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Some Photos from my Hometown Wanganui

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The Waimarie paddle steamer Wanganui New ZealandWanganui, the town I grew up in New Zealand, is not exactly "on the map", but perhaps that's because it suffers from an inconvenience of its geography; it's not on the beaten track. Most people, if they aren't flying, make a bee-line down the center of the North Island when driving from Auckland to Wellington. To visit places like Wanganui, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings etc. means a side-trip to either of the coasts, and since everyone is just trying to get from A to B in the shortest and quickest manner, the cities on the east and west coasts of the North Island miss out on a lot of casual visitors.

But if you ever get to visit New Zealand and you have the time, a side trip to a place like Wanganui can reward you with some surprises not available elsewhere. Wanganui is known as "The River City", a claim that many towns and cities in New Zealand could make, but I guess Wanganui got there first. It is the only river in New Zealand that is designated as a national park, I believe, and the river is rich in both Maori and early white settler history. At one time the river was such an active means of communication and travel that a fleet of 12 steam-powered river boats plied up and down its navigable length

Wanganui water towerThe city also sports two towers of notable architectural significance, and neither of them lean - eat your heat out, Pizza! The main street "Victoria Avenue" is graced by well-maintained Victorian era buildings adorned in the summer months with bright displays of hanging baskets of annual flowers. The city is also home to a vigorous polytech that focuses on the arts and design.

So if you ever get the chance, check out my home town.


In the photos of Wanganui that I have posted, you'll get to see the river steamer the "Waimarie" which sails daily in the summer and most weekends in the winter. Then you'll see a view of the volcano Mount Ruaphehu as seen from my brother's place, and then some shots of the Wanganui water tower. Oh, and there's a photo of "me mum" too. Enjoy

Some useful links if planning a trip to Wanganui:

Information about Wanganui

The Waimarie river boat

The Wanganui Regional Museum

Fodor's Guide to the Whanganui River National Park

The Sarjeant Art Gallery

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Do Not Disconnect - The Real Digital Divide

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The fly in the ointment, Opito Bay, around 2007. This post was originally published in November, 2007. Almost two decades on, the photograph and the argument both feel — if anything — more relevant than they did then. I have updated this post lightly in May, 2026, some 19 years later! The Photograph I was on holiday in Opito Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, sitting on the couch in the place we were staying at. A friend's iPod was resting on the coffee table, on top of a copy of The Economist from March 2005, whose cover story happened to be titled "The Real Digital Divide." A fly landed on the iPod's click wheel and stayed there. I reached for my camera, took the shot, and edited it later in Photoshop to give it the grungy, oversaturated look you see above. The fly on the iPod along with "The Real Digital Divide" struck me — immediately, and with a kind of emb...
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