We spent a nice couple of nights with the two Grandsons and their parents at Ardmore and then we headed off to Port Waikato for our last night away for the weekend.
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The Jandal Wall
The last time I came to Port Waikato in the middle of last year, the camp was run by a very helpful French chap who couldn’t do enough for you.
Last year in October, the camp was bought out by a Hapu of Tainui and the welcome we got from manager Mathew was unbelievable.
He’s a lovely guy and again was just so helpful. With the new management comes some enthusiasm to do a few deals to rev things up in winter. The deal we had was pay for one adult and get another one free for a powered site which was amazing. Where else do you get this with all the other facilities too 🙂
The Powered sites
After finding a nice spot for Rafe and settling down, Fiona and I decided to walk the 1k or so down to Sunset beach. A nice easy flat walk and the beach is amazing. There is something that is quite magical about our West Coast beaches.
The wild west
The Tv room and Kitchen
A local bach
The front fence
We spent an hour so taking it all in and then headed back to Rafe.
Sunset beach
As it was a holiday park and despite the cold weather, the park was reasonably busy with plenty of caravans and lots of Bach owners in their permanent chalets in the park.
Great decorating skills
Some have gone to some trouble to set them apart from the others.
Along the beach
The rain came down overnight which we expected and we enjoyed a leisurely run home with very little traffic.
On the Estuary
Its a great spot, the camp is well setup and with Mathew on the handlebars now, you’ll really enjoy your stay. Check it out.
We’ve watched this place over the last year or so but it just gets better and better. The food is consistently good and its a neat place to stop.
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Nice Parking area
There is one Motorhome park on the gravel but there is also plenty of solid lawn parking for Caravans and Motorhomes while you visit.
The “Style Shop” 🙂
It is right on the turnoff to Thames on Highway 27 as you’re heading towards Thames. Turn left at the Thames turnoff coming from the motorway and its on your right.
There is plenty of parking. There is a kids play area for the nippers, great food and reasonably priced. Style shop is there too in a seperate building, for the Mums to load up while Dad soaks up the sun outside 🙂 … a dress shop 🙂
Fiona’s Date Scone
Nice outdoor area
An easy guide to Coromandel
Playground for the young ones
We stopped here on the way to catch up with friends at Coromandel for a scone and a cuppa. Although we were early, around 10:30ish, it was just getting busy so its good to see they’re doing so well.
Its amazing who you meet and what clever things they do to their motorhomes to make them work better for their lifestyle. During the recent Dethleffs Owners group meeting at the Classic Car Museum in Hamilton, I was fortunate enough to meet Walter and Nolina from Taupo and to see some of the clever things they have done to their Dethleffs Esprit.
Don’t forget you can click on the images for hi res !
Walter lying across the bed showing the top of the laundry chute.
Walter saw the need to have somewhere to put their laundry. In almost all the centre island bed Dethleffs models, there is a shelf which extends about 800mm along each side of the bed from the back wall.
In mine I have a speaker and some usb jacks for phones and ipads etc.  Walter very cleverly decided to use his on one side to install an opening round marine hatch which opens to a chute which Nolina made, that drops down into the garage underneath. The bottom of the chute detachs as a bag to cart away the washing. Fabulous idea and a great way of getting the washing out of the way.
The chute in the garage with the detachable bag.
That’s an idea I’m going to use 🙂
They have also made use of waste space under a seat and in a cupboard for a glasses case and a drinks cabinet under the seat.
Nolina with the drinks cabinet.
Great stuff! A great use of what could otherwise be wasted space.
It is always a great occasion once a year when the nations Dethleffs owners get together for a catchup all in one spot. Its a good opportunity to see what others have done to their vans to make their motorhoming more fun.
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View from the Museum
This year was the biggest yet with 75 motorhomes and caravans which made life interesting to yours truly and my old friend Gary from Taupo to get them all parked. We had a lot of fun as we did it with little walkie talkies that Gary had. The hard part was not being able to have a chat with everyone as they came in, that had to wait for later. As they all had the same sided habitation door, we decided we’d park them in rows with the doors facing together on a 3 metre space and the opposite side being a 4 meter space so that people could escape without skittling tables and chairs etc and it worked really well.
In the social laneFrom the road .. impressive.
The first 40 odd arrived on the Friday and everyone settled in, met old friends and checked out the car museum. The car museum is fabulous. We visited this last March and had a good look through. You can see that here. There are all those cars that we had as kids, the Mark 1 Zephyrs, the Prefects and a lot older. It really is something to see. Outside is normally a NZMCA POP where you can stay overnight and it was nice to see friends Marama and Karen pop in for the night.
After getting back to HQ at the museum, it was open home for motorhomes so a quick vacuum and a tidy up of Rafe and it was visits all around. Lots of fun and it was nice to see people we hadn’t seen for a long time.
Open Homes
At 6pm it was time for a drink in the Marquee and a feed in the Diner which was immediately followed by a great display of the local rock n roll dance club and they were fantastic.
Slightly blurry cell phone pic!
We finished up the day with Dianne and Gary with friends Ian and Lynda in their XLI right next to us. A lot of fun and we had some great laughs.
Ian and Lynda’s XLI on the left, Rafe on the right.The way there from Rafes tracker
A great day and well hosted by Mr and Mrs Dethleff in NZ, Jonas and Irene Ng. Thanks guys and thanks to Dianne for organising  a great day out.
And the Netspeed speed test from this site.
Test Date: 12/11/2016 5:14 PM
Download: 40.43 Mbps
Upload: 12.35 Mbps
Ping: 34 ms
It was nice to see Chris and Margaret and the others from the forum www.nzmotorhome.co.nz, many that I’ve never met before. Andrew and Debbie from Tauranga, nice to see you too. Given the weather was pretty naff, it was good to see such a good turnout.
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Motorhomes and Caravans as far as the eye can see. Click on the image to enlarge.Interesting power setup
Hundreds of vans parked everywhere and all shapes and sizes. I went for a bite of a wander to have a look for some of the more unusual looking or big/little Motorhomes.
It was also good to see my friends from Miranda, Marama and Rob and also Karen from the Motorhome Friends Facebook page with their Trailites. We were also joined by our fulltiming friends Chris and Gary. Good to see them too.
Many had multi day passes to the show and were in and out every day.
Chris and Margarets Jayco and the Forum Overnighters
Most were there for the full duration of three days. Nice too that so many recognised Rafe and came up to say hello and we could put names to faces. It’s always nice to meet you and get your feedback.
There were zillions of Motorhomes everywhere you looked for the rally. A great turnout. I was lucky to get a spot in close and chose to get a powered site.
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Rafe all plugged in and cosy
It was well organised and the power was nicely laid out for each site.
On with the show . Â I was really taken with one of the smaller Dethleffs Caravans called the C Go where there were bunks in the back which folded away for extra storage with outside garage access as well. Very clever. These are 7.7m long overall and are 1220kg tare weight and cost $53000 and perfect for a small family.
Dethleffs Cgo Caravan
Dethleffs Cgo Bunk area from inside with the bathroom.
Dethleffs Cgo Garage with the bunks.
The Dethleffs Cgo
Frankia T7400 Bedroom
Frankias T7400 Bathroom
Frankias T7400 living space
Frankia T7400
On display this year as well were the new Frankias. The one I saw was the T7400 which had two single beds with a pull out section which made one big massive bed.
Nicely appointed with a roomy social area at the front. They’re on a Mercedes base and are $190.000.
It was nice to see two Motorhome Friendly towns with stands for their towns, Whanganui and Kawerau, encouraging Motorhomers and people to visit.
Wanganui
New this year is Vantage Rv’s Ute based, go anywhere fold out camping setup called Ute-Opia Camp Canopy which fit on your ute. They start at $7000 and come with as little or as much as you want. Their new Alden dishes which automatically unravel themselves when you simply turn on your TV.. Very natty. They also sell and install the Netspeed Motorhome Broadband system. You can see more of these products at www.vantagerv.co.nz.
The Ute-Opia and the Alden Dishes
I was also impressed with the new Jayco Silverline caravans with the pop outs. I was talking to my friend Chris who has one and apparently the new pop outs with Jayco are now leak proof and dust proof and reliable so that’s great. Heaps of room with high suspension and built for the Aussie rough roads will go anywhere. They seem to be reasonable value too in the late $90k ‘s for the one I looked at.
Jayco Silverline
Jayco Silverline Bathroom
Jayco Silverline
The Kampa Awning on the side of an Autotrail
Inside the Kampa Awning
Dethleffs XLI
In the garage of a Dethleffs XLI
The eating area
Kawerau
Electric Bikes
One of the things which was notable this year was the new Kampa air awning room which clips on to your Motorhome or caravan to create a room outside. This one is inflatable and simply blows up and comes complete with opening windows, blinds and insect screens for $1600 approx. Thule and Fiamma also make similar types of this which clip on to your awning.
My only concern with all these was that in most Motorhomes, the fridge is by the habitation door which is covered by these awnings so how does this work with freedom camping and with the Gas exhaust from the fridge.? Â They’re a fantastic idea and a great way to increase useable space but so far when I’ve asked the question from several retailers, no one seems to have an answer. Â If you’ve got the Grandkids out in them for the night, you would want to be plugged in somewhere with the gas off or have a big window open. As I say, a fantastic idea but some caution required if people are sleeping in them.
The Pavilion was full with exhibitors which was great and most that I talked to on the first day, we’re having fun and selling plenty so that’s great.
The Campercare stand.
The Pavilion ended with a great Food Hall area with the usual chips, drinks and other food vendors. One vendor there had fried bread with cheese and spring onion with cream cheese which was lovely.
Plenty of Motorhomes
It’s seemed to all run like clockwork and was a well presented show.
A huge carpark in front and although it was busy with cars, there were plenty of big spaces to make easy parking for a large motorhome like Rafe.
Rafe snuggled into a park
I stopped to take some piccies outside and wandered in to a big cheery welcome from owner, Glenda and her team.. nothing beats a great welcome.
Nice food, nice people, reasonable pricing and lots of Bugger bits around the wall encouraging good humour. Their line is “Laugh a little” which you can see everywhere and its infectious.
One of my first ever camps that we tried with both Wee Rafe, the little caravan we had and with “Big Rafe” was Miranda Holiday Park on the Firth of Thames waterfront.
It’s not too far if you forget something crucial and it’s not too far if you have a catastrophe and it’s got an amazing Hot Pool. Those who have been reading my ramblings with know how I like the odd Hot Pool!
With nothing in the book and our second annual services complete, I was out of town. My first thought .. Miranda and I thought it was probably time I did a story on it too.
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There is one thing that many Holiday Parks get wrong is the placement of trees. Whoever designed Miranda obviously thought about it as there are only two parks where you can’t get TV due to a tree being in the way. Fantastic.
One night it was pretty winy and this chap slept right through it.
Nice big holes to park in and mostly Gravel for Motorhomes and some grass ones.
Fiona enjoying the pool
Plenty of trees for shelter, a mini golf course, a bmx track for the nippers, a volleyball court, a tennis court, a massage person and of course the hot pool.
Even the scooter
The Tenting contingent. Brave souls.
The pool
The Kitchen / Barbeque area
Playarea
Doggy Dump station
Back packers cabins
Bmx track
Mini Golf
The Newly developed area at the back
The showers are superb and are timed but very generously means you always get one., and there are plenty of them.
There are a mixture of rentable chalets and Apartments which look good too.
The Pets area outside
There is also a pet section which is outside the main camp but within easy walking from the pools and showers etc.
Behind is the famous Miranda Hot pools and a fantastic Fish and Chip shop so you don’t have to drive to Kaiaua. An all round easy camp staffed by nice people.
We were on our way home from Taupo after catching up with friends and we’d had a warning that the whole of the country was in for the bash from the weather.
The redoubt with the town behind. You can see the RV park with the grey building.
The redoubt, Pirongia behind
Mt Pirongia behind
The ablutions
The parking
A nicely set up RV park but it is really a carpark with powerpoints and a toilet block. The cost for us was $25 for the night. $10 for us and $15 for the power. If we wanted to use the onsite dump station, that would be another $15 and the showers another $5 each.
It was explained that the dump station had to be emptied on a regular basis and trucked into Te Awamutu hence the charge.
My thinking was that although it wasn’t waterfront or top ten standard, it was perfect for sheltering for the night or passing through. It is also very central with the town only a few minutes walk away.
We decided to use the free dump station at Drury as we were heading that way but there is also a free one at Te Awamutu and we used our own shower.
Not a big park but perfect for passing through.
It was nice being on the gravel and plugged in as the weather really laid it on. Lightening and thunder and lots of rain. It was an interesting night with some good puffs of wind and plenty of action from the sky but we felt nicely tucked in and sheltered.
Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.
Bugger It, we are off - www.buggeritweareoff.com 
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