With all the news floating around about the devastating eathquake in Christchurch New Zealand a group of people have come together to get bloggers to send out the message that NZ is open for business. A series of posts about New Zealand will be hitting the blogosphere over the next few days. #blog4NZ
My contribution is a post about a town with the Slogan; Well Worth the Journey – Wanganui, the River City.
Despite perceptions about Wanganui there are heaps of things to do on a day trip or overnight trip. It is a pleasant town, it just gets a bit boring compared to larger cities sometimes 🙂
I wouldn’t suggest spending a week here if you are wandering our lovely country, although it is definitely worth having a look around for a few hours or even stopping overnight to breakup your journey in the North Island.
The photo’s throughout this entry are ones I took on my walk to work one day last year;
So what can you do in Wanganui?
Take a stroll around Virginia Lake, set in the trees a walk around the lake will take you under half an hour – take some bread to feed the ducks, geese and swans. There is also a small walk-through bird aviary, the winter gardens and a café.
Poke around at Queens Park, a lot of history resides here – as does our local Library, Museum, Sergeant Gallery and War Memorial Hall, to be honest I have only been to the Library so I can’t comment on any of the other stuff, one day I will make it to the other places! Give me a buzz and let me know what the other places are like if you’ve visited.
Take a ride on the Waimarie, a restored paddle steamer. The Waimarie takes you on a return journey on the Whanganui River to Upokongaro and back – check their website for times, there is generally at least one sailing per day and the return trip takes around 1 hour. There is a bar on board, and some sailings serve meals as well.
Cooks Gardens hosts a number of sporting events throughout the year, including, athletics, rugby and motocross (yep the trucked in a lot of dirt to host this!) –there are also concerts occasionally held here. Just down the road from Cooks Gardens is the Royal Wanganui Opera House, it’s a nice building, and usually is advertising some event or another which is to be held there – I still don’t like the place from having Ballet performances there when I was a little tike, hmmm.
Kowhai Park is over the bridge from the central city, a nice place to rest for a while, release your inner child on the playground – or if you have kids let them burn some energy. There are free BBQ’s in the park so bring along some sausages and bread, send me an invite and have a BBQ lunch or dinner. Everything in the park is free except the kid’s train which goes around; last I heard it was about 50cents to have a go. Next to Kowhai park is Riverlands Fun park, which has mini golf, go karts and bumper karts – all of these do cost, so if your penny pinching I would give it a miss and just spend some time at Kowhai Park.
Durie Hill – Boasts two towers, the main Durie Hill Tower gives great views over Wanganui. It is a must see in Wanganui, take your camera and count the steps on the way up. You can get to the top of Durie Hill by driving, walking up the stairs or walking through a tunnel and taking a very old elevator to the top. (Costs around $2 each I believe). Up the top of Durie Hill is a smaller lookout tower is not enclosed on the walk up – take it from experience, if heights scare the bejebus out of you, just go up the main tower, the views are no better from the smaller one, and there’s something about the comfort of being enclosed while climbing a tower!
Well that is properly about the excitement which is my hometown of Wanganui! So get yourself to the River City, it’s a great gateway to a number of amazing locations in NZ – 2-2.5 Hours from Wellington, the capital city, 2 hours from New Plymouth – less to Mt Egmont, 1-1.5 Hours from Mt Ruapehu, 2.5Hours to Taupo, 3.5 Hours to Rotorua.
What are you waiting for?