This was Pete’s first rally with his new Dethleffs Black Magic so it was great to see the Kiwi ingenuity being applied to his van.
There is a notable absence of anywhere in the Ducato cab for holding coffee. Pete decided this had to change and came up with a nice tray with locking blocks underneath the hold it between the two front seats on the seat arms.
Clever use of dead space and with the use of matching vinyl from the floor and a nice wooden surround, it really looks the part.
This is Richards second year at a Dethleffs owners rally so it was nice to catch up again. Being the clever chap that he is, he significantly upgraded his dining area with a new table. Looking at the photo again, it looks like it might be Kauri. Very Nicely done!
A thing of beauty.
After a great day of meeting new people, swapping notes and checking out new Motorhomes, everyone arrived at the Miranda Motorcamp outdoor kitchen. While most continued the chat over a cold orange juice, a BBQ fry up was under way by Owen and his team representing Jonas and Dethleffs NZ. They did a magnificent job of cooking for over 80 people. Thank you Owen, Jonas and Dethleffs NZ for providing the great food and for another great event.
A surprise for the evening was the presence of a team from Mecatronics and Kiwisat in Italy who supply the bulk of the Dethleffs TV antennas in NZ.
Enjoy the Gallery and remember to select the images for hi-res images.
After the tidy up, many retired to the hot pool in the Campground.
This morning, many left to head home to all over NZ but there are quite a few staying on. More tomorrow!
A great showing of hardware, nice weather, lots of happy faces and gatherings of like minded people swapping notes and enjoying their Motorhomes. 
Miranda Holiday Park is a great venue and is chocker with Dethleffs. I’m looking forward to a swim in the hot pools later.
Enjoy the images.
Don’t forget to click on each image to get the hi res version
It I s interesting to see innovative improvements made by owners to their Motorhomes. I’ll post more on these over the next few days.
Last year, we had 24 odd Motorhomes attending, this year it is more than 40! What will it be next year.
Now into their third Motorhome, they’ve really gone for the best and I think it’s safe to say, they’re pretty chuffed with it too.
Their new Dethleffs XLI is just the business. At 8.7 metres and 5 tons, there is plenty of room and a payload for Africa.
The Garage across the back is enormous and the brochures show a scooter standing upright in it, I think you would probably fit two in!
The shower and toilet area is divided from both the main bedroom and dining area by two sets of doors, effectively setting it upas an ensuite and it’s very nicely done.
A really nice machine , and I’m pleased that they’re back on the road enjoying their Motorhome.
We were up early to be joined by Dianne and Gary to watch the All Blacks play Namibia.. What a great first half and great that Namibia scored a try. The second half. Well !
A walk up to Raglan town across the foot bridge was next on the agenda so we crossed the footbridge from the campground to the town and checked in a one of the cafes for breakfast. A tour around the crafty shops and although I’m not a great shopper, I was on my best behaviour😜
Raglan has an amazing wharf area with a great fish shop. There is also what Madam thinks is the best pottery and jewellery shop around. We stopped for a cup of tea and watched some fishermen repairing their nets.
There is an old silo there which has been turned into flats.
We set a course for home and Gary and I had a crack at getting the NZMCA kml tikes into his Gps.
After an anxious hour or so after the Nav software wouldn’t play the game on Gary’s Mac, I remembered where the files went and we managed to set the path and install the files manually… We hadn’t buggered it up after all.😀
We celebrated with some great fish and chips in the new XLI with a glass or two of something cold😎
Today we’re off to Marton to meet Gary and Chris for the trip to Wellington.
It’s great to be on the road.. As I suspected might happen… Forgetting something important…, we got as far as the city and had to return to Devonport to send out my September invoices ..😗… That set us back half an hour for doing a job on the way for a Wellington customer,…on a farm at Glen Murray. ..it didn’t really matter at the end of the day..we’re on the road and away .. Yay.
We arrived 40 minutes later and got some nice images .. Rafes first visit to a farm and getting the designer dirt treatment😀
The Gps then had a moment where it took us the back windy way from there to Raglan where we caught up with our friends from Taupo, Dianne and Gary in their new Dethleffs XLI. Great to see them again.
Dianne had arranged for us to stay at the Raglan Motorcamp which is on a peninsula virtually surrounded by water with a footbridge into town so we’re looking forward to checking that out later… More on this tomorrow.
On Saturday, we cruised up to see our Motorhome friends, Rob & Helen at Snells Beach .
It was great to have a meal with them before we all visit the South Island later this month. We are hoping to catch up with them down there too.
We parked the van at the end of their road at the Northern part of the beach.. a lovely spot and the weather was playing the game albeit with plenty of wind.
Catching up with Rob and Helen and hearing their plans for the South Island was great fun. We last saw them at the Kai Iwi lakes rally in July.
We’ve stayed here at Snells beach before but were in the “middle carpark” further down the beach and there is a third carpark as well for motorhomes.
Apparently some of the locals around the middle park have been getting agitated about some of the behaviour from some of the Freedom Campers in their patch.
Unfortunately with the huge growth in Motorhoming, most councils want to provide freedom camping which is great. The trouble is, many are providing the space but not policing it effectively. As a result, the “mattress vans” and non compliant renters and cars are ruining for everyone by not playing the game and “freedom camping” generally is seen as a blight in their backyard.
It’s a shame that the irresponsible few are going to bugger it up for many who are playing by the rules.
We woke up early and went for a walk along Snells beach to the other Motorhome parks and it was all looking really nice ..A few vans in each and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
They’re a very friendly lot up there .. all the dog walkers saying hello or good morning and smiling away.. A really nice place to stay looking out at Kawau Island.
As the posts here are a bit infrequent at the moment, if you click Follow at the bottom, you’ll be notified of a new post to save you checking in. 🙂
Saturday was a big day… starting with launching my old ex Whalechaser now being looked after by my sons after they’ve literally repainted the whole thing.
Click on the photos to enlarge
After parking her in the berth, we were off in Rafe to the Grandkids in Ardmore to babysit. I’m always very careful going up their 1/2 k odd long driveway as the trees and shrubs at the gateway lining it grow like weeds and reach out to try and scratch Rafe. Alex and Sarah had given them a good haircut so all good.
After a good night parked in the corner, we woke up to the family tradition on Fathers Day of chocolate fish.. yum first thing in the morning 🙂
After a cup of coffee and breakfast, we both felt that a hot swim might be the order of the day and neither of us being ready to go home, so we thought a decent drive, Te Aroha hot pools, 120 odd K away.
Rather than go the way we always go, via Maugataroto, we thought we’d try down State Highway 1 on the motorway and turn off at Ohinewai through to Tahuna. What a great run too apart from taking a wrong turn and adding 15 minutes or so to the trip.. no harm done.
Checking in to the Te Aroha Holiday Park, just on the South Side of the Town itself was easy. $34 for the two of us with the NZMCA discount.. what a classic place. All the cabins are ex workingmens huts. In really good nick too.
Click on the photos to Enlarge
Today I installed a clever Fiamma clothesline that integrates with the bike rack we had installed a week or so ago. The nice part about it is it stays on the back, whether you’ve got bikes or not. It simply unfolds.
Perfect for the towels after a shower or the tea towels and flips out in seconds.
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