Aotearoa / Logbook / 2026-05-21 • Tongariro - Sanctuary Farm and Whanganui
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2026-05-21 • Tongariro - Sanctuary Farm and Whanganui

- kms drive.
5 days here.
60 photos taken.
2 walks walked.

After spending the night in Ohakune’s campsite we went up to see another Gollum’s pool (not sure how many Gollums pools are in this country) and then down to check out the town. They had good mead and beer breweries but the jewel of the crown was the transfer and recycling centre - a second hand shop with thousands of things that people would bring to the trash or donations. We found a winter beanie, gloves, my favourite coffee cup, plates, hooks, a coat and the manual for Age of Empires II. Very cool shop.

We decided to stay for a couple of nights not too far away, in the Sanctuary Farm, where Matt and Kim live with their family in a restored countryside school. It’s such a magical place, surrounded by animals (some farm some pets and some rescued) - Mister, the horse, came to see us every morning, and Alix was helping feeding the goat and chicken. Matt drove us around with the 4wd to see cool views of the environment and the farms. The last day Alix did a horse riding session for Mister to keep comfortable around humans. We had a fireplace running every night and clear skies to see the stars.

When we left the farm we took a detour on the Whanganui river road to Whanganui town. Very curvy road but surrounded by nature and following the river, roadtrip vibes. Whanganui is an interesting town - feels like it got stuck in time a few years ago, western style old colonial buildings, billboards from 50 years ago, pc shops… and a very artistic community, art galleries and workshops. We went for a walk around and saw a few galleries and museums - after dinner we went to the local pub, Porridge Watson, where we meet a bunch of friendly locals while listening to live jazz music. We went for a small beer and ended up with free piña coladas from Tony - and we met Harry, Dennis and Kirk (Who worked on the Lord of the Rings! and makes awesome sculptures).

The last day we went to see Susan, a contact from Alix, sister of a coworker from London - she invited us to have some tea in her place, it was lovely to meet her. To finish the day we went to the bird sanctuary Bushy Park - a manor house surrounded by bush where they reintroduce endangered bird species. We saw saddleback, stitchbird, black robin silvereye and kererū.

Going towards Taranaki Maunga 🗻

Photos


Walks