January 5 – 7, 2024

Our bus ride today would be one of the longest of the trip, requiring that we head west to Hamilton, and then turn south for Whanganui, our eventual destination.  It would take us over seven hours given the number of stops that the bus would be making along the way, including a 30-minute layover in Hamilton.  Beppie and Ian shuttled us to the main Tauranga bus stop where we boarded an almost completely full bus, forcing all of us to spilt up and grab whatever seat we could. 

I had the misfortune of sitting next to a larger than normal individual who likely boarded up the road in Auckland, whose preferred seating position was to spread out their legs and arms so as to encroach on a significant percentage of my space and the vibe they were putting off discouraged any notion that I might mention my concerns to them.  Fortunately, this leg was just two hours and honestly, you can endure just about anything if you set your mind to it.

The six-hour 267-mile leg from Hamilton to Whanganui meant that we would average just 45 miles an hour, much of it on a curvy two-lane road (we would transverse this road later with our friends John and Kate) that was made even more interesting for the driving rain that drenched the last three hours of the ride.  At least we were able to pair up this time and I can attest that sharing one of two seats with Joanna is definitely more comfortable than my option on the first leg. 

The storm broke into clear skies when we reached the bus stop in Whanganui and not long after, the Quigley’s, Kate, John, their son Angus (and his girlfriend Sophie) and daughter Alice pulled up in two cars to shuttle us to our Airbnb.  We quickly settled our gear and soon thereafter were picked up again and taken out to a neighborhood near the beach for dinner at the The Citadel Cafe. 

Seated at a large table on the patio, we learned that our waitress is Alice’s friend and our meal would subsequently be enlivened by their back-and-forth.  It would be good day for Joanna, as we were persuaded that ordering the café’s Cinnamonui Scrolls (Cinnamon Rolls) first would be the way to approach our meal.  And so, we did, and they were absolutely the best.  Along with a beer or two apiece, Joanna enjoyed a uniquely good Baby Dahl (Yellow split pea dahl with curried cashews, peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut cream, kaffir lime and spring onion) with flatbread. 

Although not on the menu that night, Alice wheedled a couple of servings of fish and chips for our crowd and I thoroughly enjoyed the dish with one exception, one that would follow us during the trip, that being thick cut fries, my least enjoyable version of that classic side dish.  I am and have always been a skinny fry guy and so would find disappointment in this regard at every food stop along the way. 

After dinner we all walked down to Castlecliff Beach as rain clouds threatened to open up on us.  On the way we passed a parking lot designated as the Castlecliff Beach Freedom Camping area, where one can as the name implies, camp for free.  The city has established a few sites that support the concept, and they are governed by the Freedom Camping Bylaw which includes restrictions such as limiting how long people can freedom camp in certain areas, what vehicles they can use, how many nights one can stay, and how many vehicles can be freedom camping at any one time.

It was a cool blustery evening and we didn’t spend a lot of time at the shore, walking out to the end of the jetty which provided a nice view up and down the coast.  We all returned to Kate and John’s house for some drinks and conversation into the late evening before heading back to the Airbnb for a good night’s sleep.  This was an older property, but well maintained and spacious, with two large seating areas, a well-stocked kitchen with a French Press coffee maker, the first but not the last of the trip, and importantly, two separate toilets. 

The next morning the Quigley’s picked us up and we drove to Whanganui’s downtown for a walkabout and break for coffee.  The city is located at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand’s longest navigable waterway and is the 19th most-populous urban area in New Zealand with a population of 42,800 as of June 2023.  Whanganui is the ancestral home of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi and other Whanganui Māori tribes and its name is a Māori language phrase meaning “big bay” or “big harbor”.

The New Zealand Company began to settle the area in 1840, establishing its second settlement after Wellington.  In the early years, most European settlers came via Wellington, but Whanganui greatly expanded in the 1870s, and freezing works, woolen mills, phosphate works, and wool stores were established in the town.  Today, much of its economy relates directly to the fertile and prosperous farming hinterland.

We parked and began walking down to the river where, it being a Saturday, was the site of a farmers’ market.  And after walking through the stalls and then pausing at the river, we made our way to a coffee house for a round of drinks and snacks to tide us over for the rest of the morning.  When we finished, the kids left us for other activities, and we drove to the Whanganui Regional Museum where we would spend an hour or two perusing the exhibits. 

The museum has an extensive collection of natural and human-history objects with an emphasis on items from the Manawatu-Wanganui region.  The collection also includes objects of national and international significance, such as Pacific tapa, ceramics from Asia and Cyprus, and moa bones from nearby Makirikiri Swamp.  The first exhibit one encounters is the Māori Court, where pictures are not allowed, which is a shame as it contains a large boat once used by the locals and many other items of interest. 

An exhibit I found fascinating was Between Skin & Shirt, which showcased 60 photographic portraits taken by William Harding of Whanganui residents.  Most would never have been photographed before, and having their portrait taken was an act of faith.  Harding diligently applied his art to reveal the person behind the formality of appearances. In the setting of his studio, his subjects are luminous.

Other exhibits ranged from a display of Beaked Whales along with Dressed to Thrill, a look at fashion from the 1890s and the 1990s.  Finishing up at the museum, we began to work our way back to the Quigley’s house for a break before the rest of the day’s fun.  We’ll cover that in the next post. 

Links

The Citadel Cafe: https://www.facebook.com/thecitadel.castlecliff

Whanganui Regional Museum: https://wrm.org.nz/