In this summer series of Wanganui views, Merania Karauria visits some of those properties and discovers why the outlook is so spectacular
Annette Maher could be the queen of Shakespeare Rd on Bastia Hill, given she has lived in the family home all her life.
In 2015 the house will reach its century, and the view is something to celebrate as well.
Pine trees blocked the view when the family first came here, but today the view is spectacular.
"We can see the river, watch the market and look out and see the weather. The sunsets are spectacular," Mrs Maher said.
Pointing to the valley below, she says they can see everyone.
The view is out to the mouth of the Whanganui River, the Tasman Sea, and an ever-changing sky. "There is always something different to see."
To the west is the Durie Hill Tower, and from the big expanse of lawn that "takes an hour to mow going very fast", is the Bastia Hill Tower to the north.
And over in the northwest is the Wanganui Race Course. If the grass is brown the Mahers know the season is dry.
The Crafar family came to live here on December 7, 1941, when there were only nine houses in the road. Today there are 27. Shakespeare Rd was gravel and there were no street lights. Before the power came up on to the hill in 1935, the Crafars used gas lights.
Mrs Maher's father was Bill Crafar, a butcher at Wanganui East, and several butchers used the surrounding paddocks to hold sheep that came by train in the middle of the night.
It had been a great and simple life, and continued to be so, Mrs Maher said.
The great life for the eight Maher children growing up was a house cow that was milked every morning for the milk, cream and ice cream, a vegetable garden, chickens, ducks and fruit trees.
The children rode their horses down the gravel Shakespeare Rd to the Wanganui East School and kept them in the school's horse paddock, where Savage's Cake Kitchen now stands.