The project was green-lit last year by the South Canterbury Hockey Turf Trust (SCHTT) to replace the ageing wet-dressed turf at the back of Aorangi Park.
The new international-standard water turf, newly named the Alps Turf (Maunga), was opened on Saturday with a day full of hockey and celebration.
SCHTT trustee and project liaison Ben Grant said he was proud to have made it to opening day.
"I think seeing so many people here at the opening, the amount of people who sponsored it, turned up and actually really cared is a true showcase of what it’s all about, but there were times where it seemed like this day was a long way away.
"There's always spanners in the works, but we had people who wanted it and wanted to just get it done.
"If we went and did it all again tomorrow we'd probably do it differently, but in the end we’ve delivered a community project where we've saved money and not at the expense of quality.
"That has been the most pleasing part."
"Back in June, we had to make a decision, there wasn't the funding to do it in the economic environment, so it is a relief.
"With a community project, you can have hundreds of people have an opinion and get nothing done.
"We have had three core people that, with the support of our trustees as well, made decisions to get on with it and I think that's why we are sitting here today with this.
"[Hockey South Canterbury] are very fortunate to have this facility and I think it might take the season for them to appreciate that."
Mr Grant said the feedback had been great so far.
"The turf is playing like it normally would after a couple of years.
"Normally it takes a little while to settle, but after the first game everyone was just like ‘wow’.
"I haven’t heard any negative feedback and to be honest people would tell you if they didn’t like it."
Trust chairwoman Anne-Marie McRae was very appreciative of everyone who had made the project a success.
"I wish to thank Trust Aoraki for their tremendous financial support of $150,000 as well as a further $20,000 so that we can modernise our lounge.
"To acknowledge that level of historic and regular support to Hockey South Canterbury we named these facilities the Trust Aoraki Hockey Centre."
She said their goal was to support local businesses where they were able to.
"Fulton Hogan Timaru went above and beyond their contract.
"After a false start with the irrigation, we engaged Hadlee and Brunton and not only did we receive exceptional service from Andrew and his team, we saved ourselves an extraordinary amount of money."
The Timaru District Council as part of the wider Aorangi Park development project gave $150,000 to the project and Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury gave $75,000.
"Pub Charity gave us $50,000 and Stromness Group funded the new scoreboard.
"We worked exceptionally well as a team and exceptionally efficiently with the common goal of getting this project to completion for the benefit of our hockey community."
She wished to thank the likes of Polytan New Zealand for supplying the turf, Fabtech Engineering for their work with the dugouts and the many corporate and private platinum, gold, silver and bronze sponsors.
She was very thankful to the many people who gave their time to help with the manual labour side of the project and contributed hundreds of volunteer hours.
"I'm extremely proud of our community and their generous contributions that saw this project reach completion.
"We have an outstanding facility that we should be very proud of."
With Timaru now boasting two international-standard water turfs, the new facilities will be put to the ultimate test in late June, early July for the U18 national men’s hockey championships.
The championship is the second-highest high-performance tournament in New Zealand and could bring up to $1million in revenue for the region.
