The river meandered its way upstream with the tide being fairly slack and we made good progress. We were invited to the boiler room to watch operations which was very interesting. The original steam engine was made by Yarrow shipbuilders in the UK but the restoration was completed locally by following the original drawings and specifications. We carried and passed a smaller steamship, the Wairua, which now services a hotel. At this point of the trip they also released some homing pigeons which was the original method of getting messages back to Wanganui. You will be pleased to know that our message was waiting when we returned to base.
One of the pigeons |
The pigeons are released |
We turned round and made the hour long journey back with the commentary explaining much of the local history. We passed a New Zealand flame tree in full flower.
view from hilltop |
memorial tower |
There was also a memorial tower built after the first world war. In our view Kenny was right and Wanganui as a city has much going for it. Tomorrow we are off to the delights of Wellington.
That Burroughs machine (1920s?) was a bit before my time with the company, but looking at the keys it was capable of dealing with some huge numbers - how much did they charge for fares in those days?!
ReplyDeletePS We've also had blue sky & sunshine today but, with -6C last night, unlike you we're not in shorts etc. NZ is the preferred place to be ...