Whanganui

Suddenly finding ourselves miraculously in Whanganui we immediately took to the place. We poked our noses into an old wooden tram shed to find lovingly restored trams, over on the river we found Whanganui’s paddle steamer ‘Waimarie’, we drifted into the ‘Boring Gallery’, and skipped excitedly into ‘New Zealand Glassworks’ which showcases the work of top glass artists. One, Mike Crawford - who specialises in cast glass sculptural birds - we had come to recognise from speaking to a collector we randomly met in Wanaka when we were in the South Island. This collector had showed us photos of many of Mike’s pieces in his collection so it was interesting to see a beautiful solitary piece in the glassworks here, priced at $15,000 (£7,500).

To get to our Airbnb that night involved a very fun thing: taking the Durie Hill Elevator! Serving Whanganui since 1919 the 66m elevator is set into the hill with a 213m tunnel to reach it, and enables residents (and excitable visiting cyclists) to easily access the suburb of Durie Hill that sits up on the cliff overlooking Whanganui. Staffed by an operator, the service is on demand - you ring the bell and the very friendly operator is right with you - and the trip is $2 a ticket, affordable as a bus ride. LOVED IT.

From wandering around this afternoon we had liked Whanganui so much - probably one of our favourite cities in NZ so far - that we decided to stay an extra day.

We liked Whanganui’s eclectic mix of heritage architecture - 1920/30s Art Deco and later 1980s brutalist buildings.

There is also a lively arts scene - for a small riverside city, Whanganui has a disproportionate number of creative residents, crafting in studios and galleries dotted throughout its streets. The city was named as NZ’s only UNESCO City of Design. The rest of our time in Whanganui was spent dipping into the many galleries and museums in town, notably…
• Quartz Museum of Ceramics - Rick Rudd’s personal collection of pottery and ceramics. Talking to Rick we were amazed to learn he was in his mid-70s and wanting to retire but could get no funding to continue running the collection which he said was nationally significant.
• ‘Art by the River’ - lovely gallery showcasing local artists and international names (such as Picasso, Hirst, Warhol, Dali, Banksy…) next to each other
• Whanganui Regional Museum - particularly liked the moas, butterfly collection and Māori instruments
• Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery - bit meh. Cake very expensive.
• Katie Brown’s gallery - glass artist specialising in blown lamp shades that are stunning.

In the evening we followed the Durie Hill Elevator operator’s recommendation and had a drink in the tiny ‘Teal Lounge’, closely adhering to his directions to search for the door that would take us through a closed bakery and up the back stairs! The locals took us under their wing and told us many a story.

Leaving Whanganui to follow the river north we had the Saturday riverside market as a final farewell treat.Leggi altro