Bay of Plenty, Great Beaches

Step out to the Water

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Its the silly season and we were looking for somewhere to go.. many places jack up their prices in the hot spots, think $70-80 a night for two and good on them but we would rather go somewhere off the track than pay that and often its just as nice.

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Hot, Wet and just good fun!

We settled on Bledisloe Holiday Park at Little Waihi right on the water.. Just a magic spot and the prices were very reasonable .. 5 nights for just under $200 with power, beachfront parking, fantastic showers(free) and loos of course.

Plenty of Jandals

The camp was busy and slightly chaotic being New Year holiday period but what a spot!.

Fishing at the entrance to the Estuary

On our first day we took Rafe down the road to check out Papamoa. We were parked up on the hill in a Freedom camping spot looking over the beach next to the campground. Fiona was getting ready to go for a swim. I noticed some people all standing on the sand checking something out and there it was.. about a 3 metre shark swimming through the 2 nd breaker along the beach.

The view from Maketu Café towards the Mount.

There was a woman with her 2 yr old toddler just in the water running to grab him.. she also went down the beach further to alert other swimmers and I’ve never seen them get out of the water so fast. Needless to say, Fiona never made it into the water.

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Peace and Quiet
The Seafood Basket.
Baches in Little Waihi
Kids playing in Estuary

After the excitement there, we headed to Maketu where the famous pies come from but the shop was shut. We headed for the Café on the water which does an amazing Seafood Basket for lunch looking along the beach towards the Mount.

The Beach in front of us

After a great lunch we headed back to the camp and settled in for the next few days. We met some great people and I have to say, I really enjoyed the change for us of sitting in one spot for a few days and swimming, reading and just taking it all in.

Fiona reading her Ipad

A wonderful park in a superb spot. You can walk over the estuary at low tide to Pukehina Peninsular for somewhere else to explore.

Happy New Year !!

Rafe’s Tracker map to Little Waihi – Armada GPS

 

Bay of Plenty, South Island 2017

Happy New Year

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Where ever you are, I hope you’re having a great time (now that we’re allowed to) !

We’re in Little Waihi enjoying the water and doing very little 😃.

That’s Pukehina in the distance.

Happy New Year all and enjoy the time away.

Close to home

Merry Christmas

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Another year flashes by and we’re into Christmas again… fun times and sunshine.

We’re heading down towards Gisborne where we haven’t been for a while, so we’ll see where we end up!

Thanks to everyone for supporting the blog this year.

More Motorhoming while we can’t travel overseas.

Rafe looking Christmasy

Merry Christmas everyone and Fiona and I hope you have a great New Year… be careful on the roads and if you see us out there, please come and say hello.

Taranaki 2019

Origin at Otorohanga

We were staying in the reasonably newish Otorohanga NZMCA park which is only 800 metres to the Town centre.

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Otorohanga’s main street

One of the first shops we popped into was an Art Deco shop which had all sorts of stuff in it including quite a bit section on Steam Punk as well. Lots of Cloche hats and neat things.

Fiona with the poles outside the I site

A walk across the road and down through the Ed Hillary lane was a huge display of Kiwiana including a neatly displayed board of Kiwi slang and its American or English equivalent. Also there were old ads for wringer washing machines and reminders of the half pint of Milk at School. I was a milk monitor at the school I was at in Central Wellington so remember it well. Nice cold milk in winter for morning tea, Yum!

The Railway Station built in 1923 after the original burnt down

As you come out of the arcade at the other end is the railway station. We parked the bikes and went in for a couple of Latees. There we met Roger who owns the Origin coffee company that imports Coffee from their own farm in Malawi and brews it in the Railway Station. The coffee is fantastic. One of the best I’ve had for a while.

Fiona ordering coffees

Roger started Origin in 1999 and has gone from strength to strength since then. When you’re in the Station, don’t expect a big selection of food apart from Toasted Sammies and Cakes. The good news is, you’re welcome to bring you’re own food. Roger is keen to concentrate on the coffee 🙂

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The original Railway station built in the late 1880’s
The cafe with the roasting gear.
The Roasting equipment
Great parking

After half an hour or so of chatting to Roger and enjoying the Coffee, as we were leaving, the Auckland to Wellington Train pulled in… this is a trip I want to do as well.. looks great !

The Railway station with the North Island train in.

We biked back to Rafe at the park to think about when we can do that Train trip 🙂

Taranaki 2019

The Coastal Walkway

It was going to be a scorcher so we got the bikes sorted and headed from the Bell Block park down towards the Waterfront to join up to the Walkway.

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Fiona screaming down the hill to the walkway.

From the Bell Block park to the Wind Wand is about 20k’s round trip so its a good ride and you know you’ve used some muscles when you return 🙂

Coming up to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge

The Te Rewarewa ridge

The trip is mostly downhill to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge but its a fantastic pathway. Some of its boardwalk but most of it is a wide concrete path which eventually goes through the side of the Fitzroy Holiday Park. We stopped at the Kiosk for a cuppa and something to eat and then rode on to the Wind Wand. Great fun.

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The view from the bridge
Fiona on the bridge
Looking back at the bridge
Coming into Fitzroy camp
The Kiosk at Fitzroy
Looking towards the port
A train going under the path by the Wind Wand

There we left the waterfront to have a quick look at some shops and then headed back along one of the shopping streets and back down to rejoin the Waterfront.

Fitzroy beach

Just fantastic. A great outlook and apart from the uphill bit at the end going up through the houses was pretty easy. .. Well worth doing!!

Heading home

A couple of glasses of wine later with some neighbours in the park and that was us for the day 🙂

Taranaki 2019

Wow what a Park.

Another one from a few3 years ago.. Bell Block NZM<CA park had not long been opened.. great fun biking into New Plymouth.

As we drove Rafe down from Awakino, I was quietly hoping that we would be able to squeeze in to the new NZMCA park in Bell Block, just outside New Plymouth.

A panorama from the top

I needn’t have worried as when we arrived there were only about 4 vehicles there and as the day went on, more popped in.

One of the best Dump stations I’ve seen
Merle and Alan
Some four legged neighbours

Its a HUGE park and really nicely set out with the 3 metre spacers in the ground so no room for arguments. There is one of the best Double sided Dump Stations there with Fresh water dotted all around the outside perimeter of the park. With nicely smoothed out Gravel all over the park, there is no worries if the heavens open up. It just couldn’t get any better.

The view from the top

We rode into the City via the Coastal Walkway and it is a 20k round trip and was easy on our Huff’n’Puff bikes!!

Checking out the seat

Mt Egmont at Dusk

Another nice spot and the seat on the top of the bank is a nice touch too 🙂

The Netspeed Speedtest
Download: 16.55mbs
Upload: 23.48mbs
Ping: 49ms

Rafe’s map to the NZMCA park

Taranaki 2019

Amazing Museum

While we’re still effectively in lockdown  .. here’s a neat place we went to just out of Hawera a few years ago.. amazing place..

After leaving New Plymouth, we stopped in Stratford Countdown for some Milk and a few essentials and after breakfast and a look around, cruised on to the famous Tawhiti Museum.

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The Handsome Cab man

Started by a local very clever Artist, Nigel Ogle with his wife Teresa, they built this up using local friends and aquaintances to make their lifesized models faces and they look amazing. I love the expressions too.  In 1975, they bought the old Cheese factory where Nigel worked as a boy and this was the start of the Museum.

Looks like some I know 🙂

It is split into three Museums being the local history, the Traders and Whalers and the Bush railway.

The Accountant

Fiona and I elected to check out the Local History which took several hours. This could easily take the whole day if you elected to do all three.

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The Motorhome Parking
Being helped down
Sharpening
At the shop
The Accountant
The Butcher
A sing song
Oops priceless expressions
Outside
In the tractor and farm museum area
Old Military trucks
Our park
That amazing Mountain

The parking opposite is fantastic with plenty of room for Motorhome parking with separate parking for the cars on the sides.

Great Parking

There is also a well stocked Cafe on site with great Coffee too. A neat spot.

Lovely spot

We’ve decided already we will have to revisit and check out the other bits we missed but an awesome display that really is a must see.

Muller park

We went from here to the Muller NZMCA park in Hawera where we recognised several other Motorhomers who were parked next to us at the Museum! Isn’t it funny how great minds think alike 🙂

Rafe’s Track to Tawhiti Museum and onto Muller Park. The Museum is the Green Dot on the right!

Northland

With the Green things

We were heading north with no particular destination firmly set except we thought, maybe a night at Waipu and then a night the NZMCA park at Rainbow Falls if there was room.

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The traffic was unbelievable so we left the motorway at Silverdale and headed up Highway 16. I haven’t been up this was for a long time so it was a nice drive through. We stopped at the lookout spot looking out over the Kaipara Harbour just before Wellsford which was nice too.

Rafe at Caledonian park in Waipu

We arrived in Waipu and headed straight for our favorite spot at the Caledonian Park. There are only a couple of spots there where you can get a TV signal next to a power pole and we managed to snaffle one of them.

The next morning, the grounds people were up early to set up for the Scottish Games so we headed towards Kerikeri and after a cup of coffee at the Pear Tree Cafe by the Stone Store, we went to check in to the Rainbow Falls park.

This has to be one of the better parks being right next to a fantastic walking track with the Falls right behind.

Rainbow Falls park with the lighthouse

Just by chance, it happened that old friends Max and Jan were staying opposite us in their new Hobby Caravan so we joined them for a drink outside their caravan.

Max and Jan’s new Hobby with the wrap around sun glasses 🙂

The next day, we went for a walk down towards the Stone Store by the river but got half way down when we realised that we didn’t have a wallet between us for something at the other end so we turned around and headed back to Rafe.

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People at the falls
Swimming at the Falls
Easy walking down to the Stone Store (takes about an hour)
Along the river

A fantastic walk with people fishing in the river, lots of people out enjoying the walk and people swimming under the falls. It is really nice to see so many people out enjoying this fantastic park.

Dusk

We had just got back when my old mate Grant rang and he Dani arrived ready for a cold drink. Max and Jan arrived back at the park not long after (Dani’s parents) and joined us as well. Lots of fun and laughs in Rafe in a nice park.

If you haven’t been to this park, it truly is fantastic having some great walks, the falls and public loos just over the fence as well. The park is now at a point where almost half of it now has gravel down with the grass growing through and it looks great.

Rafe’s Track to Rainbow Falls Park

Martinborough, Shows

The Famous Martinborough Fair

We trekked back to Martinborough on the Saturday morning to a busy Martinborough rugby ground. There were Caravans and Motorhomes for Africa. It was the day of the Fair so people had come from far and wide.

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Back at the Park

The park was an amazing place and having gone to virtually having it to ourselves a weekend before with the Cruise Martinborough event to it being as busy as it was was great.

Friends Gary and Dianne, and Ian and Lynda went to Ngawi while we were in Greytown and they arrived back the day before. We met John and Yvonne from Ruakaka in their Dethleffs Nomad Caravan and they were here again too. It was going to be a fun weekend.

Fiona checking out the Jade

We all walked into town and had a good cruise around the Market. Where there were Hot Rods and Classic cars a week before, there were stalls in every corner. It was amazing.

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next door in the Park
This guy was fantastic
The food carts were popular

One of the things I really enjoy doing at these events is simply buying a lime thickshake and a bun and sitting in a street side cafe and watch the world go by. Its great fun.

The next door Neighbour.. Nice !

After a couple of hours of checking out every nook and cranny, we headed back to the park for something wet and cold. The wind finally dropped off a bit, but was bitterly cold. It allowed us to move out into the field where there was some raucous laughter amongst some dancing and singing along.

Out in the Middle

Cold !

A great day!

Rafe’s Track North from the park via the Dump Station

Martinborough

A Break in Greytown

Greytown is one of those lovely little towns that just oozes charm and is full of history.

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With up to 35C heat, we thought a trip to the Greytown pool next door to the wonderful little Greytown Holiday Park, well it would be rude not too! The pool is free being provided by the kind citizens of Greytown and it must be slightly heated as it was about 28 C in the pool!

The Gypsy caravan which you can rent at Greytown Holiday Park

The Holiday Park is fabulous with Ken and Nina at the helm. Ken is a real character and couldn’t be more helpful. At $35 for 2 with the NZMCA discount with power, it is very good value. And of course the use of the pool next door !

Fiona checking out one of the oldest Greytown Cottages in the Museum

We were both keen to check out the Shoc Chocolate shop which is almost part of the local Museum.

Inside the Cottage

The Cobblestone Museum is amazing and has a collection of several of the oldest buildings in the area.

The original Cobblestones

There were also a few clever people in the area. One called Donald Donald who invented the wool press and got world wide patents for it. This is back in the late 80’s. He was also well know for inventing a wire fence strainer amongst other things.

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Inside the school house
The Schoolhouse
The inside of the Church
A Church in the Museum
Donald Donalds barn at the Museum
Rafe in the Greytown Holiday Park

A local Church, Hospital, School House and others were well set out in an area where there was originally the Transport Hub for the area with the original cobbles still intact.

A very mod front entrance of the Museum

And afterwards.. the Shoc Chocolate shop was a great place to stop too.

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.