Virginia Lake & Whanganui Riverside Market – Day 60

So today we are having a little bit of time to explore the city of Wanganui. People that are staying in this hostel as well really recommended that we go to the farmers market or the Riverside Market and also check out Virginia Lake. These are the things we have to do before we leave [Wanganui].

Every Saturday morning there is a whanganui riverside market. This has been going on for hundreds of years the early European settlers used to trade on these very river banks that we are about to go and see other people trade on today. This market is basically just local art and local woodworkers and local foodmakers. So the market is pretty awesome it’s bustling there is quite a lot of people and there is all those smells of like food and cake and pizza and all that it’s pretty cool. It’s a really nice location on the Whanganui River there’s some like public art sculptures and stuff along the way to see and it’s just behind the information centre it’s easy to find. There’s this really cool like big sphere which is mirrored and it has some cracks in it represents the course of the Whanganui River itself. We get back in the van and we drive up to Virigina Lake so Virginia Lake is basically like a really big lake surrounded by a big park which is completely overrun by birds it’s incredible the amount of birds around here.

Who’s this lady, Laura? She is Tai Nui. What is she famous for? Erm, I’ll tell you in a minute. [Clock noises]. Ok, that’s taking too long to read but she was probably involved with a maori love story as per usual and she is crying because she split up from her love one. There are pukeko which is a native New Zealand bird which are really cool. They have really long legs which are too big for their body, feet which are too big for their legs, they are blue they have a red face and they are fascinating to watch. We watch them for far too long. Here are some clips of us watching pukeko for far too long. At 42b college house here in Wanganui we’ve been invited a couple of times to eat with our hosts that eat with all their WWOOFers and look at that. Three days here in wanganui. Look at that. That is Kiwi generosity for you ladies and gentlemen. We keep on walking around there is plenty of things to see around it’s a great park. Laura cannot shut up on how amazing this park is. She actually thinks that this is the best city park that she’s seen in the last 60 days which is quite, you know, it’s quite a lot even better than the Auckland Domain so pretty good wanganui. You nailed it. You don’t really expect much from city parks but I am loving the amount of birds here. I am watching all sorts of crazy little birds doing their birdy sort of things.

So we are heading back in the van and we are about to tackle the state highway for once more from Wanganui to Ohakune. Every highway we take in New Zealand, there is also stuff to see. We are stopping every two seconds to take photos there’s like really big dramatic green hills that are full of sheep in the background there’s like pine forests on those hills and then there’s just layers and layers of majestic beauty. Ohakune is a ski station up in the mountain it is the best place to access Turoa and Whakapapa which are the two main ski fields int he Ruapehu area and basically the two main ski fields in the north Island. We have big plans there but it looks like every plan that we made is going to be shattered by the weather which is absolutely non-compliant lately so we’ll see how it turns out but we’re still going to go there and we’re still going to have fun there still going to explore the town and we’re still going to make the most out of our time in Ohakune. Yo yo yo… It’s recording. Too bad.