Rangiwahia Domain

Where the heck is Rangiwahia you may well ask?  Leaving Waiouru and heading back into the Manawatu Region we turned off SH1 just before reaching Mangaweka onto Mangawharariki Road and crossed over a rather rickety looking bridge.

Over the bridge to Rangiwahia

The narrow road took us 20km up hill and down dale, past rolling countryside.  Last time we travelled this road it was unsealed, Robin remembered.  Here’s the welcome sign, we have arrived.  Our five vans fitted nicely into the domain grounds, which had three power points for us to share, water and toilets. 

 

Here we are at Rangiwahia

There is a War Memorial in the front of the grounds, a school and play centre just up the road, a few houses dotted around, and not much else in this rural heartland.  It’s a nice peaceful place, and we feel that having power is a real bonus.  No cell phone or internet coverage though.

Rangiwahia War Memorial

Rural communities like this rely on volunteers to help run things – and the Rangiwahia Volunteer Fire Brigade is no exception.  We stopped and chatted to the Deputy Fire Chief who told us that they have recently had a recruitment drive to boost the number of their volunteer firemen.  Luckily they have few fires to deal with, but often attend road accidents.

Robin and Peter checking out the fire station

Just a short stroll up the road is the pretty little St Barnabas Anglican Church.  Made of native timber, this lovely old building is over 100 years old, and holds monthly services.  A large clam shell on a pedestal is used for the baptismal font.

St Barnabas Church

Oh, just look at those cute pigs – they happily came to the fence, snuffled and snorted and talked to me in piggy language while they posed for a photo shoot.

I love pigs!

The pigs are owned by Jim and Bridgette, who run “REACT”, Rangiwahia Environmental Arts Centre Trust, from their home just along the road at the Old Dairy Factory.  They also run school programmes teaching children to make wearable art, and create giant puppets and lanterns from paper, incorporating willow grown on the property.  Jim explained about growing willow, how it is cut and stored, and showed us the art of willow stripping. 

Harvested willow ready for stripping

The Old Dairy Factory

Jim and Bridgette met overseas, and when his Kiwi lass wanted to return home, they took the long way back to New Zealand in their Daf truck, cleverly painted to show how they journeyed home.  Thanks so much for showing us around.

Daf truck

In planning our caravan safari, we decided to stay at places not previously visited, and our stop over at Rangiwahia has been a delight.  The domain grounds had everything we needed for a short stay, and the handful of local people we met were very friendly and more than happy to stop and chat to our bunch of travellers.  We are so glad that we took the time to stop.