Whanganui and its River to Raetihi.

Continuing our trip up the Whanganui river. This was delayed when I came back from a 8klms Unicycle ride past some cyclists amassing to start a ride from the isite in Whanganui. I was invited to join them, and did! However this turned out to be quite a race with a really fit group, they weren’t going to slow down for any late joiners, so in spite of pedaling like a maniac I was left in their dust never to be seen again.

I’d been to see Peter Snells birthplace in Opunaki, in Taranaki, and now I visited the seen of one of his greatest triumphs. Cooks Gardens Whanganui.

Whanganui has its share of unsual buildings

The Glass studio and showroom had work in progress, with a viewing gallery above.

I visited two of the smaller Sarjent Gallerys in town, but the main one, on the hill has this sign outside.

And is therefore under repairs and alterations. 

I am so impresssed by people with this sort of skill, to paint with oils, 

and it comes out looking like a photograph. 

Impressive work by Andre Bronnimann called “Wikitoria”

Another by Gaynor Mulholland this is a watercolour called

 “The Tree of Life”

Now on the way north on the Eastern side of the River, on the edge of town we find the water tower.

Kilometres away from the sea the roadside cutouts revels masses of shells buried from millions of years ago! 

I chip out some of these sea shells in very loose rock deposits

Natures patterns continue to attract me...endless shapes to enjoy!

A lot of rain had fallen the day before so the river was very muddy.

Road works are still continuing from major washouts last year

I highly recommend stopping and checking out these little attractions, revealing some history of the area.

This was restored in the 1970's

Below is St Joseph’s (Hiruharama) church at Jerusalem

     

The Cosmopolitan Club in Raetiki has a sweet little park up behind club, complete with very friendly locals to catch up on local events and chew the fat about all sorts of things

This is the Main Street of Raetihi, outside of a cafe someone has used wooden cobbles in the footpath...fantastic!

We are now back in Richmond getting ready for our next Aussie adventure, however I have another blog to complete from Waiouru to Richmond.

Till then take care and have fun!

Cheers Jimu & Christine

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.

Two Go Tiki Touring: Napier's Art Deco Week- A Step Back in Time

Two Go Tiki Touring: Napier's Art Deco Week- A Step Back in Time

#3 January 2018 West Coast to Wanaka.... from Wet to Dry

Blog #3

We left Lake Mahinapua  heading south stopping briefly at Okarito.
This was the first sign that stopped me:

This was summer but rain and an overcast day gave it a special eeriness!

Below is the little wharf building at Okarito with info about the area

At Lake Mapourika we had lunch (still raining) 

This is the Raurenga.... Kidney Fern

So delicate.

At Franz Joseph we decided there was no point going to Jackson Bay because of mist and weather. 

Parked up at another DOC camp at Pleasant Flat in the Haast Pass area.
There is a great collection of different rocks in the creek.

 A large group of cyclists are here.

 I rode the uni around the camp.

Below is the painless way to get off of a unicycle!

 Another quiet night, no internet or phone signal. Leftovers for tea with toast.

After a late start we managed to get away around 9 a.m. Rain most of the night.
We stopped at Thunder Creek which was a nice little waterfall,

Then onto the Fantail Falls which were impressive. More impressive were the stones that had been balanced all over the river bed, by fellow tourists, It had been dry for a long time on the coast so there were a lot of special piles of stones. The tourists creating their own tourist attraction. Quite special really, and I felt really added to the scene.

The weather was clearing as we motored through the Haast Pass and onto the top end of Lake Wanaka, before going over the neck to Lake Hawea. As we motored into Hawea the surrounding countryside was very dry, bare earth showing in most places.

Onto Wanaka where we had lunch in a cafe on the waterfront.
I rode the uni around Pembroke Park and down on the water front where I noticed they were getting ready for a duathlon & triathlon which were happening the next morning.

I had a swim in the lake then went over to the park & did some good yoga in the sun...the temperatures now in the 30s.

At Albert Town we parked the bus in the free park at the Albert Town Hotel.

Awake early and leaving Albert Town for Wanaka, I biked down to see the start of the duathlon and triathlon starting at 8am, then go to a Hot Yoga class at 8.30am. I was going to bike the trail along the Clutha River, but at the first sign board it looked like it was going to be over 1.5hours into town, so I cut it short and cut across country by getting back onto the roads.

Got there before 8am and watched some of the triathlon:

Then went to the Hot Yoga, a big class. It was quite intense, first time I’ve actually dripped  off my face cheeks from both eyes in the pose of a child.

Sunday 14th Jan 2018 at Albert Town.
Awake around 6am....didn’t get moving till the sun was well up and the heat of the day was building! We went into town on the Outlet Track.

 We parked up the bikes near the info centre and walked to Pembroke Park to the Market.

I also talked to the woodworker Simon King who I had met at the Alternative Furniture show in ChCh in the 80s.

We had lunch at the Watertank Bar & can recommend the $10 pizzas which were very good.

We biked through town back past Mt Iron and back to the bus at Albert Town. We then went back into the Caltex which had a laundry.

We also checked out Erik's Fish and Chips as the queue was long!

But I wasn't game with the Kiwifruit!

Both of us went around the lake by bike to see the Wanaka Willow Tree. This is totally out of the water due to local drought conditions, so the tree was surrounded by Chinese taking weird photos of themselves.
 When there was a lulI in Chinatown, I rode up and leant my bike against the tree!

 I fuelled up ready for the off tomorrow! After tea of Salad and leftovers we sat outside with our computers and booked our flights to Aussie for May & June.

In the morning we skyped our friend Madi in Switzerland, ain't the modern technologies amazing!

 All in all another fabulous few days.

Now we are heading over the Crown Range towards Queenstown and Arrowtown.

Till Blog #4

Stay safe and free and above all

Have Fun

Jimu & Christine