Omakau to Ranfurly

We couldn’t leave Omakau without popping into the Muddy Creek Café for a couple more of their famous pies.  A pair of locals sitting outside recommended the pies, so that sounded good enough to me.  The bacon and egg pies are delicious, and we have two venison pies tucked away in the freezer for a future meal.

Muddy Creek Café, Omakau

Our stop for the night was the MZMCA Park at Ranfurly, our first time staying here, joining about 15 or so other vans and campers.  Water and rubbish bins are available, with a dump station just outside the grounds.  The camp is well situated and just a hop and a skip away from town.

 

NZMCA Camp at Ranfurly

Ranfurly is known for it’s art deco buildings – built by J Mitchells and Sons Builders after a series of suspicious fires in the early 1930s by.  No one was ever charged for all the damage caused.  The most attractive building is the Centennial Milk Bar which used to serve refreshments to rail passengers.

Centennial Milk Bar building

These days it is an art deco museum, chock full of art deco crockery, furniture, and furniture.  I’m sure our family used to have some of the crockery in the cupboards when we were growing up.

Crockery on display

It’s not all art deco in Ranfurly, and we stopped to admire the Ranfurly Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Catholic Church

And the Railway Station now serves as an Information Centre, and has a lot of railway history, including a tiny movie theatre made just like a railway carriage.

Ranfurly Railway Station/Info Centre

After lunch we took a drive out to the tiny village of Waipiata – not a great deal there except a pub, domain, and several old vintage buildings.

Old shed in Waipiata

Staying in the domain were fellow bloggers Bernie and Katrina, who blog about their adventures on Paws Awhile.  It was so nice to meet them and we spent the afternoon chatting and swapping travel tales.

Katrina, Bernie, and one of the dogs