Tag Archives: Extra Value Parking

Waikato

The Great bike ride on the Te Awa trail

It was Saturday morning, and it was time for a bike ride!

At our Dethleffs Rally at the Happy Hour the evening before, we had sorted out somewhere to go so it was all on! The bikes were organised and led by Tony and Neal, 14 of us headed down through Cambridge towards the river and the start of the Trail.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Our park at the Raceway

Some were heading all the way to Hamilton Gardens, some going to Tamahere to a Coffee Shop and others to the Velodrome.

The Bike group as we left

The Te Awa trail is all pretty new still but what an amazing setup. Because I went as far as Tamahere (40k round trip), I didn’t get to see all the flashest boardwalks over the river .. next time!

Amazing engineering

We left Cambridge at 10am and it took about 2.5 hours to do the round trip including a good stop for lunch 🙂 Very easy though on an electric bike.

I’d stupidly left my bike keys behind so couldn’t get my bike off the rack on the back of Rafe. The Kryptonite lock and cable is a force to be reckoned with, so it wasn’t even worth thinking about the grinder.

John very kindly lent me Kirsty’s bike as she wasn’t riding. The bike is fantastic but has an older electric system with a Turbo function which is a bit scary if you’re not used to it 🙂

The short version: I was about halfway along the trail when I came around a corner, but the turbo kept running quite a bit…   ending with a full lock up of the brakes sideways into these massive retaining poles onto my shoulder.

Looking down to the river

Chris was just behind me and immediately stopped and said something like “that might hurt” 🙂   Initially it didn’t really.   Back on the horse and we were off again 🙂

A stop half way

We were about halfway so by the time we got to the cafe; with my recently acquired sore ribs, I was looking forward to a rest.

On the way back

Although 14 started with us, several split off into different groups to go on to Hamilton Gardens or to the Velodrome.

Our crew on the way back

After about 20 minutes or so, we headed back to the Raceway…  a lot of fun and a nice ride with good company. Thanks again to John and Kirsty for the use of their bike. A great day and a fantastic place to ride.

Steve biking back
Looking down to the river

You can stay at The Cambridge Raceway if you’re a member of the NZMCA for just $10 a night so an easy base for the trail and you can go as far as you like in either direction.

See here for more information.   And for the Cambridge Raceway parking.

Rafe’s Tracker map to Cambridge Raceway – Armada GPS
Rallies, Waikato

Dethleffs 2023 Cambridge Get together

2 Comments

These events are always fun to organise and fun to be at too. Organising this was made a lot easier by some useful tips from Brian who runs the Frankia group after they had a Rally here at Cambridge. Vicky who runs the event management at Cambridge was very helpful too along with Amy who works with her. Thanks heaps to those people for making it easy.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Our park.

We all started arriving at the Racecourse around Midday and during the afternoon. As we were down in numbers from the Miranda do where we had 47 vans, we had 22 but I don’t think that we really had room for many more without splitting into two groups.  Apparently, there was more parking just along by the stables. It worked and was very easy. We had some big gaps between us which was great.

I was really pleased to see quite a few new people with new Motorhomes and first timers at an event like this. Nice to see you guys too.

We now have 322 members in this group. These rally’s give you a great opportunity to mix with other Dethleff Owners and pick to their brains, tips and tricks with storage, electrical stuff, all sorts.  So come and join us at the next one.

The Team .. click on this to enlarge.

As more people came in, there was lots of cruising around catching up with old friends and people checking on other Motorhomes. I even saw a few pairs of legs sticking out from under vehicles looking at things 🙂

An Interesting wrapped Dethleffs Esprit

Fiona was not feeling well so she decided to sit this one out and I made the stupid mistake of leaving all my bike keys behind so I couldn’t get my bike off the rack when the time came.

Kirsty and John very kindly lent me Kirsty’s bike as she wasn’t riding .. Nice bike and it was fun but there was an operator error oops 🙂 .. more on this later.

Lined up in the back row

That night, I had tea with my old friends, Walter and Nolina from Taupo who were parked right next door. The last time we caught up was at the Miranda do and it’s always nice to see them. They’re a lot of fun.

Happy hour
Happy Hour
Happy hour
Nolina at the Happy Hour

Then it was time to go the Clubhouse Bar to watch the Warriors game. I’m not sure why I think this, but I often think I’m going to see them lose but they played brilliantly and won. Fantastic. It was a really good game, and I might have to watch them more often like I used to.

Click on the Gallery below for an Enlarged Slideshow

Great Tshirt.. probably quite true too 🙂

The next morning, I was surprised how many people were up early.

The cyclists amongst us were organising ourselves and getting ready to go. After a team photo, we were off!

The Bike group as we left

We were heading to the Velodrome and Tamahere. More on the Te Awa trail soon.

Arriving back at the Racecourse, it was almost time for that “Elbow Exercise” again. We started in earnest all sitting around our favourite tree until the heavens opened up with a brief downpour which surprised everyone!

There was quick retreat to the room which was available to us for wet weather at the bottom of the grandstand. Very civilised with a bit of an outlook to the track.

Dusk

Then it was time for Tea where simply had to lock up and head next door to the restaurant. Nice food, good service although they were struggling with one of their tills which wasn’t playing nicely but it was a great evening. Everyone seemed happy and most retreated back to entertain friends in or outside their vans.

Thanks everyone again for coming.

After the meal from the Restaurant

It all went really well. Our next major get together will be in Miranda sometime in August. It’s a popular place and easy to get to and a nice park.

Rafe’s Tracker map to Cambridge Raceway – Armada GPS
Close to home, Waikato

A break away from the chaos at Kaiaua

The new NZMCA park has been open for a few months now but what a spot.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

The Park

After several weeks of dreadful weather and with Rafe just sitting on the pad, it was time to bust out while the weather was good.

The pub in the background

We set off about lunchtime and headed down the Motorway and headed out towards Miranda with hardly any traffic on the roads at all. Arriving an hour or so later with the sun streaming down, we parked up at the Kaiaua Park. It’s a beauty! With the Bayview Hotel right next door with a track through to the pub and the famous Kaiaua fisheries next to them, there is definitely no excuse for being hungry or thirsty 🙂

The Bayview Hotel next door

After a visit to the pub and finding them busy, we decided on Fish and Chips, and they were huge! I kept a piece of fish for the next day 🙂

Kaiaua Fish and Chips!

After lunch at the Hotel, which was fantastic, we headed off to Rays Rest for an hour or two. 

Click on the Gallery below for a look at Rays Rest

We have not been there since it was redeveloped by a storm a few years ago but it still looks pretty good to me.

Seafood Galore!

We decided not to stay though and headed back to Kaiaua and settled for a G&T at the Hotel.

The Marina

A fantastic park with room for Africa and having the Pub and Fish and Chip shop handy is a Real bonus!

Rafe’s Tracker map to Kaiaua NZMCA Park – Armada GPS
Close to home, Waikato

Rays Rest

A favourite free parking spot for many.. on the coast north of Miranda.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Lovely spot

This was probably one of our first parking spots when we first bought our Motorhome 8 or so years ago. Its handy to Auckland, its free and its easy.

Easy parking

If you want shops, museums and pubs, you don’t go to Rays Rest. This where peace and quiet happens with the odd sound of a vehicle whizzing past at 80 odd K.

Flying Kites .. perfect spot
Rafe on the edge

It’s a lovely spot to sit on a deck chair on the edge of the sand outside your Motorhome and watch the clouds go by.

People enjoying the sun

Its been a while since we were here and it was redeveloped by a big storm since our last visit but it still looks much the same. Just as good as it was.

Looking across to Thames

Well recommended if you live in Auckland, are finding diesel expensive and can’t decide where to go for a night or two.

Rafe’s Tracker map to Ray’s Rest- Armada GPS
Hawkes Bay 22

On the Run Home

2 Comments

We had been lucky dodging the worst of what was the storm Hale but the tail was alive and well.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

The iconic Lord of the Rings Isite centre in Matamata -iphone image

We decided to cut the trip a bit early and head for home via “somewhere in the Waikato”.  Fiona wasn’t keen on Te Aroha as there had been some earthquakes there so that narrowed things down a bit.

It was pouring with rain with some big easterly puffs of wind and generally pretty unpleasant.

Great parking

I found getting through Tauranga with its Motorway system changes is always a mission and twice before I’d missed the turnoff to get to the Kaimais before Mt Maunganui and today we did it again. This time we followed a motorhome in front to see if he knew another way through, but it ended up being a case of the blind leading the blind and 15 minutes or so later, we were back where we started. We eventually found a tollway though to the Kaimais and were away laughing.

By the time we got across the Kaimai road, we were ready to call it quits and my immediate thought were Matamata for a late lunch and then Firth Tower… nice and close and since it has been about 6 years since we’ve been there, we were well overdue for another visit.

Firth Tower

It’s a great place and now run by the Matamata Historical Society has changed a lot since our last visit. It’s well worth looking at our last visit as we the pictures I took back then had the benefit of some good weather 🙂

Some of the neat buildings from around the district

The Motorhome Parking is now marked out and with more Powered sites and a complete overhaul of the loos, it’s a great spot for overnighting. It was also blowing dogs off chains, but we were well sheltered behind some big hedges and trees.

Click on the Gallery below to see this amazing Museum Enlarged

In the McCaw House
In the McCaw House
The school
A corrugate Iron Roller
Firth Tower
In the tower

As I’ve said, the remnants of the storm were still with us, and it looked a bit grim but check out the pictures for an overview. Check out our previous visit 6 or so years ago for some sunshine in the images 🙂

Looking down through the mirk from the tower.

A great spot to stay and good value for $15 per vehicle including power and access to loos and really nice people too.

Rafe’s Tracker map to The Firth Tower – Armada GPS
Hawkes Bay 22

Sunshine, Biking and some new Vineyards

1 Comment

We woke up to another great day of sunshine and after cups of Tea and Coffee with Steve and Rosemary, we decided it would be better to move a little further down the road.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

At the Golf Club, Steve and Rosemary’s Esprit behind

We were heading to the Hawkes Bay Golf club so after a trip into Hastings to get some provisions and the dump station, we headed to the Golf Club.

Horse was the camp supervisor, and he very quickly had us sorted for a spot with some power. There were showers and Toilets too in the main building across the practice Tee.

We decided to keep it close today and not ride too far as it was predicted to get really hot. There were two vineyards close by that both had good ratings. Alpha Domus and Abbey rather than attempt the 25k’s odd the day before 🙂

From the parking area across to the Clubhouse and facilities

After leaving the golf club we headed for the closest one Abbey but before we got there, we bumped into some people biking away for some feedback and they said it was chocker being right on lunchtime, so we thought we’d head to Alpha Domus a bit further down the road.

At Alpha Domus about to enjoy some really nice Sparkling Rose.
Alpha Domus by the vines. Fiona Rosemary and Steve. – Iphone pic.

It was lovely there. Some nice trees in the carpark to chain the bikes to, a great sparkling Rose and some very helpful people. They didn’t have anything to eat so we settled for a couple of bags of chips. The Sparkling Beatrix Rose was a stunner, and it was very pleasant sitting in the shade on the edge of the vineyard.

At Abbey, Steve with his beer tasting.

After this we headed about 200 metres up the road to Abbey Vineyard and it was still pretty busy but what a great atmosphere. There was a band playing and it was alive and kicking 🙂

Steve did a beer tasting, Fiona had an upmarket Gin and Tonic and I settled for a Chardonnay and the platter we got between us was amazing.

Rosemary and Steve at Abbey
The Scene at Abbey

We spent a good hour or two here and then had a quiet ride back to the Motorhomes.

A perfect day in paradise… Steve and Rosemary joined us after tea in Rafe.  A fantastic day with good company.

Rafe’s Tracker map to the Golf Club via Provisions – Armada – GPS
Hawkes Bay 22

In the Wine Triangle

4 Comments

Leaving the Gentle Annie and arriving in Hastings, we arranged to stay at a Vineyard right in heart of the Bridge Pa wine triangle. There were Bike Trails almost to the front door of the Vineyard to any of the other Cellar Doors and Vineyards. We were in for a treat.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Looking out from our parking spot across the Vineyard

The Vineyard was also the home of Double of Quits Vineyard or as we called it Ali’s Bikes. Ali and her husband owned the 4 acres of vines of several varieties and also ran the Bike hire business from a big Barn. Alongside the Barn were 4 powered sites for Motorhomes.

We were perfectly positioned for a great day biking around the vineyards. The weather forecast was great, we were right in the middle of the vineyards, a perfect situation 🙂

On the bike trail to Trinity Hill

Early the next morning, I got the bikes off the back of Rafe and we were off. We headed off to one of the roads up by Roy’s Hill as we had seen Trinity Hill as we drove in.

We bumped into a group of people biking in the opposite direction to us and we stopped for a chat and a recce as quite a few of the vineyards were closed.  They had just biked from Trinity Hill and confirmed it was open so destination confirmed!

Fiona crossing the road outside Trinity Hill
Arrived !

We hadn’t booked but they were able to squeeze us in for lunch which was great.

I’ve always been a bit of a Chardonnay fan and they had what had recently won the best Chardonnay in the world in the International Wine competition, the 125 Gimblett and it was the best!

Rahil with the wine from heaven.

I did a wine tasting of three of their better Chardy’s and we had a platter between the two of us… It was just magic and the education on the wines was great too. Rahil was our man of the day telling us all there was to know about the wines. Fantastic experience.

Amazing Platter

After leaving there we headed back to Rafe and our park and settled down in the sun with yes… a glass of Chardonnay 🙂

We hadn’t long been back when we received a call from friends, Rosemary and Steve from the Dethleffs Owners Group in their newish Esprit GT.

Great to see them and we sat outside and enjoyed what was left of the sunshine for the day.

Storage at Trinity Hill

A wonderful day and so nice to be in a good spot to be able to bike around the vineyards.

Rafe’s Tracker map to the Vineyard showing Trinity Hill – Armada – GPS
Hawkes Bay 22

Taihape’s Gumtree

1 Comment

One of the major strategies of this trip was to drive across the Gentle Annie Road from Taihape to Napier. Fiona spent several years as a youngster living in Waiouru and did several trips across this road with her family to see her Grandparents who lived in Ongonga. It was then a gravel road which took some 5 hours, and in a Triumph Herald, that would have been fun!

The first things we did when we arrived in Taihape was to stop at our favourite Cafe Brown Sugar Cafe.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Plenty of space for their events. Toilets/showers on the left.

Fiona wanted to have a bit of a nosey around the town while took Rafe up the hill to the Gumtree Holiday Park which was an easy walk away.

Gumtree was originally setup as an area where Eve and her builder husband could have Eve’s Dance Studio, her husband’s workshop and room for their friends to stay. As time went on, they had some small events with their friends who bought Caravans, so they decided to go all out and set up the area for Motorhomes and caravans to stay. The end of the workshop houses a well setup Toilet and Shower facility and there.

Parked in the corner to get the breeze. The Taihape Airfield is just over the gully behind those big trees.

On arrival I was told to park anywhere on one of the 12 or so powered sites around the fence line and Eve would pop down and give me all the info I needed. Very easy.

It was really hot, so I chose to park in a corner where a nice breeze was coming across the gully nearby. I was the only one there at that time but by the end of the day there were 6 or so mostly Caravans popped in for the night.

Others came later

It’s a great spot and an easy walk down to the town.

Even though Taihape is only a small town, it is not blessed with lots of options for Motorhomes so it’s nice to know there was a nice camp with a reasonable tariff and friendly face within easy reach of the town.

Rafe’s Tracker map to the Gumtree Holiday Park – Armada – GPS
Hawkes Bay 22

A great place to stop – Tokoroa

2 Comments

What a pleasant surprise finding the Tokoroa Club parking area.

Click on any Image to enlarge

Excellent parking

Nicely partitioned away from the normal parking area with 6 powered sites.

The Bowling club next door

It is extremely good value for $10 and they’re really friendly people too.

Massive carpark with the Motorhome parking behind.

Their carparks are huge but at the back of their main carpark are the Motorhome / Caravan parks.

We arrived early in the afternoon, plugged in, opened the vents and went into the bar for a nice cold Gin and Tonic and paid for the park at the same time.

There was a storm due!

They do meals as well but you do need to be a member of a Club to be able to use the indoor areas.

The Club

A great spot for an overnight break.

Rafe’s Tracker map to the Tokoroa Club – Armada – GPS
Northland

Matakana Country Park Village

Thats exactly what it is too!  Set out over 50 acres with Restaurants, A Wedding Venue, A Chapel, a Pub, an Art Gallery, A Gym… the list goes on.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

Nice parking

On our way to see friends on the Takaka Peninsula, we’ve driven past here a few times to it was time to try it out and see the markets on the Sunday which is Fiona’s favourite thing to do.

I booked two nights as I thought Fiona was coming too but at the 11th hour, she came down with a germ and told me not to stay around. It turned out that I came down with it anyway a few days later!

At the ride on train station
The ride on Train

I arrived early in the morning on the Saturday and after getting settled in, I walked the 300 metres odd to the Cafe and central area. I was in the queue in the Cafe when good friends Mark and his wife Dinah arrived with Dinah’s brother Wayne.

The Cafe

I haven’t seen Wayne for years, so it was really nice to see them all. After a cup of coffee and something to eat, they headed off to a working bee at their place nearby.

Click on the Gallery below to see an Enlarged Slideshow

Inside Smiths, the pub.
Outside Smiths.
The Wedding reception area.
One of the Loos

After that, I went for a walk back to Rafe just as new neighbours were arriving.

I later went over to the pub to check it all out and it seemed there was a wedding on. Lots of people glammed up and had popped through from the adjoining wedding reception area.

The Gallery

I later met the General Manager Peter who was telling me that they had been absolutely dealt to by the rain and had all sorts of plans to upgrade the parking for the Motorhomes and add some new sites.

The Action Ninja World for kids

After a quiet drink with my neighbours, I packed it in for the night looking forward to the Markets the next morning 🙂

Rafe’s Tracker map to Matakana Country Park – Armada GPS