Billy Webb Challenge on the Whanganui River

(Molly) Last weekend we stayed in town because I was working. I did evenings so we had time to head down to the river to see the much-publisized rowing races held on Saturday morning. The Billy Webb Challenge was a 5K rowing race down the Whanganui River right into the heart of our downtown. Now, if you are wondering like we were, "Who the heck is Billy Webb?" You can read about him here. As you can see in this picture, they closed the main city bridge and put up a huge screen (not in the picture) so that you could watch the race progress to the finish line just past the bridge. The bridge was packed with people there to watch. As you can also see, we had to stop and pick up flat whites to enjoy with our rowing race!

This is a picture of the men heading out for their warm-up, and later their race. You can see there were a lot of people along the river, too. One of the restaurants there had their outdoor patio packed with people getting brunch and watching the race festivities.

As part of the race, they also had a traditional Maori Waka take a ride down the river. Actually, in Wanganui, most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays you can go and join in a traditional Waka canoe ride in the evenings. I've seen them out there rowing along while running -- Looks fun! (As a side note, Billy Webb's great-great grandson was rowing in this Waka!)

The traditional Maori warriors' "welcome" (I use quotations because if you are not actually "welcome" it might not go so well for you...) is called a Powhiri. They did a similar welcome for the rowers who would be competing on the river. It's a little hard to see here, but we've seen a few -- They're very interesting, but if you were standing up close it can be very intimidating!