Middle Earth Tour Day 10: More trains and yet another cemetery.

Middle Earth Tour Day 10: More trains and yet another cemetery.

Today was the trip that would take me half hour down the road to Palmerston North. Sure it wasn’t a very long bus ride at all, but it was a new destination and I had not been to the town since around 2009 I think it was. Someone has to stop there some time. I let myself sleep in a little longer from my alarm as I was up several minutes from the actual alarm. The morning was very clear and it was actually pretty warm. I had breaky and since I didn’t really need to leave quickly at all I hung around my room reading a book. With an hour before the bus came I decided to make my way to the train station to catch the bus. It turned out to be a good idea as for the next hour I was watching a train go back and forth since it really was the Feilding steam train open day. I was taking pictures and trying out new features on my phone. A very colourful guy had hopped out of a car to catch the bus to Wellington and he was happy to tell stories about taking rides on the train and he did say the gorge trip was well worth going on.

The bus turned up and we went for the longest ride ever though it was a nice ride to Palmerston North. In my research in the past that I had done i had come across a name of a farm though I don’t think it was the name of a farm as a road was called Milsons Line. Now I have a location of some family tree research into the Milverton’s that I had been doing over the years. I think I would need to look into property records and I do have a location. Its always interesting when you come across a small bit of information. The bus pulled into a new spot that it had not in the past. We stopped in The Square instead of just outside it. This was something I thought was good as it would be an easy walk into the hostel The area had changed slightly since I was there last. I just had to remember where everything was when I went walking to the hostel.

The hostel was simple to find and just as I remembered it last time I was there. I had to wait inside for the owners to come back, but I was inside watching TV that was the main part. Once they came back from lunch I was able to check in I had to pay in cash, which wiped me out in that department since they didn’t take credit. I was asked if I wanted a single room or a dorm and I said a dorm. The really funny part was I had been put into the same room as last time and the better came as I was in the same bed. I was the only one in my room, but there were others in the building though that was the best thing. I needed to do washing so I had to hang around for that to be washed and I put it out on the line to dry. Then was time for lunch.

After getting some food I went hunting for my mystery free wifi in The Square where I would be near the information centre. I was wanting to know some information on the fly as I was heading to Terrace End Cemetery as soon as I found some information I was off and wandering around part of The Square as it had some monuments I was wanting pictures of. I didn’t get pictures of everything as I thought I would run out of time if I didn’t head towards the cemetery qickly before the sun went down. The war memorial was interesting as it had music playing from he speakers. I had never seen any monument with music playing, but it was tasteful music. Heading towards the cemetery I went to look at a church that was called St Patricks and was a huge church in the area. I was welcome to enter for a look, but I had no time at the moment. Further down the road I heard a motorbike pull up behind me and while it sounded familiar I had to tun around to see why the bike had stopped. The bike was another spyder with a silver fern on it. The other interesting part was there is a New Zealand group for Spyder riders. A little way down the road I was starting to wonder where the cemetery was and came across a motorcycle shop that had Spyders and other Can Am vehicles inside. Now I knew the town Palmerston North sold the bikes though no idea if other local towns sold them.  

The voices in my head began telling me that I had missed the cemetery and I had somehow passed it somewhere behind me. My eyes told me something else as i had reached a small park. As I told the doubt to shut up I crossed the small park to walk outside the cemetery I was after. I thought I could remember where I could find the headstones I was after. I was contemplating getting a branch as last time I was in the cemetery I had to scrape the headstone to see the writing. I though the cemetery looked a little cleaner and trying to go by memory I went to where the one headstone I was looking for would be. A little about the cemetery in Terrace End is that its the second cemetery in Palmerston North and the original Cemetery was too wet so the old graves had been moved to dryer ground at Terrace End. Where I was looking for the first headstone that I thought I remembered was actually false. I soon realised I had no idea in the cemetery where the headstones  I was looking for were supposed to be. My memory was not that good as I couldn’t find one headstone right off the bat. I could have sworn the cemetery was smaller though this was way before I had a love for wandering cemeteries or even for history other than family history. What I had to do was search every part of the cemetery to see where I needed to go. What I decided to do was search every row for the names I was looking for and no access to the internet as I knew the website could tell me more. The information at the cemetery said the archives in the town had transcripts. I would rather look through the cemetery myself and see the graves myself. It took a little while of going down every row and I found all the graves I was after including some that I had not been looking for.  To make matters worse in my trying to find all the graves I was wafter the info did say there were 10,000 people buried there. I realised my first thought about someone cleaning the cemetery was correct as the headstone of William Milveron that had once been thick with grime was actually really clean and clear. I was happy with that revelation and glad I had not found a broken headstone like so many others in other cemeteries.

I had been at the cemetery for around an hour and half where I found all I was after and then headed back into town before it got too late. I didn’t go the way I came, but I wanted to walk past Milverton Park and then head back to the hostel. I didn’t go via Main street, but I was still going the same way and on the way I had a quick look at Memorial Park. I found that it had once been a quarry where the stone was used on the local railway line. They had created the park soon after the quarry had closed and I thought it looked cool with the pond and everything even if it was lower than where I had been walking. I never stopped at Milverton Park for very long other than to take pictures of the park and then I was off. I could tell the sun was getting lower in the sky and I was wanting to take care of my washing in before it got dark. I had been hearing bag pipes coming from somewhere. I thought it was part of some protest going on until I found the lone piper in an alley just outside a Scottish pub with several other men in kilts. I smiled as I walked by and think that it is good advertising for the pub in grabbing peoples attention. I did however find out that I had finished with my free friendly wifi plan. It told me so when I tried to use it again on the way home. I think I only got 100mb to use and my phone did use some and luckily it let me find the locations of some businesses.

I have no idea what I am going to do the next day. I think I will be heading to the museum for the local area and also there is the thought of looking into Kelvin Grove Cemetery though i do need to do some research first. If its too far then I will see if there is enough time in the day to see if it can be done though if on foot I think going everywhere might not be a good idea. I did have a roast pork for dinner from a local shop and I do think it is a good idea t eat decent food instead of something like Maccas or KFC as its not good for me and I havnt really been eating pies either.