Book a trip to Featherston

If you were thinking Featherston was just another little country town in Wairarapa, think again: it’s officially a Booktown.

It’s part of an international organisation of 22 small towns with multiple second-hand and antiquarian bookshops. Featherston has been a member since 2018, with its seven bookshops.

It’s a distinction that the town is celebrating this Thursday to Sunday with its Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival, which offers 55 events.

The 99 presenters include authors, musicians, poets, podcasters, printers, and papermakers, being serious or silly, sometimes both, and always entertaining.

There are workshops too, and all ages are catered for.

Why go?

Because, fabulous time-suckers though they are, it’s not all about the festival, or even the bookshops.

At the base of the Remutaka hills, Featherston is the gateway to Wairarapa, with a long and notable military history. There was a huge army training camp here in World War I, which in WWII was used as a prisoner of war camp for captured Japanese, 122 of whom were shot in an ‘‘incident’’ in 1943. Find out more about this, and the camps, at the Featherston Heritage Museum, and take a look too at the Anzac memorial in the main street, with its distinctive cupola.

The nearby infamous Remutaka Incline on the rail link to Wellington is nearly 5km of track with a 1-in-15 gradient, so steep that a Fell Engine was used to tackle it for 77 years. You can see it, the only one left in the world and meticulously restored, in the town’s Fell Locomotive Museum.

The heritage Royal Hotel has been extensively, and imaginatively, renovated and is worth a look and, ideally, an overnight stay in one of its steampunk-decorated rooms. The C’est Cheese shop and deli across the road has a wide range of handmade Remutaka Creamery cheeses, as well many other tempting goodies. Next door is Mr Feather’s Den, which offers ‘‘oddities and delights’’, from jewellery to taxidermy chicks.

Insider tip

Author Joy Cowley lives in Featherston, so say hello if you see her.

On the way/nearby

Up in the hills, beside the road to Wellington, is a striking statue commemorating the long march of soldiers from Featherston into the city and away to war, and the women who fortified them with cups of tea.

Lakes Wairarapa and O¯ noke make up Wairarapa Moana, 9000 hectares of wetland where many species of birds can be spotted, and there’s a variety of accessible walks.

The Remutaka Rail Trail, with its bridges and tunnels, is just one appealing cycling or walking option in the area.

Stonehenge Aotearoa is not simply a replica of the Salisbury original, but an observatory too, with tours and star-gazing.

How much?

The festival event entry fees vary, and some are free. Booking is already open.

Best time to go

The festival would be fun, but the books and cheese are always there. booktown.org.nz

The Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival runs from Thursday, May 6 to Sunday, May 9.