Old friendships were renewed at the weekend when about 300 former pupils returned to St Patrick's Dominican College, just south of Oamaru.
The women had gathered to celebrate the centenary of the former girls' boarding school at Teschemakers. While pupils started at the school in February 1912, about 1000 people, including 250 who arrived on a special train from Dunedin, officially celebrated its opening on March 24, the same date as centennial celebrations on Saturday.
The small committee which organised the two days of celebrations was overwhelmed when about 300 registered.
"We thought we would be lucky to get 120 or 130, or may match the last reunion [in 2004 when there were about 200]. We never expected to get to 300," one of the committee, Willie Campbell, said.
In fact, with more registrations than expected, the committee had to cut off any additions early last week.
The former pupils came from throughout New Zealand, as well as Australia, Canada and England.
They began gathering at the school before the official 10am start time on Saturday, some seeing others for the first time since they had left school. A longer-than-scheduled morning tea put the schedule 30 minutes behind but no-one seemed to mind.
Former pupil, and then teacher at the college, Sister Marie Twomey, recalled arriving at the school as a "shy 12-year-old, overawed and not knowing what the future held".
She was a teacher and then a member of the Spirituality Centre after the college closed in 1977 until the Dominican Sister farewelled the complex on October 16, 1996.
It was later bought by a Japanese businessman, the late Dr Hirotomo Ochi, and is now owned by a North Otago couple, John and Joy Murdoch.
She said the college had left all those who had attended with memories and the reunion had made new memories.
Another member of the organising committee, Edna Cogger, outlined the history of the school, its association with the McCarthy family of North Otago who donated the property, and how it opened 100 years ago with seven Dominican sisters and seven boarders.
In those early years life was hard, a day starting at 4am milking the cows in the paddock.
There was no running water - it had to be pumped by hand, and no electricity, only oil lamps and candles.
The college had impacted on and shaped the lives of its pupils and teachers, who lived in "such beautiful and tranquil surroundings", she said.
