With a view to die for, new seats and tables have been provided on the Whanganui River Road.
The facility is at Aramoana at the top of the Gentle Annie hill, and it offered a wonderful panorama when a blessing was held on Friday.
The seats and tables have been provided by the Friends of the Whanganui River using funds from a bequest made by the group's founder, Arthur Bates, who died in 2002. The Whanganui Department of Conservation assisted with the installing of the tables.
The Friends committee saw the facility as a good way to commemorate the work of Mr Bates in making the river and its history better known. He was well-known as an author of many illustrated books about the river, his best known being The Bridge to Nowhere which describes the ill-fated Mangapurua Valley, settled with returned soldiers from the Great War of 1914-18.
At Friday's blessing, Friends chairman Alan Donald spoke of Mr Bates love of the river and how he promoted it in his writings. Aramoana was a special place for Mr Bates as he would always stop there and say a karakia to the river before proceeding up the River Road.