Whanganui - Kapiti Coast

After leaving New Plymouth, we took the scenic route around the coast of Taranaki and headed on down to Whanganui for the night.

Poor view of the mountain.

Our trip around the coast of Taranaki took us through lots of dairy country, with the sea on one side and the mountain on the other. Not that we got much of a view of the mountain. The cloud cover was well down so we were pleased that we had had such good views on Sunday.  We stopped in Opunaki for lunch and took a good walk around the coastal track that was there.  The town itself was looking quite depressed, with lots of closed shops and businesses. We were in NZ Post and the owner/operator told us that competition with  electronic banking, shopping and mail being the reason. He had only 250 pieces of mail for delivery in the whole area that day.  A sign of the times and you do wonder what is going to become of our small rural towns.



We arrived in Whanganui just on dark so we didn't get to look around until the morning. Our morning walk was along the river - up one side to a bridge and back down again.  It is easy to see why this place is called the River City though the river wasn't looking its best: recent heavy rain in the catchment area had it looking very muddy.   A walk up the 175 steps of the WW1 memorial on top of the hill gives excellent views across the whole city and well worth the effort.

Foxton was our next campsite, where we met up again with fellow travellers we had met in Takanini. It was such a beautiful evening that we had pre-dinner drinks with them.  I must say our bus felt very small and modest after being in their imported American one with a push-out side. It is amazing how much more space just an extra metre  of width can add.

We weren't in too big a hurry to get into Wellington. We have been weather watching for our crossing back to the South Island and certainly don't want rough weather. By the end of the weekend it looks like it is improving so rather than spending too much time in Wellington, we decided to spend another night on the Kapiti Coast. Waikanae Beach looked like a good spot and we weren't disappointed. The Scenic Reserve at the end of the road  allows Self Contained Freedom campers for 24 hours only. The views of the estuary and across to Kapiti Island were great, and there was lots of wild life on and in the water. We even spotted a baby seal swimming into the sheltered waters.   We had a long walk along the beach the next morning, and it was surprisingly sheltered, considering that the ferry sailings had been cancelled that morning. We decided that being in the lea of Kapiti Island was the reason.

View of the estuary and down towards Wellington.

View out to sea and Kapitii Island.