Whanganui

After a morning with Gwyneth of hanging pictures in her new home and a good chat, it was time for my next trip.

It was one and a half hours to my final destination of the river city of Whanganui, and the weather changed at least five times during this lovely drive. The ECK service, organised by Graeme, was attended by five other interested people and it was an hour of diverting talk and interaction.

 Later G. and I went for a pub meal at the Rutland Arms Hotel, one of the few eateries open on Sunday evening in this historic city. The eight strong male table along from us was a part of the entertainment with one of their chairs collapsing and the very corpulent occupant crashing to the floor. The food was seafood and quite OK, and after dinner we did a brief tour with Graeme of the Whanganui riverfront where the trams have been brought back for fun rides and the riverboat also re-created as a tourist attraction.

Graeme's backyard

Graeme's art work..

In his kitchen

I have enjoyed visiting Whanganui on a few occasions, but this time I left the city with the BMW marque from Bella purloined by a passing souvenir collector while she was parked on the main street. Unfortunately such are the habits of the bored youth of this once affluent and sophisticated town.

Graeme is a published writer, also a singer and actor, so later at his home our evening was spent in a very interesting and amusing fashion reading his latest short story. 

Tomorrow I visit Shayne, if he answers his phone!

Graeme's veggie garden, yummy

The Maccas sandwich

...trying to improve their image, but...

En route home...

After great luck in finding a spare parts place in Whanganui which had two BMW marques for forty dollars, I set off optimistically on my return to Welllie. Stopped at Levin, halfway, for a coffee which was quite OK on the way up. This time not so hot and I also fell for a roast beef toasted sandwich which looked good on the shelf. Actually looked like real beef. On eating it, tasted OK, but of course Maccas has to recreate the meat and it wasn't really beef but a beef concoction. The newspaper said it all, they are desperate to show a healthy image but I swear I will never buy anything that looks healthy in Maccas. Except a coffee when I have no other choice.

Btw, apologies to the Whanganui boys, I discovered that the BMW Marques tend to disintegrate in the heat - so it wasn't stolen at all!