Valentines Day in Wanganui

Wanganui is a very cool town of about 50 000 people. There are plenty of interesting little shops and cafés on Victoria Street, which crosses the Whanganui River, where there’s a tunnel that leads to an elevator.


The elevator goes up to the top of the cliff that overlooks the town.


There are many old buildings with beautiful architecture and magnificent gardens around the town. There’s an old restored steamboat that takes tourists down the river, and a group of retirees are restoring a streetcar back into service. Living here, I would have to join the well-established rowing club.



We bought a new cast iron frying pan that needed seasoning in an oven for an hour before we could use it. We were anxious to head into town to see if the immigration agent had returned our email. I decided to leave the pan in the campground kitchen oven on medium while we went cruising the neighborhoods for open wireless internet where we could check our email. The trip to town took longer than we expected. We pulled up to the gate two and a half hours later and were accosted by the campground owner who asked us if we left a pan in the oven. I sheepishly looked around to make sure the campground still existed before I answered. Apparently he got his knickers in a knot when he saw smoke billowing from the kitchen and still hadn’t managed to untie them yet. He spent about ten minutes letting me know. This is what he looked like while he was letting me have it…


I felt like a naughty schoolboy when I guiltily retrieved our frying pan from the kitchen.
The pan was nicely seasoned though, and the Valentines Day morning pancakes were delicious.



I had a hot Valentines Day phone date at 10:00 pm with the New Zealand Immigration agent handling our file. She’s in an office in London, so we caught her at 9:00 in the morning her time. They pay people in London to process the paperwork because they don’t have enough people here to do the work. I don’t think I screwed up too badly, so the paperwork should get processed within the next month we hope.
The drought seems to be coming to an end finally. We’ve had a fair bit of rain during the last few days. We’ve had some beautiful thunderstorms. This is the sunset view across the lake from where we’re staying…


Here’s where we’re perched at the moment…


There’s plenty of room for the kids to run around…






And beautiful light for me to capture them in…