The Baking Story is a bakery on Broadway Avenue in Palmerston North Central, holding a perfect 5.0 rating across 28 Google reviews. Timing is everything at a bakery. Bread and pastries are at their best within hours — sometimes minutes — of leaving the oven, and the popular lines tend to sell out long before closing, which is why regulars learn the baking rhythm and turn up early. It also pays to ask what came out that morning rather than choosing from the cabinet alone; the people behind the counter at a busy bakery know exactly what is freshest. A steady queue of locals at opening time is one of the surest signs you have found a keeper. For a city the size of Palmerston North, a perfect-score bakery on Broadway Avenue is the kind of find worth crossing town for.