Sending flowers to Waimate

Strawberry Fare in December

The Waimate Strawberry Fare is held on the second Saturday of December, with more than 280 stalls across two town-centre parks. The 2026 fare is on Saturday 12 December, from 9.30am to 3.30pm. It began with a handful of stalls at Butlers Berry Farm in 1984, and strawberries are still an important part of the Waimate economy. If you are sending flowers that weekend, order early and include a phone number for the recipient. Being so close to Christmas, our Kiwi Christmas flowers guide may give you ideas.

A cemetery with a Green Flag

Waimate Cemetery received a Green Flag Award for 2022/23. Its old section was established in 1871 and is still open for burials; it is the resting place of Margaret Cruickshank, New Zealand's first woman doctor. Prime Minister Norman Kirk is buried in the lawn cemetery, where the Waimate Services Cemetery is also located. The district has six cemeteries in all: Glenavy (closed), Hakataramea (cared for by a trust), the Māori Cemetery in Waimate, Morven (closed), Otaio and Waimate.

For a funeral, send flowers to the funeral director or service venue, with the full name of the person who has died and the date of the service. Waihao marae, a Ngāi Tahu marae of Te Rūnanga o Waihao, is in Waimate District; for a tangihanga, see our guide to tangihanga and condolences.

Lister Home

Lister Home at 24 Innes Street offers rest home and hospital-level care, plus respite care. For a resident, choose a compact arrangement in a vase and include their full name. If the person is unwell, check with the home before sending.

Farm addresses and landmarks

If the recipient lives on a farm, check the address. Rural addresses carry an RD number where a suburb would normally go, and the mailtown is where the rural round is based, so copy the address exactly as the recipient uses it and add a phone number. In town, St Patrick's Basilica on Timaru Road (designed by Francis Petre in 1908) and St Augustine's Anglican Church on John Street (Benjamin Mountfort, 1872) are good landmarks. On the hills above town, the White Horse Monument (1968) honours the Clydesdale and Shire horses that worked the district's farms.

Sending further north too? See our Timaru page.

Places flowers often go in Waimate

Rest homes and care

• Lister Home

Cemeteries

• Waimate Cemetery
• Waimate Māori Cemetery

Put the recipient’s ward, room or the funeral director’s name on the order so the florist can find them.