In reply to tomsmartacus:
Hi
What kind of climbing are you interested in?
I lived in NZ for a few years and it would be fair to say Wanganui is not ideally placed for climbing. Great surfing area though.
As has been said Ruapehu would be a few hours - some trad, some recently developed sport at a cliff called White Falls (I think).
Wellington and the bouldering at Baring Head and Turakirae would be afew hours. Some of this stuff is pretty good.
There is a lot of sport climbing in the central north island in the Wharepapa region but this would be almost 4 hours. Some of it is pretty good though, but is on ignimbrite which is in general very sharp pockets. Mangaokewa may be a bit closer and is limestone.
The winter stuff on Ruapehu is okay and I did a bit but it is not great.
The south island is only a short flight away and there is tons of mountaineering down there. Paynes Ford is in the north of the south isalnd and could be doable for a week trip from Wanganui (probably about 6 - 8hrs travel ish)
Check out the websites listed earlier. This forum could also be useful to post on:
http://climber.co.nz/discuss
Overall I guess it depends what you are into...
Cheers Dave