My perfect Whanganui weekend: Din Bandara

A few beers at Porridge Watson is first on Din Bandara's weekend agenda. Photo / Supplied

Every week we ask locals to describe how they would spend an ideal weekend in the region. This week we hear from Din Bandara, the parish manager of the Anglican Parish of Whanganui.

It’s usually a busy week so on a Friday night, my wife and I like to go out to somewhere like Porridge Watson to have a few beers with friends. They’ve got pretty good food there too.

Our boys can stay over at my parents’ house so we may go for a bit of a walk along the [Whanganui] River, depending on the weather. There’s a lot going on in town, especially with the festival season, so we’ll have a nosey around to see what’s going on.

We try and keep Saturdays as chilled as possible.

On a typical morning, we’ll head to the [Whanganui River] Markets and grab a coffee at Article. Now that it’s open for the season, there might be a trip out to the Windemere Berry Farm after that.

In the afternoon we try and go to a park if we can. Kowhai Park has got heaps of room and our boys are full of energy. They can spend a good hour or two running around and still have plenty of steam left over.

I do a lot of gardening, so I’ll try and get to Springvale Garden Centre. It’s one of the very few cafes in town that has sufficient space for kids to run around and be loud. We may go to the bike park next to the Splash Centre as well. That’s a real hidden gem.

Our favourite place to go out is La Quattro, so we’ll go there on a Saturday night. It’s really consistent.

We attend Christ Church on a Sunday. Then, we’ll try and prioritise some family time.

There may be a nap involved at some point in the weekend as well.