Middle Earth tour Day 9. Feilding steam trains and cemetery

Middle Earth tour Day 9. Feilding steam trains and cemetery

After doing some research before bed I had made my decision to visit the Feilding Cemetery and from there I would end up somewhere in town afterwards. I had no idea what I would do. According to the map I looked at I just had to follow the train lines to the cemetery. That sounded simple enough to me. With my alarm set and I was going to be ready to leave first thing in the morning. It was not that loud even though I was in the middle of town and above the local pub. I am wondering if it even has live music though I am not worried as it is quiet.

The morning was pretty clear and I was not sure if it was going to be a hot day either until I set off as the day before had been crispy in Bulls. Once I had eaten breakfast from the famous golden arches as they have coffee I was off following the train line. I knew I was following it in the right direction as the map I had told me so and I had looked the night before. Though an hour walk which ends up being 5.9kms away did have me thinking if I should attempt to do so. Deciding to walk regardless I followed the line until I ended up on a country road with no footpaths. The sign also said traction steam engine society in the same direction. The path on the side of the road was exactly like when I was walking in Wellington around where the Massey Memorial was. At least I was still following the train line.

It didn’t take long for me to reach the cemetery and the area had become built up basically as there was a saw mill across the road and I needed to do my laces up and I wasn’t doing them up on the side of the road. I was looking for several names and one lot was the Hitchman and the Adsett. The funny thing about the people I was looking for was that they were at the front part of the cemetery within the first two rows I looked at. Deciding to look more around the cemetery I ran into the mayor’s grave that was on top of a hill and had four lions around the base. I did spot two rabbits or hares in the cemetery and they could really move. I was happy that i had found what I was looking for so quickly. That actually never really happened. Usually it took quite some time for me to find someone and then the headstone might have gunk on it that I have to somehow scrape off with an object. The cemetery was pretty nice and I didn’t need to spend all day there was more I wanted to do in town.

The wander back into town was actually much easier as i knew the way back and I stopped to look at several signs on the way. One was about a cycle track around the town though that would make getting around much easier than having to walk though I don’t think there is a bike place in town and would have cut my walk heaps. I headed to the information centre bumping into the town archives centre on the way. I never knew Feilding had archives though they were not open since I was there on a weekend. I was after the info centre to see if there were heritage walks, but they don’t have anything like that and I was told to take a walk around, which I knew already that some buildings were already labelled also they only really had a list of museums. I had been hearing the call of steam engines since I had walked back in town and I was wanting to visit. When I got round to the steam works they apparently were having an open day this weekend o show what they do. There was a train running up and down the tracks with passengers and I bought yet another train calendar. The area had several trains being restored including the carriages too. I was happy to pay $2 for all that. They do have a turn table where they can get any train in any of the track that they are sitting on and put them into the shed. It is nothing like the Trainworks workshop museum in Ipswich. I didn’t stay very long either especially since I wanted to visit the museum before it closed.

The next location I wandered to was the Coach House museum that was all about how the distract of fielding came to be. The area was all part of the Manchester group I think it was called and there was information on many different parts o the history including the timber milling where I had found a family member that I need to do some research on that owned a timber mill. The information given were really basic and half the equipment were donated to the museum by families from the areas. When I got entry I did notice the archives there too. I have no idea what they hold and the guy serving me likely thought the way I was dressed that I wasn’t that smart. He did tell me where to start and that the Maori were the first people in the area. I told him that some of my family came from the local area and I gave him a little bit of local history. Think he knew then that I knew what I was after. The museum had side saddles and farming equipment. There was a pretty big collection of John Deere farming tractors that I was surprised to see. It was nearly closing time befoe I left with a book on the area, well it was a bunch of essays and the magazine is a yearly thing that comes out. I should check for who else sells them as I bought this years. The old timer was having problems using the registers and could tell by my accent that I was an aussie.

By the time I finished my time at the museum I was wanting to head home as I was wiped out. I was actually feeling like I had been on my feet all day and after  bit of a rest I went to get pizza from a pizza shop called Hell. Why do I do that? Because Hell makes great pizza. I do need to sort things out for tomorrow as I am heading to Palmerston North in the morning. The town that I have gone back to on many occasions to get some research done though I am wanting to visit as its my link to getting to National Park where according to tonights news it will be bad weather next week. I really hope that is not the case.

I did find out about my mystery friendly wifi that follows me around. It is a Southern North Island thing. I had to sign up last night on my computer and I realised exactly where I was getting the signal from as there are certain locations including my next destination that attracts the friendly wifi signals.In some ways New Zealand seems to be leaps and bounds in front of Australia. I think so far this trip has shown me some little bits of nuggets and mysteries that can be solved pretty quickly.