Thread: Wanganui river road trip

Doesn't take much to convince the members of the ebf household to go on a road trip, and with the prospect of a long weekend we were off on another NI exploration...

On a previous trip down the Forgotten Highway, we had stayed over in Wanganui, but other than a walk around Virginia Lake did not have time to explore the area in detail.

Saturday morning the mrs went off on a cake decorating course, and I loaded up the trusty APV micro campervan. After lunch we did a quick 2.5 hour drive to Wanganui. Found the Top 10 invaded by what seemed like just about every college rower in NZ.

At the kitchen block I found little sparrow had decided to exit the nest without testing his wing-power first, very unhappy character. Popped him back into his nest, and this time he decided to stay put.

Sunday we drove up the Wanganui river road - that main reason for this trip. Very scenic, and a lovely way to spend the morning.


Then off along the road to Raetihi and Ohakune, checking out fishing spots along the way. Mt Ruapehu proved to be too much of a drawcard, and we drove up to the ski-field, will be back in winter to see this covered in snow.


Back at the campsite, it was time to rescue the camp goat, he had decided to wrap his tether around a flag pole, and was slowly trying to strangle himself ! Had a good chuckle as an elderly gent tried very gently to move him, but Mr Stinky was having none of that and planted himself quite firmly. My mis-spend youth on a farm came in handy, and Mr Stinky was un-tangled and went off to molest the local trees.

On the way back to Welly, we stopped in at kiwi39's spot, and I found him in the middle of a Mexican standoff with a very stroppy alpaca ! Got the alpaca loaded into a horse trailer, had lunch and then a quick walk around Tim's farm.

Fun long weekend

You chose a pretty good weekend weather wise! It still looks quite green up there.

Cheers for sharing.

Pity more NZers don't do this type of thing as a family!

Well done ebf. How many k's per week are you clocking up on your walks?

Yeah, I did the forgotten highway drive late one night, never seen so many possums and deer on one road!

Couple of things I forgot in the initial post...

Before leaving Wanganui, we had a walk around Gordon scenic reserve, and also visited the Bason Botanic Gardens. I make a point of visiting botanic gardens in each place we go to, and this one is well worth a visit - what an amazing legacy Mr Bason has left the people of Wanganui. Also not a bad way to get in the mrs good books, she is a plant fundi, and like a kid in a candy store when it comes to botanic gardens.

Got to meet kiwi39's daughters new dawg, gonna be a monster that one and saw the new cows that had arrived since our last visit. For my alpaca rustling sklls, got rewarded with some veni back steaks and sausages, thanks Tim :

Originally Posted by dogmatix

Yeah, I did the forgotten highway drive late one night, never seen so many possums and deer on one road!

Welcome to my back drive way to my backyard

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Originally Posted by Rushy

Well done ebf. How many k's per week are you clocking up on your walks?

Rushy, probably around 20km per week, maybe a bit more ?

Average of 10 to 15 for the weekly walk with Dougie and Jet, I try to squeeze in at least one more short tramp per week and also do a fair bit of mileage at the conservation sanctuary every other week.

Originally Posted by geezejonesy

Welcome to my back drive way to my backyard

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Nice backyard

We often pop out for a bit of civilization at the Lavender Farm when on the river

Hard to get deer on the river; thought about a walk past the BtNW but my foot's stuffed that up a bit - got a argo which will fit on the ute deck while towing the argo -
Don't think it will fit between the posts on the track though

hey, we also like the road trips, good fun. most summers we head down towards the whanganui and pick blackberrys, shoot a few stinkies, and make blackberry jam, yum!