A shocking Friday’s weather left me thinking that Fiona might not be too keen to drive down to Thames after she’d finished work at 6pm.

The plan was for her to drive down to Thames, park the car at Thames and we’d go to Pauanui in Rafe to catch up with the Grandkids. She had to be back at work on Monday as the holiday period meant standing in for people away.

The rain was just relentless and although it was supposed to be finishing around 5-6 pm, one can never tell with weather forecasts!
The rain slowed around 4pm and the roads all started to dry out.
Around 8:15 odd, she arrived in Thames and we settled down for some Tv.
Saturday, the weather was looking much brighter so I parked the car and we were off to Pauanui in Rafe.

The trip through to Pauanui is virtually up, then down the other side and you end up in Pauanui or Tairua.
We stayed in an amazing ground run by the Pauanui Club. Excellent value and lovely people to deal with. For $8 a night, 4 big areas to park plus power and access to toilets and a cold shower. You also get membership of the club for a day which means you can buy a drink or two and get great meals there at reasonable rates. The park is right next to the mini golf course and you can bike ride anywhere so take your bikes.

When we arrived, we settled Rafe down with the power and opened some vents for fresh air and jumped on the bikes to head down to the water. We arrived just in time to see son Alex and his family trying out their new Christmas Kayak. They tell me they got caught by the wind in a few inches of water in front if a queue of people and youngest grandson Liam (3) shouted out Help at the top of his voice while older grandson Ayden said “get a helicopter”!
Isn’t it funny what kids come up with.

After a nice lunch with the family, we spent a couple of hours at the Pauanui Club and then biked around to my grandchildren where other grandparents, Paul and Mary put on a fantastic Bbq tea.

The next morning, Alex biked around with Liam in a child’s seat and Ayden on his own bike and we all rode into the township “for a treat”!
Pauanui is quite a neat place. There is a airstrip where the houses are built along the side, many with hangers instead of garages, some with both.

A house with a plane outside

A plane takes off from Pauanui airfield.

House hangers

The Pauanui club

The town is completely flat so it’s a neat place to take a bike. Although we were the only Motohome at Pauanui club that night, as we left, two arrived. A fantastic place and I’m sure they be well patronised once the word gets out !

A lovely place to stay.