Whanganui (Wanganui)

Down the road a bit we stopped at Whanganui (Wanganui) to walk the centro historico a bit, looking for curiosities and also any art deco that might be still there. In the latter regard, Whanganui (Wanganui) fairly knocked us out in the extent, concentration, and preservation of its art deco structures, easily surpassing Napier and any other North Island town we've seen. I'll let the pix below speak for themselves and make my case.

BTW, is it Whanganui or Wanganui? you ask. We wondered ourselves, noting finally that both names seemed to refer to the same place. At first we thought it was a case of "politically correct" linguistic change, from an Anglicized pronunciation to a proper Maori pronunciation. Wrong. The change, we were authoritatively told at the TI had to do with different dialects of Maori, the Whanganui version becoming now more prevalent. Just FYI.

Interesting food truck/trailer park; rain pouring down

1870 flood; after the cloudbursts we saw in Whanganui, we decided
to move on

Most of the downtown was covered, thus, fortunately;
pouring again

Still pouring

Gents

Finally, a ladies facility larger than the men's

Not art deco, of course, but had you ever heard of the W[h]anganui
Royal Opera before?!

Detail: the haka faces

Beautiful glass wrapping all around this building

Still the cinema, too

We did move on, but found ourselves enveloped for an hour in a passing thunderstorm cell. Had to pull over three times. (The drama). But we finally landed at a beautiful city park in Feilding that permitted freedom camping. (Happy ending).