My perfect Whanganui weekend: Grace Hessell

Grace Hessell is up early on a Sunday morning. Photo / Bevan Conley.

Grace Hessell is the owner of Little Curious Bagels on Glasgow Street.

If it’s the first Friday of the month I’ll be off to the Whanganui Musicians Club for awesome music with some food and drinks as well as dancing and excellent vibes.

I’ll probably start Saturday morning with a surf out at South Beach and maybe a bit of a jog along the beach as well.

Then it would be a picnic at Paloma Gardens. I didn’t even know it existed until last year. It’s such a cool place.

After that, maybe we could bring some food and use the little barbecues out at Bason Botanic Gardens.

Sundays usually involve working at Little Curious. Set up at 8am, open at 9am.

We’re up in the morning to do all the freshly baked goods. The most popular at the moment is the gluten-free lolly cake. That’s been an absolute hit which was pretty unexpected. We also have to pick a lot of stuff out of the garden and do a bit of weeding admin because we’re growing things fresh.

Sunday mornings are often our busiest time. Everyone just pours in.

Hopefully sometime soon I can bike along the river and across the bridge to the gin distillery at Upokongaro (Papaiti Gin) on a Sunday afternoon. That’s definitely on the to-do list.

Sunday nights are pretty quiet because we’re back open the next day at 6.30am.

Maybe we’ll take the dog for a walk at Victoria Park or go to the deer park (Peat Park).