With a coal powered paddle steamer that was
registered in three centuries, and the largest
percentage of heritage buildings in a downtown
area in New Zealand, Whanganui was the place
to be on Wellington Anniversary Weekend.
W
hanganui was recently voted NZ’s
‘Most Beautiful City’ so locals and visitors
celebrated in great style along the old
Ridgeway Street block from the Watt Fountain
with over 12 hours of local bands playing, bars and
cafes extended into the street plus a wide range
of great food stalls dotted up Victoria Ave. Over
500 classic, custom and vintage cars and a selection
of motorcycles filled out the closed main street
for the day, before heading on a ‘Classic Cruise’
around the city visiting local retirement homes,
and enjoying the ambience of the streets of
older dwellings.
Air Chathams had its restored 1945 Dakota
DC3 doing scenic flights during the days while
the Pahiatua Railcar Society ran their 1938
‘Tokomaru’ 52 seater railcar on a day trip to the
city from Palmerston North, and ran excursions
to Easttown and up the Westmere Bank from
its base in the town railyards. So with steampunk
exhibitions, retro fashion from past decades,
heritage buildings, heritage bus tours, heritage
walks, ‘Waimarie’ paddle steamer cruises and
twilight Jazz cruises, the ‘Wairua’ tunnel hull river
boat running short thirty minute cruises on the river,
quality bands playing for over ten hours in a street
party, a vintage River Traders market on Saturday
morning, traction engine rides, historic tram rides
on a 1912 restored tram… the weekend was a
sensory overload for nostalgia buffs.
As the promotional material said ‘”Whanganui
Vintage Weekend is about celebrating the very
best of every era, be it magnificent machinery,
fabulous fashion, beautiful buildings, magical
music or fantastic fare, this weekend has it all,
and then some!”
And it certainly delivered again on its tenth year,
from the seed of an idea going back to ‘Heritage
Weekends’ of the 2000s where the NZBSOC
Nationally Rally was included as a major draw,
following on from the huge success of the 2012
International VCC Rally. The Whanganui Vintage
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