the support.

Some of the Volunteers unfortunately have had some nasty injuries but great they can still be a part and a major part of the event to keep it ticking over on a weekly basis.

Tees Street Cafe to indulge in some lovely breakfast options after and continue on the conversations

Milestones
25 Lynda Pernisie
J10 Lydia Hunt

Congratulations on your achievements

Virtual Podium

Male
1 Nathan Heaver 17.58
2 Rory Bailey 18.28
3 Joshua Hardy 20.34

Female
1 Zoe Johnston 21.54
2 Megan Hamilton 24.20
3 Cariona Schoneveld 25.11

Tail Enders
1 Arlene Oliveros 1.17.23
2 Aaliyah Oliveros 1.17.22
3 J B 1.16.48

Middle Of The Pack
1 Stella Johnston 34.48
2 Laura Campbell Cowan 34.45
3 James Campbell Cowan 34.45

Most Experienced
1 Paul Campbell 346
2 Nathan Heaver 316
3 Tania Hollis 315

25 PB'S Appearances Margin
Richard Savage 11 2.31
Sue Dundass 11 29s
Eben Wallace 10 5s
Fletcher Pile 8 40s
David Shearer 8 24s
Sarrath Milmine 8 24s
John Schoneveld 7 31s
Tina Rae 6 2.48
Jess Read 5 51s
Charlotte Wollstein 5 18s
Henry Elsom 5 14s
Kelly Mclaren 4 56s
Reina Gonzales 4 37s
Fleur Martin 4 37s
Therescia Eckert 4 12s
Adeline Bailey 4 1s
Paige Lane 3 8.07
Rouger Addison 3 1.09
Jordan Wheeler 3 8s
Margaret Chetwin 2 6.54
Sarah May 2 4.52
Daniel Blackmore 2 3.53
Anita Boros 2 1.33
Bradley Wheeler 2 1.27
H R 2 1.01

First Timers

16 Brand New
Daniel Wang, Catriona Schoneveld, Jackson Zhang, Greig Munro
Alistair Lee Campbell Cowan, Kat Burlinson, James Campbell Cowan
Caitlin Middlemiss, Rebecca Dodd, Marge Tuitatava, Maggie Hunt
Bev Inkersell, Gemma Cathcart, Elwood Coulter, Ruth Blair and Michelle Searle

11 New Visitors
Paul Anderson 346 Dunedin 306 16th Venue
Nathan Heaver 316 Pegasus 63 67th Venue
Tania Hollis 315 Dunedin 216 30th Venue
Tim Heaver 301 Pegasus 69 34th Venue
Royce Earl 196 Dunedin 166 22nd Venue
Katie Anderson 97 Dunedin 76 17th Venue
Lisa Breen 79 Foster 69 10th Venue
Katie Fish 17 Foster 8 9th Venue
Steve Watts 15 Foster 5 10th Venue
Lisa Mckenzie 11 Barry Curtis 8 4th Venue
Tanya Wallace 4 Lake Dunstan 3 2nd Venue

21 Volunteers Volunteer Credits Role
Nathan Heaver 166 Report Writer
Tim Heaver 62 Barcode Scanning
Alice Perry 23 Run Director,Volunteer Co-Ordinator
Course Check and Photographer
Scott Elliffe 21 Pre Event Setup
Peter Cook 21 Pre Event Setup
B.D 18 First Timers Welcome
Malcolm Walker 15 Barcode Scanning
Lyn Walker 15 Finish Tokens
Jared Ovens 13 Barcode Scanning
Justin Radford 12 Barcode Scanning
Jan Mcstay 10 parkwalker
Ruth Davison 9 Marshal, Pre Event Setup
Sherwin Oliveros 7 Tail Walker
Arlene Oliveros 7 Tail Walker
Melissa Milmine 7 Timekeeper
D B 6 parkwalker
Sharon Williams 6 Marshal
Lorelai Mcvicar 5 Marshal
J B 3 Tail Walker
Macey Stratford 1 Marshal
Emily Addison 1 Token Sorting

Nathan Heaver