This week we did another road trip, travelling to Whanganui and then on to Palmerston North.
Searching for Wanganui online can be confusing as it is in somewhat of a transition from being Wanganui to being Whanganui. All of the highway signs point to "Wanganui", but most tourist information refers to "Whanganui". Why the change, you might ask....it all has to do with pronunciation.
Current linguistic theory suggests that W in Maori is pronounced as W, as in water, while Wh is pronounced as F, and some bright spark has decided that Wanganui should be pronounced with an F sound, so therefore should be spelled with a Wh. So Whanganui joins Whakatane (Fok-a-ta-nee) and Whangarei (Fon-ga-ray) and is pronounced Fon-ga-new-ee.
But, in school (50 years ago) we were taught that the Maori had no written language until the European missionaries created one, so why would English-speaking people have written down an F sound as Wh, when they could simply have written it as F, or at a stretch as Ph, as in Physician or Pharaoh? My guess is that the actual 1800s Maori pronunciation of the Wh sound was probably something other than a simple English F or W, but until we can travel back in time we will never know for sure. Meanwhile we continue to be confused, but as I like to live on the bleeding edge, I will use Whanganui from now on.
We have passed through Whanganui many times and even overnighted there a couple of times, but we have never explored the city or surrounding area. This time, with two nights in town, we had time to see what the city had to offer, which is actually quite a lot for a provincial city.
If you are into architecture, you would enjoy Whanganui, as it has retained many of its older buildings. Take a walk up Victoria Avenue from the river, and turn right onto Guyton Street, keeping your eye on the upper floors of the buildings and make sure that you walk both sides of the street. If you cannot visit, you can do the same walk on Google street view, and see some marvelous older buildings.
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Whanganui Architecture
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The downtown area also has lots of open spaces, with Queens Park and Cooks Gardens being only a few blocks off the main street. The area from Victoria Avenue to Queens Park has quite a European feeling as you walk through Majestic Square and up the steps to the Sarjeant Gallery.
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Sarjeant Gallery
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The Whanganui River is the longest navigable river in New Zealand, and in days long past, river boats were the only method of moving people and goods into the areas inland of Whanganui. One such boat was the MV Wairua, which was built in London, England in 1904, and plied the Whanganui River until in the 1950s it sank at its moorings. In 1986 a group of enthusiasts recovered the Wairua from the bottom of the river, restored her, and they now offer rides about 7 miles up river to the village of Upokongaro. We took the trip and enjoyed learning more about the boat, the river and the history of the surrounding area. We ate lunch at Cafe 4Forty4 in Upokongaro and had time to explore the village before returning down river to Whanganui.
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River Boat MV Wairua
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When you see a speed limit sign in New Zealand, don't be lulled into thinking that you will be able to travel anywhere close to the speed limit and survive. Just outside of Upokongaro I spotted the sign in the photo below, on a road that is too narrow to have a centre line, has a hill on one side and a cliff on the other (with no guard rail), and the posted speed is 100 kilometres per hour. The sign indicates the maximum permitted speed, not a safe speed or the maximum survivable speed.
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NZ Speed Limit Sign
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While we were in Whanganui we experienced an earthquake, while sitting eating breakfast. It sounded like a large truck approaching, then a sudden jolt, and it was all over. It was only magnitude 3.3 and centered about 20 Km from Whanganui. Thankfully there was no damage.
From Whanganui we headed into the Manawatu region to stay with our friends, Marilyn and John, who live on a farm between Palmerston North and Fielding. Enroute we stopped for lunch at a cafe in Bulls. Bulls is a small town where the Whanganui highway splits from the main north-south highway, and the town has tried to capitalize on its unique name (its only claim to fame), including signs as you come into town, telling you that it is "A Town Like No Udder". Throughout town there are other "Bull" signs pointing at various locations around town. Trying to cross the highway in the middle of town is not for the faint-hearted as there are no pedestrian crossings in town - unbeliev-a-bull.
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Bulls Signs
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We enjoyed 3 nights with John and Marilyn at their new farm, caught up with their extended family, and learned some more about farming. We even visited the Fielding Sale Yards for the Friday stock sale. The Fielding stock sale is the biggest in Australasia. Animals are sold by the pen lot, with a sheep pen having as many as 400 animals per lot, but cattle are sold in much smaller volumes. Pricing is per animal for sheep and by the pound for cattle.
We sat and watched the cattle auction, which was a very efficient operation - a pen lot of cattle is herded into a pen at the entrance to the sale room, where the pen lot is weighed and the average weight per animal displayed on an overhead screen. The animals are then moved into a second pen in the centre of the room and the auctioneer begins the bidding process, while a new lot is moved into the scale pen. Bidding is per Kg, and the price varies depending on the size, condition, and type of animal (cow, bull, steer). Within a minute or two the lot is sold, and it is driven out the other side of the room and onto waiting trucks for transportation to its new home. There were about fifty trucks parked at the back of the sale yards, ready to move in to pick up a load, all very real time.
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Fielding Sale Yards
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While in Palmerston North we visited Auntie Bridie, my Mom's sister, who celebrated her 95th birthday this week. She was in great form despite all her visitors and the excitement of the week, and still as sharp as a button.
Enroute to Wellington, we met Margaret & Tricia in Foxton, and with help from the local funeral home we interred the ashes of my Auntie Noeline who died last September. Noeline is now at rest with her parents and brother in the family plot.
We now have only a few more days before we fly home, and these will be spent with Margaret and Tricia, having a final catch-up, although we have several activities already planned, so I had better get on with it.
