My Perfect Weekend: Urban wandering, and historic hall hunting for Anthonie Tonnon

Anthonie Tonnon.

Each week we talk to a member of the Whanganui community to ask what their perfect weekend in the region would be. This week Finn Williams spoke to public transport advocate and musician Anthonie Tonnon.

Whenever I try to bring friends to town for the weekend I tell them to try to get here by Friday afternoon.

I often say Whanganui is like a French town because we’re only active for four days a week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the other three days are all Sunday.

So for me, my weekend starts on a Friday evening and since I tend to travel around a lot as part of my work, my weekends tend to revolve around a routine.

I try to finish work early on a Friday afternoon and spend the night catching up with friends at Porridge Watson, trying out the crazy selection of drinks on tap.

The food on Drews Ave is great too, whether that’s from Porridge itself or Sourbros Pizza or icecream at Frosty Moons, even now it’s winter I’ve seen people getting icecream all the way to midnight.

For Saturday I like to get out and about in town so I start it by taking the cycle path from Gonville down to the markets, I try to get there at around 11am because before then I’m not hungry but after then most of the food has already been eaten.

I get quite floaty on a Saturday afternoon so I’ll do a bit of civic wandering checking out the diverse architecture of the city, stopping over at Article for a coffee and the District Library to see what choice picks the staff have out.

By around 3pm the spirit of 1980s New Zealand rolls into the town like a fog and things start to quieten down, if I’m lucky there’ll be a show on at the Opera House or Porridge again but otherwise, I’d head over to Castlecliff for dinner at The Citadel.

Since things tend to be quiet in town on Sundays I head into the region to places like Paloma Gardens or Bushy Park to soak in the surroundings, or even out to places like Waverley and Pātea.

While I’m out too I keep on the lookout for old country halls dotted along the railway lines, I’m obsessed with them for their history and beauty and they’re great places to play music in.

Whanganui is a great place to adventure around because of how varied the environments are, both with nature and architecture, it feels like so many places at once.