South Taranaki Road Trip – Day 57

So today basically we are catching up on the all the South Taranaki places that people have recommended for us. this is how we are going to be ending our Taranaki adventures.

Today is going to be a rather sad day because this is our final day in the Taranaki region. Then we hit the town, the little town, of Manaia and Manaia, you sort of smell the town before you realise where you are. So we just arrived in Manaia which is the Bread Capital of New Zealand and it smells delicious. We’re right in front of the factory just behind us and we’re going to go into the factory store to get some cheap but delicious bread. Smells like what dreams are made of – freshly baked bread. So we walk into the factory shop and we are surrounded by amazing prices so for instance they have three bags of subway rolls for $1. Also there’s boxes of unbaked cookies and unbaked croissants were about $4 there’s like 20 cookies you can bake for about $4. Laura and I agree that we’re going to pick three items only for this reason I control myself and only pick 6 and laura just doesn’t have a choice. So tonight when we arrive at the beautiful 42b college house in Wanganui we will be baking for the whole hostel double chip cookies. We arrive in Hawera the little town, actually it’s not that little because that’s the second biggest town of Taranaki after New Plymouth so it’s quite a big town so we arrive in Hawera to look for the water tower. The good thing with water towers is that they’re easy to spot so we’re just looking for the tallest building which happens to be a tower this is the water tower. There’s 215 steps so should take about 3 hours for Laura to climb. But I think she can do it. I believe in her. If you want to go up the water tower you have to pay $2.50. A lovely member of staff from the i-SITE and then she will unlock the door and let you into the tower to explore at your own pleasure so that is exactly what we do. We don’t count the number of stairs up there but there is a lot we’re going in circles all the way up the tower. the inside is pretty cool there’s signs telling you some history of the tower and what a water tower even is because I didn’t know what a water tower was before I went to Hawera. I have to squeeze myself. Very tiny staircase. On top of the water tower. Where you can see Taranaki from every angle. At the top we get views of the whole of Hawera which is quite a far-stretching town, and then you can see farmland out in the distance we can see the ocean we can see a factory for where all the milk goes from dairy farming we’ve been doing. We’re supposed to see a view of Mt Taranaki I can see like the ends of it at the bottom but it’s way too overcast today to see Mt Taranaki but I imagine on a clear day that would obviously be an amazing view. We get the way down, get back in the van and same story starts again. We are driving toward Patea. We’re arriving in the little town of Patea. I spy with my little eye a small museum which is simple called the Patea Museum and the signs simple says Museum so they don’t bother with anything. And yeah, we have a few minutes to spare so are going to go check this one out. First things first the design of the building is gorgeous it’s all really new and inside the whole collection inside is really really well done. They have some really cool stuff in there it’s not all in an order that makes sense but they have lots of really cool stuff there so there’s like an old 1900s car they have like a fossilised baleen whale jaw bone, yeah, there’s all sorts of really cool stuff int he museum. Robin used to operate one of these… How old.. How many years ago did you…. They’re actually not that ancient I mean the thing is the technology has evolved that much so you’re avoiding the question. No there’s a lot of cinema which have pretty archaic equipment and yeah it’s the technology only recently evolved to digital and only been around in the last 10 to 7 years. So did you used to go to the cinema with one of these in ? I’m not that old. You’re not going to make me say it. How long ago was this?

There’s a waka that they just found washed up on the side of the river. A Waka is a canoe in Maori so they found this canoe washed up on the shore and they brought this to the museum to put on display. We’re finally leaving the Taranaki region and there’s signs on the side of the road saying like you are leaving Taranaki, why? Don’t leave us! Where are you going? Like, these signs go on for ages these signs came out of nowhere so unfortunately we didn’t film them as we drove past so yeah that was quite funny. So we arrive in 42b college house hostel this is where we’re going to be spending our time in the small town of Wanganui while we explore around. It’s actually a pretty big hostel. It’s an old college house well hints the name 42b college house. Do we have to pay on donation? Do we have to pay on donation? No there’s no Dalmatian here it’s a water tower not a dog. Do we have to pay on donation?! How do we get in there?