ICA Rally–Wanganui/the Mystery Bus Trip

Our last look at Hawera was a glimpse at the Water Tower.  Helen and Jim from our group had climbed this the previous day.   It is designated as a category one structure by the Historic Places Trust, and celebrated its 100th year in 2014.  The tower  take about 10 minutes to climb the 215 steps of the best known heritage building in Hawera for a bird’s eye view of the region and coast, a bargain at only $2.50.

Hawera Water Tower

We moved on to Wanganui Race Course, a 92km drive.  One by one the other motor homes arrived, making sure we parked a reasonable distance away from the fence-line.  This was so we didn't spook the race horses during the early morning training. 

Parked up at Wanganui Race Course

We were pleased to welcome Martin and Cathie who joined the rally here here at Wanganui.  At Happy Hour Martin presented Bill M with his 15 year membership decal, congratulation Bill on this achievement.

Congratulations, Bill

And because Martin and Cathie had a few challenges before finally arriving here at Wanganui to join in the ICA Rally, we presented Cathie with a box of chocolates to show we had been thinking of them.

The next morning we all excitedly waited for Neville and his big red double decker bus to arrive.  This was taking us on a mystery trip – how exciting is that!  First in, best seated, as the early birds climbed up the narrow stairs to the top deck.  Robin was tasked with ringing the bell at the rear of the bus, ding, ding, I’m sure he felt just like one of those characters on the long running series “On the Buses”.  But his most important job was to make sure no one from upstairs tripped and fell down the stairs and out the back entrance!  I kid you not, this bus did not have a back door so was open to the elements.

Double Decker bus, imported all the way from London

Our first stop of the day was to the beautiful Putiki Anglican Church.  Although sporting a relatively plain and modest exterior, stepping inside is full of Maori carvings, woven panels, and painted kowhiwhai panels.  No photos were to be taken inside.  Please google this church to see all the beautiful workmanship inside.

Putiki Church, Wanganui

This is the 5th church built in this area, and the lovely interior was overseen by Apirana Ngata, who led the Maori Art and Crafts School in Rotorua.  He agreed to bring his team of tutors and student carvers to Wanganui over a two year period.  Four local women were sent to Wellington to learn how to weave the tukutuku panels, and shared their knowledge with other local weavers.  All the timber has been richly carved with only the pews left plain.  The people were told “We will carve you the most beautiful church you have ever seen”, and they certainly did.  This lovely church was opened and consecrated on 5th December 1937.

Back in the bus again and it slowly ground it’s way up Durie Hill.  The imposing Durie Hill Memorial Tower was opened in 1925 to commemorate  the 513 young people from Wanganui and district who died in WWI. The tower is built of local shell-rock.  Some of our group were keen to climb up but this was not permitted because of Covid and the narrow winding staircase.

Memorial Tower

Many took the opportunity to  climb up the smaller tower on the top of the Durie Hill Elevator.  This gave an amazing view over Wanganui River and suburbs.  The local Maori people have a very strong connection to the Wanganui River and there is a saying here, “I am the river, the river is me”.

Elevator tower and entrance and view from the top of Durie Hill

Some of us took the opportunity to ride the  Durie Hill Elevator,  built in 1919.  This is the only public transport elevator in the country and is still used daily by locals and visitors.  At $2.00  a ride it seemed a bargain and I followed a little later with Scotty.  The other passenger on board kindly took our photo, Scotty, me, and the young elevator operator.  After our ride down we walked through the long, rather ghostly tunnel to finally reach the street.

Going down – and the long tunnel at the bottom

We waited on the footpath at the bottom for the bus to drive back down the hill and collect us.  But……. it drove straight past, with the others on board waving out the windows.  Seems Neville had forgotten all about us, drove over the river, then had to do a U turn and make his way back to collect  the missing passengers!

Our next stop was to the St John’s Club for lunch.  And what a tasty lunch it was, we had pre-ordered our meals and they were speedily  cooked for us when we settled in to the dining room.  Battered scallops, steak and fish seemed to be the most popular, and we had ice-cream sundaes to finish our meals.

Then Neville took us on a tiki-tour around town and out to Castle cliff Beach for a look-see.  I had climbed up the steep narrow stairs of the bus for the ride back to camp, and can attest that every little bump in the road is definitely magnified ten-fold upstairs!  What a great day, thoroughly enjoyed by all.