Caroline Bay parkrun

20/06/2026

Photo credits: Colin Macpherson 👍

20/06/2026

Photo credits: Andrew Barron 👍

20/06/2026

Caroline Bay parkrun
Event # 56
20/06/26

As morning dawned at the Bay, parkrunners were welcomed by very mild conditions for Winter, with the heavy rain that many areas experienced in the South Island staying away until closer to lunchtime 😃

A total of 143 parkrunners walked, jogged, ran or rolled around our course, with 21 first-timers to our event, 14 of whom were new to the parkrun community 🤩

Welcome along to all those new to parkrun. We’ve noticed a particular surge in Filipino 🇵🇭 parkrunners join our parkrun community over the past few weeks.

It’s great to have you join us 😍, embrace the event, and cheer 👏 each other on. That’s what it’s all about ❤️

Many thanks to all 12 volunteers 🦺, as we reach the end of National Volunteer Week. A great bunch of people working to keep this event ticking along so well for everyone ❤️

RD Colin would especially like to thank those parkrunners who helped him miss the start of the Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 game at 10am. He was reliably informed the first half was a brutal watch 🫣 and not one the history books will note with any significance, if you happen to be of the Scottish persuasion! 😅😭

First over the line today was Josh Lovely in an impressive 17:38, for his 5th first place finish.

Meanwhile young (JW11-14) Fleur Skinner, managed a parkrun trifecta of 1st woman over the line, a PB time (23:55), and a 25 milestone all in one event 💪👏 well done, Fleur.

In addition to Fleur, 27 others (highlighted in the infographic) also managed to snag a PB time today. Great job if that was you!

Many thanks and well done, everyone, for making parkrun part of your Saturday morning. We hope to see you all again 🔜 !

We’ve got some pictures 📷 to post shortly, and will return with our Milestone Monday post this week too, as well as some news regarding a cheeky 15% discount code for “The Coastal” event in October 👌👌👌

We hope you enjoyed the rest of your weekend!

20/06/2026

Video credit: Debbie Willett

19/06/2026

18/06/2026

We’re hurtling towards another parkrun morning and, with this week being NZ National Volunteers Week, we’d like to acknowledge and thank the 131 volunteers from near and far who’ve helped with the running of Caroline Bay parkrun over our 55 events ❤️

We simply cannot give enough credit to the volunteer team here for their efforts each week.

You all do an amazing job and, of your own volition, are helping put on an event benefiting a considerable number of people.

Thank you so much! 🤩

We’d like to wish all of our South Canterbury Secondary School youngstars (typo - but we’re keeping it! 😃) who are heading off to Upper Hutt, Wellington, for National X-country champs this weekend, all the very best with your efforts 💪👍

Many of those heading up have regularly attended parkrun, and we’re excited to hear how you go! We’re rooting for ya! 👊👊

To our event, and it’s forecast to be a good bit milder than last week, so we’re hopeful to be back on the boardwalk again.

Colin is Run Director this weekend.

Following on from last week, we do please 🙏 ask for quiet 🤫 for briefings.

Last week, we had 33 first-timers (incredible!). Frustratingly, RD Andrew twice had to stop his briefing until silence ensued.

We ❤️ the community buzz of friends, family, colleagues, etc, coming together to yarn, laugh and catch-up, and we accept there’s an element of “same old, same old” with information contained within the briefing 📋 week-to-week, however, we always have first-timers who may not be familiar with our event information, so it’s important they can hear 👂 the briefing.

Please respect the RD, and those wishing to hear the briefing information. Thank you!

Briefings from 8:50am starting with first-timers brief, before RD Colin going through general briefing at 8:55am.

Happy Friday folks!

See you all soon!

😎 ✌️

16/06/2026

🙏 Thankful Tuesday 🙏

As we made you aware on Saturday, we had a ‘mare 😫 with our course length, which turned out to be somewhere around the 4.8km-mark (give or take), unfortunately short-changing you all 👎 sorry for the muck-around! Human error…

Nevertheless, when things go 🍐 -shaped, there are some great people out there willing to help you out, and we’d like to acknowledge them today.

Firstly, regular volunteer, Debbie Willett, was quick to answer the call 📱 for help with a quickly put-together Excel spreadsheet with projected 5km times for all 184 participants.

Thank you, Debbie 🫶 tremendously helpful 👍👍

In addition to Debbie, recognition and thanks go out to regular parkrunner, Simon Bird who, without asking, got in touch to provide a full set of adjusted results for us too, offering further support should we need it 👍👍

2 very kind provisions of support when we got stuck in a potentially messy situation, and we are very grateful indeed.

It’s great to have such great humans as part of Caroline Bay parkrun, who both highlight so well the ‘community support’ culture of parkrun

Thanks 🙏 guys!

15/06/2026

⭐️ Milestone Monday ⭐️

Congratulations to this weekend’s group of Milestone achievers:

🟣 2️⃣5️⃣

Hwee Shyan Lim
Richard Wheeler
Jayden Mlambo (JM11-14)
James Steele
Marshall Liu

Great job clinching your milestones, everybody! 💪👏👏

And many thanks to 1st time volunteers:

Sonyia Ramsay (Tailwalker/Post-event closedown)
Steven Ramsay (Tailwalker/Post-event closedown)

For supporting us at the weekend!

14/06/2026

Extremely grateful for voluntourist, Anderson parkrun’s Sally Houliston, for providing a Run Report for yesterdays event.

Thanks for joining us! Don’t be a stranger! 😃

Report as follows:

Event Report #55, 13 June 2026

Brrr… winter has officially arrived! ❄️☀️

Caroline Bay parkrun #55 greeted us with a crisp, frosty morning, clear blue skies and a spectacular sunrise over the bay. Travelling down from Napier, we couldn’t help but appreciate those sunrise views that remind us so much of home.

Caroline Bay itself has a pretty cool story. Much of the beach we see today didn’t always exist and was gradually created through changes to coastal currents after Timaru’s harbour breakwater was built. What started as an engineering project has become an absolutely stunning setting for a weekly parkrun.

The sunshine may have been beautiful, but the boardwalk was a little too icy in places, so an adjusted course using the adjacent grass areas kept everyone safe and smiling. The chilly temperatures certainly didn’t put anyone off, with 184 people coming along to walk, jog, run and volunteer. For such a young event, that’s an incredible turnout and shows just how strong the Caroline Bay parkrun community has already become.

This visit for my husband and I continued our somewhat ambitious mission of completing a different New Zealand parkrun every month. When Caroline Bay started just over a year ago, it became New Zealand’s 57th parkrun event. Fast forward to last weekend and the country welcomed its 74th parkrun event! Our challenge is getting harder by the month, but we’re definitely not complaining. Every new parkrun means another community coming together and another excuse for a parkrun adventure.

A huge welcome to everyone completing their very first parkrun and to all the visitors enjoying a bit of parkrun tourism. There were visitors from Invercargill, Queenstown, Christchurch, Blenheim, Wellington, Napier, Whangarei, Sydney and even Germany. It was also fantastic to see so many juniors out there proving once again that parkrun really is for everyone.

First across the line was visitor Marijn Wouters in a speedy 17:31 on his first visit to Caroline Bay. First female home was Julie Wilson in 23:50, also recording an outstanding 90.42% age grade, the highest of the day. What an incredible performance!

Despite the frosty conditions and the slightly altered course, there were plenty of new PBs recorded too. Setting a personal best on a morning like that deserves an extra round of applause! 👏

As always, the biggest thank you goes to our amazing volunteers: Andrew Barron, Chris D’Souza, Vanessa Waller, Sarah D’Souza, Christine Welch, Catherine D’Souza, Maria D’Souza, Simone Faulkner, Doreen Lembke, Kate Watt, Barry Welch, Colin Macpherson, Debbie Willett, Sonyia Ramsay, Steven Ramsay, Kim Cairns, Nate Macpherson, Ian Morton and Sally Houliston. From setting up the course and marshalling, to timing, scanning, taking photos and packing everything away afterwards, parkrun simply wouldn’t happen without you. 💙

Thank you, Caroline Bay parkrun, for a wonderful morning of winter sunshine, frosty views and friendly company.

Now the big question is… where will our next parkrun adventure take us? 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🌏

Sally Houliston
A6518980

13/06/2026

Video credit: Debbie Willett