Woodville Ferry Reserve | Brightchic Photography: Day Trips For The Uninspired, New Zealand

I thought seeing as the Bridge Café, Timeless Horse Treks and Woodville Ferry Reserve are located in the Balance area of the Tararua District and very near to the town of Woodville, I would include them, all in one post.

Since I wrote the original post back in March 2015, the Manawatu Gorge, has been closed due to slips but alternate routes, are in place. Also the Bridge Café has been sold (April 2018) and is no longer open to the public at this time. The new owners have mentioned they will open to the public again in the future.

Visiting any or all three of these places, would make a great day trip out and if you live around Palmerston North, it will take you approximately 30 minutes to get there.

The Bridge Café is situated in a great location, on the Gorge Road, Balance, it is peaceful and quiet, with very picturesque views and garden. They serve a variety of both hot & cold, food & drinks. They are also wheelchair and dog friendly. The scenery, wildlife and walks nearby, are worth the trip alone.

Timeless Horse Treks:

On winters day, Gina & I booked to go on a trek for an hour.

The weather was pretty crappy that day but it managed to stay fine for an hour or so. Gina had ridden before but it was the first time for me, so I thought to myself, I am up for the challenge, what’s the worse that can happen.

Nothing happened, we had a great time, except when I came to get off my horse, I had a bit of trouble there but that was easily rectified by moving along to the back porch of the café. So I didn’t have as far to get down.

Gina and I, highly recommend Timeless Horse Treks

Now across the Balance bridge lies the Ferry Reserve, it has undergone a facelift, there’s picnic tables and new paths have been laid. Freedom campers are welcome there, the Manawatu River runs alongside and under the road bridge. It is a wide open space with a small fenced off wetland area.

Gina and I decided to go walking there one night, thought I had better take the torch and cameras, just in case. Well when we arrived it was nearly dark, it was however a clear night so we could sort of see, where we were going.

We wandered around and I thought we had better use the torch as we were on the river bed, so a great idea came to mind, why not take photos, which we did but the torch attracted a tad to many insects.

Anyone looking down from the bridge was probably wondering, what the heck were two people doing, lurking around in the Ferry Reserve with a torch, at nearly 10pm at night.

Bridge Café at Balance

View fron the Bridge Cafe garden

View from the Bridge Cafe garden

Kereru (NZ Pigeon)

View from the Bridge Cafe garden

Sparrow

Fantail

View from the Balance Bridge

Sunset: View from the Balance Bridge

Ferry Reserve

All the above, photos, (click to enlarge) have been taken at various times, from in and around the Bridge Café, Balance Bridge & Ferry Reserve. If you would like to order a print, please contact me.

I know this isn’t strictly a day trip (more like an afternoon trip) but I thought I would write a bit about it all the same, as the floods were a sight to see and a timely reminder, of natures might.

As the rain was pouring down, on the afternoon of 20th June 2015, I put on my wet gear, grabbed my cameras, headed into Woodville and got a coffee from the Windfarm Bakery & Cafe .

Then I drove out of Woodville towards Balance, crossed the Balance bridge and parked the ute near the playground. The rain was pouring down so I finished my coffee and ventured out.

As I was standing on the bridge I was surprised how many people stopped to take photos and have a look at the river, I had some interesting conversations with quite a few people that day.

There was a lot of power in the river that day, I watched as part of the Ferry Reserve and trees lining the river started disappear under the flowing water. They had to close the Manawatu Gorge due to slips, it was a quite a long time before it was opened again.

After a while, I went home because the rain was getting worse but the next day, 21st June 2015 I went out again. See the photos below.

The Manawatu River caused a lot of damage due to flooding around the Manawatu region, as seen in the video below.