'It's everything I wanted for Whanganui' - City humming over long weekend

Eleven-year-old Jodeci Maru on his scooter at the Castlecliff skatepark on Sunday. Photo / Lewis Gardner

Whanganui has been humming over the long weekend with an influx of visitors, events and great spring weather providing a boost to the city's hospitality and tourism sectors.

Among the events on this weekend was a concert by Dave Dobbyn on Saturday complemented by food and beverage festival Taste Whanganui, the reopening of Frank on Ridgway St and several Heritage Month events.

Whanganui River Markets organiser Annette Main said the markets were "incredibly busy" on Saturday.

"Sometimes you'd have to say 'excuse me' to get past somebody, and normally you can wander around quite freely because it's such a large site," Main said.

"Everyone was very happy, and the feedback I got back later in the day at other events that I went to was that it's not your average market, it feels like you're part of the community when you're down there.

"There's always lots of community stuff happening, and I thought that kind of feedback was quite nice.

"The icing on the cake was walking up to the top of the steps by the Sarjeant Gallery and looking back down at a family having a picnic on the stairs.

"I just thought 'this is everything I wanted to happen for Whanganui'. It's like we live in this film set that's been created, and this weekend in particular has been a really happy time for me."

MetService meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree said the weather in Whanganui for the remainder of the long weekend would remain warm, with a high of 22C on Monday, after temperatures hit 24C on Sunday.

"There will be some cloud coming over in the evening, but no one's going to worry about that," she said. "It will still be reasonably breezy, similar to what you've had on Sunday."

Crabtree said that the weather would be 'getting a bit more complicated" when work resumed on Tuesday, with a front moving on to the North Island that would bring periods of rain and cloud.

"That rain is expected to continue until Wednesday, so make the most of your long weekend."

Jeannie Kay at Whanganui River TOP 10 Holiday Park said they had been booked out for the entire long weekend.

"It's absolutely full, we don't have a single cabin available till Monday and we don't even have any powered campsites left," Kay said.

"We've been turning people away who've been phoning up all week, basically. It's been a full-on summer weekend.

Kay said the park was full of people from Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Taranaki and "all over".

"It's been crazy busy, and from what I can gather, most of the town is pretty booked up as well.

Philip Bley soaking up the sun on a skimboard over the long weekend. Photo / Lewis Gardner

"I had a couple that drove up in their campervan who didn't have a booking, and they said it was their first trip out and about in their new van.

"They'd travelled to Whanganui because they didn't think anybody else would come here. I said 'oh, you've got that wrong, Whanganui is a holiday destination these days'."

Caroline's Boatshed owner Caroline Norton said the restaurant and bar had been full all weekend.

"It's been excellent, and it's been much busier than this time last year," Norton said.

"We would normally have had our Bring on Summer concert this weekend, but because of Covid-19 we're waiting until our Rock on the River concert in January. It all depends on how the land lies.

"There have been lots of people coming in from out of town, and I think there's been more than usual actually."