On our way to Wenderholm for a night, we stumbled across the Gypsy Extravaganza that was just packing up to leave the Orewa Beach park.
Click on the Gallery below to see an enlarged slideshow.
Unfortunately some had already left before I took these piccies but what a neat collection of vehicles.
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.
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.
I’ve just spent two great nights in the centre of Thames for free. As I first arrived, I met Dave and Janice, a retired couple from Taranaki who live in their well kitted out Caravan and were lots of fun. We were stuck inside for several hours when the heavens opened and spent it wisely having lots of laughs in their caravan. I met several other Motorhomers there too who wanted to have a look at Rafe and were keen to swap notes. Lots of fun.
The park is next to Goldfields shopping centre where there is a Warehouse, Pack N Save, McDonalds a KFC and numerous other smaller shops, everything you need. There are also a brand new toilet block and a playground as well.
It is one block from the Main Street of Thames, the Famous Brian Boru hotel and only a stroll to the Port of Thames and marina where I’m told is another of NZ’s great Fish and chip shops.
From a year or so ago when the Thames Coromandel district council were banning freedom camping and were being taken to court by the NZ Motorcaravan Association, it is fantastic to see a win win outcome where now, the TCDC are now one of the most proactive and better councils in NZ for providing freedom camping and managing it as well as they do. There are now great parks all over the Coromandel peninsula and it’s fantastic to see them now being enjoyed by self contained Motorhomers from everywhere.
A fabulous park, thank you and well done Thames Coromandel District Council.
While waking up this morning to another nice sunny day, I thought I should head out to Kawakawa Bay and have a cup of tea while the cockle gatherers were doing their thing. It’s also a bit more interesting that watching small planes come and go for another day. 💤
There were plenty of gatherers there too, making the most of the weather and getting down to business.
While there, I met an interesting couple with their newly built Motorhome who were trying to retire after giving their lifelong printing business to their adult children. There was a problem with a machine so they’d been summoned from their break down by Kaiaua, to sort it out! It was interesting swapping notes on how our respective but similar business’s had changed over the years with technology and changes in the economy.
After an hour or so there, I headed back to Ardmore. As I went through Clevedon, I kept seeing these signs saying “historic place 400m” so decided to check it out.
It turns out that the Wairoa River in Clevedon was quite a bustling place. There were warehouses, a sawmill and several other businesses on both sides of the river. They even towed barges with planes on them during the war from Hobsonville via “Port Clevedon” to hangers in Ardmore. Really interesting.
I had a quick walk around Clevedon before heading back to Ardmore MCA park for the afternoon.
When I returned, I found my next door neighbour in the middle of the grass, under his Toyota Landcruiser doing a lube and oil! A caravanner saving some money. Isn’t it funny what people choose to do on a hot day😎
Fiona was keen for another bike ride so after 2 great nights at Clifton Reserve, we headed into Clive. After the bridge, the bike lane started so we pulled into a driveway and got Fiona’s bike, helmet and basket off the rack and she was off… To Napier.
I got back in the truck and parked about 3 k’s out from Napier hill at a waterfront park. The bike lane went right last the park so there was a good chance I’d spot Fiona.
After about 15 minutes! I caught up with her on my bike and we both headed into town for a cuppa at the Masonic Hotel where we had stayed when we came to Napier two years earlier to buy wee Rafe, the caravan. See Wee Rafe.
After a quick look around the Masonic and the waterfront, we headed back to Rafe along the waterfront. I’d received word that I might have a job in Whitianga the next day. I would know later that day by text. We thought we’d better make our way to Taupo just in case so after a quick trip to the local dump station, we were off.
A couple of hours later after an easy drive along the Napier Taupo road, we arrived in Taupo. Some very good Motorhome friends of ours that live in Taupo had suggested we should consider parking in Ferry road along the waterfront. The wind was still going gangbusters so I was a little hesitant but so that Fiona could walk up to the shops and have a nosey, we stopped.
It was very busy with more and with more Motorhomes rocking in by the minute.
I got talking with some lovely people from Palmerston North in their newish FB Tracker AutoTrail. After some discussion of where we’d been and what we’d done, I told them the story about how we’d been through upper Moutere valley by Motueka and completely missed all the cheese factories, all the craft shops and all the art shops and how dark Fiona was afterwards. Of course it was the gps’s fault! Just as I was telling the story, there were two ducks on the Taupo waterfront literally ripping each other apart. A girl duck was ripping into a poor bloke duck. She had her beak around his neck at one stage. We were all stunned by the savagery. I said that I thought it was because he hadn’t stopped at enough craft shops. We all cracked up…
The text arrived. The job was on. We needed to meet at Kopu to be picked up to go to Whitianga at 9 am the next morning so we were off to close the gap. We headed for Matamata and I was allowed to get Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner as a treat .. Yippee.
We stopped at the Firth Tower. A fantastic spot just out if Matamata. $10 including power.
See our earlier blog on Firth Tower
We headed over to Featherston today despite the 100k odd gale warnings and it was quite an interesting trip! Martinborough is down in a basin lower that Featherston so I suspect that protects it against the big blows but once up on the Featherston plain despite heading strait into the wind, it was evil. The Van was all over the place. Slowing down to 65k odd helped but that was all we could do when were exposed in the sides.
We looked for a park so the van wasn’t side on and found the Fell Locomotive Museum right over the road. You could barely stand up in the wind so we thought we’d run for cover into the Museum.
What an interesting place. The steep grades over the Rimutakas ranges were such that they had specially designed Shunters that used a third rail to climb and brake.
Apparently, they used to get through a set of 8 brake shoes per loco for each descent and 4 for each brake van each descent! They had a cog driven wheel in each side of the loco of the centre rail that was wound in by the engineer and driven by the steam engine. It was held in by gigantic springs for the extra traction uphill. Apparently it worked really well. Each loco could deal with 3 passenger wagons or 4 freight vans depending on the weight and it was quite common to see 4-5 Shunters per train with passenger carriages and freight in between.
We were warmly welcomed by some nice chaps who showed us and explained us how it all worked and then shown to a theatre where we saw an early 1900’s film of the whole system working. Great film. Funny to see all the old clobber that people wore back then and really interesting.
If you’re in Featherston, check it out. At $5 a head it’s well worth the visit.
We visited an unnamed disappointing coffee shop after that, that interestly had its front door facing out of the wind ! Awful coffee and very average cakes.. That’s the first we’ve struck that bad on the whole trip so can’t really complain.
Given the wind was so bad, we headed back to Martinborough for our last night. Rugby tomorrow morning. All Blacks v France. Just as well I brought the sky card with us. We’ll head to Napier after that.
We left Rarangi about 10 on Wednesday and cruised up to Picton to catch the 2pm ferry to Wellington. The weather again was kind for a good crossing and by 5:45, we were cruising up Wellingtons main motorway heading for Fiona’s cousins in Raumati to join them for tea. After a great fun night with them, the next morning we left to head to the wine area around Greytown and Martinborough .
Remember clicking on the images will display them at hi resolution.
We spent the afternoon checking out the Greytown shops which must be one of the oldest done up towns around.
They’ve spent a lot if time and effort on doing old things up rather than knock them over and it looks great.
Later in the day we cruised over to Martinborough and checked into the Motorcamp.
The next day after breakfast and getting the bikes off the rack, we were off to check out the vineyards and Olive Oil. Martinborough is perfect for bikes as it is dead flat. Our only impediment was a stiff westerly wind but nothing our 10 speeders couldn’t deal with.
We found a boutique vineyard not too far from town called Margrains. After a great lunch in the sun, we checked out the cellar and due to people being on holiday, the owner was working the cellar. He was very knowledgable and a real character and was passionate about his business.
The Pinot Rose, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris were all amazing wines all with less sugar. The Pinot Gris was much drier as a result and was a superb and very drinkable wine:-) I ended up buying a mixed dozen of different wines which we’ll collect tomorrow with the van. A lot of fun and he wasn’t going to let me go until I’d tasted all 9 of his great wines. I was well and truly ready for a bike ride !
We headed from there about 4ks towards an Olive place so Fiona could grab and taste some Olive oil. So after 20 minutes or so of riding out if town, we came across our Olive place with a closed sign.. Bugger!
We rode back into town for a cup of tea, a visit to the 4 square shop and then made our way back to the van. A good day, nice weather and I’m looking forward to trying one if those wines over the next few days.
We were up early in Christchurch to get under way to Rarangi. The Gps suggested the trip was 330 odd k’s and about 3.5 hrs driving.
A quick visit to the dump station to empty tanks and fill up the potable water and we were away. The forecast suggested it would be wet by the time we reached kaikoura, the home of crayfish and whale watching. With light traffic and long straight roads, we were in Cheviot by 10:30! There is a Gallery and Cafe on the left as you come into Cheviot from the south that makes the best Chicken Filo with amazing pastry. If you’re in the area, try it, you won’t be disappointed. The coffee is great too.
After 30 minutes or so, we were on our way to Kaikoura. By the time we arrived, the weather was threatening to rain but almost everything was shut. I overheard one tourist after rattling a door to a closed cafe “what time to they get out of bed here?” Had to laugh but understood where he was coming from. Before we got to Cheviot, we’d stopped at both Greta Valley cafe and Dommett railway cafe to find them both closed with several vans and people wanting some service in the car parks.
Fiona went to the supermarket at Kaikoura which was open, and got some tatare sauce knowing we were looking for some crayfish.
The lady in the supermarket told her about Nins bins which was a caravan on the side of the road 20 k’s north of Kaikoura. By the time we got there it was pouring with rain but Fiona was in a sprint to get through the door to get her cray. The lady in the caravan was great. Fiona chose a cray, she cut it in half in the bench and tossed it into a frypan with Garlic Butter. It was delicious. We paired it off with some lemon, some beer battered chips and heaps of tartare sauce YUM! She even put it on our plates from Rafe so we could sprint back to Rafe through the rain and enjoy lunch.
After a cup of tea to wash it down we were under way to see the seal colony about 3-4 k’s away. The rain was a pain for my camera but we saw enough and got a few piccies so we were on our way to Blenheim.
We were making a return visit to a chocolate factory we visited on the way down and after this a craft centre which we drive past earlier that I promised we’d go back to. There was also wine tasting as well so while Fiona was doing the crafts, I checked out some nice Chardys and Pinots!
10 k’s away was our overnight stop at Rarangi, a DOC park on the water.
After settling in, we went for a walk up to the point and to Monkey Bay where there are caves have completely undermined the cliff with the water.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Picton to catch the ferry to Wellington to start our trip north.
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.
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.
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