With only two days left in the north island it was time to head towards Wellington. Rather than visit the art deco town of Napier, on the east coast, we opted to head south west to the Victorian/Edwardian Whanganui.
At Turangi we changed from SH1 to SH47 in order to visit the Chateau Tongariro Hotel on Mt. Ruapehu.
It was a cloudy day which meant we couldn’t see the tops of any of the volcanoes in Tongariro National Park.
We drove up to the cable car but declined a ride to the top for three reasons.
- We wouldn’t be able to see anything.
- It would be a bit nippy at the top.
- Too bloody expensive.
So we visited some more waterfalls.
On arrival at Whanganui we walked along the river bank to the end of the main street – Victoria Avenue. We passed some lads on cycles. The first two did wheelies and offered “high 5’s”: quite a skill. The youngest just said “Fuck off”.
At the bridge by Moutoa Quay I captured a couple of SB‘s. Then we searched for somewhere to eat. Not much open on a Sunday evening. We chose the Thai House Express. Cheap and plenty of it.
