April 2018 Lower North Island Trip.

I went up to Manakau, just north of Otaki to help my brother finish the inside of his shed, for a final weeks work, but we still didn't quite finish the job.

On Friday I headed down to Wellington to go to some Hot Yoga classes
......this log truck certainly stood out!

Evans Bay is where I usually stay, but the parking has been a little more restricted.

Making for very tight/near parking

In Kilbirnie this little church stood out......style from the past!

While I awaited Christine's text message to come pick her up .... I watched my phone for 30 minutes and unknown to me I was viewing the wrong app on my phone!

Once we sorted that out, we went for lunch out to the Spruce Goose restaurant out behind the Airport at Lyall Bay. 

This is the beach at Waikanae, with Kapiti Island in the distance. An amazing amount of newly washed up shells in the next morning.

This large fish probably washed up quite a few days ago!

We struck the Sunday Market at Sanson

The market book stall caught my eye with these books

Sanson seems to me to be stuck in a bit of a time warp IMHO.

Onward towards Whanganui where we have lunch at the cafe near the eye site centre.

The toilets here deserve special mention as they have native bird calls playing and even a little historical display right inside the toilets.

Whanganui lives up to it's Motorhome friendly tag, with special free motorhome spaces right in town on the bank of the River.

This tram came from Wellington and was donated/rescued from being someones shed, was totally stripped down and restored back to original.

The short ride, is a nice step back in time.

Each end of the tram has driver controls.
Which means they do know whether they are coming or going

Birthday boy with his new shorts and leggings

Just whistling along taking each day as it comes.

On the way out to Castlecliff and the river mouth and sea.

I see and pass the Whiskas factory and like the graphics on the building.

The Breakwater is a perfect place to view and photograph the local lads as they surf

  

Biking back though Castlecliff I spot this piece of Wabi Sabi.....
(the Japanese appreciation and concept of beauty in the simplicity of the mundane
 and simple patterns in nature)

That's all for this blog...catch you on the next blog when we travel North through the Whanganui River Road to Jerusalem and Raetihi.