Whanganui or Wanganui?

Friday 3 October

Despite a grey and drizzly start to the day, we had a lovely time exploring Bradley’s Garden - so many careful curated garden spaces, scattered with quirky little buildings & statues, and full of glorious planting and some beautiful birdlife. Perfect spot for a wedding, which is exactly what these guys offer. The dainty pink blossoms along the driveway enticed an array of birdlife and heaps of bees. One had strayed into the gents toilets so Louis tried to rescue it - we are not sure of the outcome though.

The main gardens kept opening up to more lawns, ponds, plantings, statuary, gazebos, birdhouses. bridges and even a darling wee cottage. I was tempted to do a Sound of Music recreation in the gazebo, but actually the comfy sofas were calling with their lovely colourful cushions! Of course we found, or rather we sought out by, the garden cat who was very smoochy and left us smothered in creamy hairs!

The birdlife was loving the garden and the blossoms almost as much as us - the tuis were working hard to strip the nectar from every pink or white blossom tree, kereru flapped above us in search of kowhai and the piwakawaka flitted around so swiftly it was almost impossible to capture them on camera.

Moving on midmorning, we kept heading south down the western edge of the high plateau. Louis grabbed a coffee and a scone in Ōwhango where we found the source of the funky bird feeder that I loved at Bradley's Garden! The lemon cream scones there looked phenomenal but Louis avoided the heart attack/diabetes risk and settled on a delicious cheese scone. Hit a few scary bumps on the road, SH4 - especially near Raurimu where Banjo almost took off - and paused at Raetihi to stretch our legs. Raetihi had a lovely walkway with scupltures and and gorgeous framed pictures celebrating local families who had been there all their lives... not sure what the London black cab was doing there though!

It was a windy and hilly but quite scenic route following the Mangawhero River for much of the way; we stopped at a lookout layby for lunch as we had fled the rain by then, but did get a bit midged... dammit, I am not ready to be fighting those wee buggers again! We finally pulled into Kelsview POP around 3ish, where we were greeted by the lovely owners Kelly & Kerian.

Perched up on a hill just outside Whanganui it was a great site with llama nearby, peacocks in the neighbouring forestry section and kereru in the kowhai. No sooner had we set up and considered a forestry walk when the heavens opened, so we opted for a drive into town where we found the cinema and ducked inside to watch “Prime Minister” - a fascinating documentary about Jacinda Ardern.

Bacon and scrambled eggs for dinner - courtesy of Kelly’s hens!