The temperatures dropped dramatically overnight at Rangiwahia and painted everything a lighter shade of pale. Geoff and Eileen were marooned in a sea of white, parked up as they were on the Domain grounds.
On a frosty Thursday morning
The chickens from the house across the road weren’t too bothered by the frost and wandered up and down on the road side looking for an early morning breakfast. The occasional car and truck roared past and the chickens just calmly stepped out of the way.
The neighborhood chickens
The outside of Rangiwahia Hall has been decorated with hand painted tiles by the local schoolchildren, depicting early life in the small village. Sadly the local school was closed down several years ago and the school buildings removed.
Rangiwahia Hall and some of the hand painted tiles
We waited till after morning tea for the frost to depart and the morning to warm up before heading on our way. Our first stop was just a little way down the road, at historic Pemberton Corner. Six Pemberton brothers were in the first party of settlers who set up camp here in 1886, clearing the bush and several houses and whares were built. But by 1895 the temporary village had served it’s purpose and later settlers had moved into the newly surveyed town of Rangiwahia, and Pemberton Village eventually became a ghost town.
Pemberton Corner
The road took us through some quite hilly county and we could see the snow topped Ruahine Ranges away in the distance.
Ruahine Ranges
Our route took us past the famous Cross Hills Gardens, then Kimbolton, we waved to the family as we whizzed past Kiwitea, dropping downhill all the time till we eventually arrived at Feilding and used the local dump station. From there it was on to Himatangi for the next few nights, to meet up with our caravan club buddies for the weekend.
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