Durie Hill Tower, Wanganui, New Zealand

Durie Hill Tower was built as a World War I memorial. It has 176 steps, but they are well worth climbing for the spectacular view.

 

 

Forty or fifty kilometres up the river is Jerusalem, the tiny place where James K. Baxter had his commune and where he is buried. Parts of the Whanganui River Road are unmetalled, and the car hire firm didn't allow me to drive there. There are other rather longer ways of getting there, but they would have meant taking up the best part of a day, and even then it wasn't guaranteed that I'd see Baxter's grave, so I knew I was beaten.