WANGANUI-MANAWATU: MANAWATU

Bridge Café is a quirky, country style café situated in Ballance, just a short 25 minute drive from Palmerston North.

Bridge Cafe was another one of our discoveries, as we were planning to spend the night  at the DOC Ballance Bridge free parking area. We must have been distracted as we drove past, late in the afternoon, and we arrived at an alternate entry at Hallblock Rd. Thinking that this was our destination, we started driving up the road, only to discover, to our horror, that it was a narrow, steep metal road that is used as a access road for the wind farm.

With nowhere to turn around, we could only continue and hope that noone was coming in the opposite direction. I was also very concerned that we might not make it to the top with our front wheel drive van. Fortunately we came to an area that was just wiide enough to turn around, and we headed back to the main road.

Having survived that experience, we found the Bridge Cafe and decided to make use of their parking area overnight. It was already getting dark, and the cafe was closed, so there was noone to ask.

It proved to be an excellent choice!

The next morning, Rebecca, the cafe manager arrived, and we chatted with her about taking advantage of her carpark. That was no problem at all, and she is happy for others to stay as well. 

We had a look through the cafe and decided to stay for breakfast.  Quite a treat, as the building had been recently built, but with old timber, so that it looked like a traditional pioneer villa. Plus, the food and coffee was pretty good as well.

While walking around the grounds, I noticed the entrance to a forest walk, and decided to go explore while my wife got sorted back in the van. It was then I finally discovered where the Ballance Bridge DOC site was, as the walk lead to the reserve on the main road that we'd driven past the previous afternoon.

What an experience - one which could easily have been a disaster, but in the end turned out really well.