2005 New Zealand Turf Conference & Trade Show

Tuesday, 30 May 2005

Welcome to Christchurch and to the home of thoroughbred racing in Canterbury, the Riccarton Park Racecourse.

As members of the turf industry you have a very important part to play in helping our citizens enjoy life through the aesthetic appearance of our parks and sports grounds. Equally important are the environmental impacts of what you do and the sustainable use of water and irrigation, both of which are hot topics in Canterbury at the moment.

When you lay the turf on a sports field you are laying the groundwork for sports men and women to produce their best performance, you are in effect part of the team.

Our own hallowed piece of turf at Jade Stadium produced a wonderful bit of sporting glory on Saturday night when the mighty Crusaders team produced a superlative team performance to win resoundingly. The groundsmen were part of that team and you could probably cut up tiny wee squares of the turf from Jade Stadium and sell them.

Christchurch is a great choice for your conference because it could well be promoted as turf city. We have more parks and reserves per head of population than just about any city anywhere. That’s because historically as a city with a heart we believe that everyone should have easy access to good quality parks and reserves.

Good sporting facilities are pretty close to just about every kid in our city. Maybe that’s why we do so well at sport in general.

Then there’s the small matter of Christchurch’s inescapable identity as the Garden City. We have tried to give this one the slip a couple of times in favour of something more modern and stylish. It never works. The Garden City always wins.

Again, turf in all its forms plays a major part in this reputation. It was one of the reasons a few years ago that we were judged the world’s best Garden City. We are a city that rates grass and greenspace highly. Especially when it performs the way we want it to. As surely it did on Saturday night.

My best wishes to you all for a great conference.