Manawatu Gorge Pictures

Despite the rain, we decided to explore Manawatu Gorge today. It's about an hour away from Whanganui, near Palmerston North, where the Becker-Harris family lived. We don't have a car yet, but J's colleague Lionel very kindly invited us to come along with him, which was great. He is pleasant company, and we wouldn't have been able to go without him. 

This is the view driving into the gorge.

On the outside top of the high edges of the gorge are a multitude of wind turbines. 

Across the gorge from the highway are the railroad tracks. Just as we were debating whether or not they were still in use, this little train came chugging along the tracks.

After driving through the gorge, we came back to the start, parked the car, and got out to walk. The rain that had been a mild distraction in the car was a bit of a problem once we were outside, but we decided to ignore it and get going on our hike.

This is right after we walked into the gorge, looking back out towards the entrance. I liked the plant up at the frond, because it made me think of Kansas wheat, juxtaposed onto a very lush, green, NZ scene.

We picked a trail up through the forest on one side of the gorge. It leads up to a scenic lookout. The following pictures are of our hike.

This is the lookout at the end of our trail. Definitely worth the hike!