With the Covid Germ still out there still and it stifling our travel plans, I thought it would be a good time to revisit our month in Europe in a Motorhome following friends Gary and Dianne a few years ago… about 15 odd posts!
Enjoy
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We were early to check in to the Lamb Hotel so we went for a wander around Ely...After checking out the Cathedral which is massive, we headed down the main street towards a market.
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Inside the cathedral
The buildings are amazing and the streetscapes just sensational. Everywhere you looked, there was a piccy.
The cathedral at Ely
We ended up in a pub called the Ministers Tavern right opposite from the cathedral and the Lamb Hotel along the road a bit. The barman was wearing a Lions rugby jersey and when I asked for a Chardy, he described it as cheap aussie stuff so I was really pleased to be able to tell him we were Kiwis but I’m sure he knew anyway.
Our friendly barman with the Lions jersey.
He was more interested in telling us that the Lions beat the Maoris with a huge smile on his face.
We talked briefly about the Lions tour and he was a real rugby follower. Nice guy too. He was pleased when I told him that the cheap Aussie Chardy was actually quite nice! It was the only Chardy he had! We checked in at a wine shop around the corner and they seemed to be light on the Chardonnay offerings too.
The main street
The markets down the road
The friendly pub where we had a chardy with Lloyds bank next door
A house near the cathedral
The cathedral
It was too hot for wandering around much more so we went back to the Hotel for a blob.
With the Covid Germ still out there still and it stifling our travel plans, I thought it would be a good time to revisit our month in Europe in a Motorhome following friends Gary and Dianne a few years ago… about 15 odd posts!
Enjoy
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The night we’ve been packing for finally rolled around and we were off to the airport for our almost midnight flight to Singapore from Auckland. We’d dropped the car off with daughter in law, Sarah earlier in the day and caught a shuttle to the airport.
What we didn’t know was that both of our sons, Drew, his girlfriend Jenna and Alex were on the same flight up from Wellington. We could have driven our car to the airport and they could have driven it home.. never mind. The shuttle was booked and paid for and it was too hard to undo.
At Singapore with our A380 about to take us to London
We left Auckland at 11:55 and about 2am, we both finally got some sleep. I find it really hard to sleep on a plane and dozy bouts is as good as it gets. I end up tired and grumpy at the other end and after a decent sleep, I’m right again:-)
Arriving at Changi at 6:30 odd, we had two hours before the next flight left at 9am. .. 13 hours !!
Both flights was pretty good though. I was watching the flight track and it was interesting to see that we flew over India and then up through Tajikistan and across to Moscow, out to the Baltic sea past Vilnius and then down to the English channel to Heathrow. .. well clear of the trouble spots!
The terminal transfer Train
Arriving at Heathrow was a doddle and what a massive airport. 5 Terminals all connected by trains in tunnels and you walk for miles between things.
Just to get our luggage was a hike through several buildings. I was expecting to get our bag and then go through Immigration. Not here.. you get in a queue, yep, they love their queues and once through Immigration, you get your bag. There wasn’t any customs that I could see.. we simply walked out, amazing. The immigration guy was a great guy and was more interested in having a chat about some of the strange photos he’d seen of people coming through than holding up a big queue 🙂 .. nice guy.
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We were both knackered and made our way straight to the airport Hilton (terminal 4) where we were booked for the night and crashed.
At Paddington with the amazing roof
The next morning, we were up early and caught a train to Terminal 3 where we caught an Express train into Paddington station.
People going for it at Paddington
Paddington is amazing with one of the big wired WW2 looking hanger structures over the whole platform area. Just like you see in all the old movies. Great for piccies so I took a few here. It was busy too with people everywhere.
The huge shopping area in Terminal 3 at Changi
Waiting for the Express to go to Paddington at Heathrow
The Baker street sign
Busy at Paddington
We caught another train from here to Kings Cross and then changed again to catch our prepaid train to Ely. Kings Cross station is very like Paddington with the huge Hanger like look .. amazing.
A visitor from Hawkes Bay checking out the Baker street sign
On the way to Cambridge was the Baker Street stop. My immediate thought was Sherlock. When we stopped, the double entrance doors perfectly lined up for the Baker Street signs and while I took a piccy a young girl wandered into the shot to photograph it herself.. all this without getting out of my seat ! My lucky day.
After lunch, we rocked into Ely. A few trains, cabs and stuff but we’re here and its fantastic.
We’ve had a month or so of being housebound mostly due to Rafe’s Bumper project and also a full annual service. Getting it back meant we could escape !
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Rafe in the park with newly painted bumper!
Coromandel is somewhere we both thought would be great for a few days before Fiona had to return to work. We only had 4 days so we figured somewhere not too far and where we haven’t been for a while!
NZMCA park
The Thames Coromandel District Council are making some great improvements on the coast rd from Thames. Every time I come up here its different. This time they’ve widened the road north of Waiomu.. there are still plenty of narrow bits but I saw they’re dealing with some of those too.
Star and Garter pub
We arrived in Coromandel early in the afternoon on a Sunday so many of the shops were shut. The important ones like the bars and one of our favorite ones, the Star and Garter was open and they had a special on Gourmet pizza’s $10.. that was us for a late lunch!
After a walk around the town, we returned back to Rafe in the NZMCA park.
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Home of the first National Bank
Where i was introduced to my first Husband Waiting chair 🙂
Neat buildings
The local butcher shop
You never get sick of Coromandel, the charm of the shops, even though most were shut as it was a Sunday, there were people wandering around and all of them very friendly. It has a great atmosphere with all the old buildings and everyone seems happy to have a bit of a natter.
We called in to an Metal Art shop which backed on to the NZMCA park and bought an amazing sculpture of leaves made using recycled parts of copper hot water cylinders. Clever use of old materials.
Where i was introduced to my first Husband Waiting chair 🙂
Later, it time to go down to get Fish and Chips for tea and we headed back to Rafe for the night.
A great Day in Coromandel town, it never disappoints !
Another one of those towns that we keep coming back to. The food and shopping is good, the real estate prices like everywhere else have skyrocketed but it is still a lovely little town.
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The Sun is out
We checked in at the local campground as we’ve stayed there a few times before and the manager Ken can’t do enough for you. It is also a Winter Campsaver site so that makes it very cost effective in the off season. Nice showers and toilets and nice flat sites with big high hedges to protect against the famous Wairarapa winds. There is also a swimming pool next door run by the council which you can use in the hot months.
Ken was very welcoming and basically is was park wherever you like. We settled Rafe and plugged in and went for a walk into town and started at the french Café for a coffee before moving on to the pub.
That night when we got back, we met our new neighbours Michelle and Patrick from Wanganui and other neighbours Karen and Ian who have recently sold their award winning Olive Grove. Juno Olives. Really nice people who we spent a lot of time with over the next few days.
Play Area
The next day, we took Rafe to Martinborough to have lunch at one of our favourite Vineyards, Margrains. The Chardonnay is fantastic as is the food.
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Margrains Vineyard
Martinborough shops
Fiona in Martinborough
The Sun is out
Play Area
The Reception and toilet and Showers
Historic Cottage
We started in the main square at a Café in the corner and from there walked around the square to check out the shops. Fiona took a shine to a dress shop there and ended up buying a nice black dress and a wooden necklace to go with it which looks good. We then moved on to Margrains and the slow cooked Pork Belly they do has never tasted better. Nice to wash it down with a great Chardy!
The Pub in town
We headed back to the Greytown Campground to catch up with our neighbours.
On our last day in Greytown we were going to bike up a trail 10 k’s or so to a historic railway station just out of town but we got to the other end of Greytown and it started to pour with rain so a change to plan B. ..
We spent the rest of the day walking through the shops and later had a fantastic communal meal in Michelle and Patrick’s awning with our neat neighbours.
One of the nice things I find about getting out is finding all the little out of the way places you can stay for not a lot…. in other words very good value. They may not be perfectly flat or lacking in something but they make up for it in spades with their charm and beauty.
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Ekatahuna is one of those camping grounds. Great showers, toilets and with power and a well equipped kitchen for those who want them, it is surrounded on three sides by river and is just a stunner.
There is a Heritage walk to the town which is only 5 minutes away.
We arrived in the mid afternoon and checked in and we simply just parked in the middle of the grass. Fiona and I settled opened up some vent, plugged in and we were off to check out the walk around the camp by the river.
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Left ove Suspension supports
The walk to the River
Amazing Trees
The Ablutions block
Out on the Grass
The Park
The Council cuilding
The remains of one of the end supports of an old swing bridge that went across the river as a short cut to town is buried in the trees and can still be seen.
The River surrounding the park
There is a cabin there too which you can stay at and its all very casual and relaxed.
A great place to stop over and quiet too.
Rafe’s Tracker map to Ekatahuna Campground – Armada GPS
Since we’ve done our DNA, I’ve taken a great interest in things Scandinavian as it turns out that I’m pretty much all Scandinavian through my fathers line with an emphasis on Danish!… even though his Dad was from the Fens in the UK… real Viking country 🙂 it is really interesting.
So we couldn’t go past Norsewood without popping for a look and having lunch at the Café there. The food is amazing as is the coffee.
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The Cafe – ex BankThe Food!The Cafe
Norsewood was settled by many Scandinavian family’s who arrived in Napier in 1872 and it grew from there. You can feel it everywhere you look and the area is predominantly still populated by descendants of these original families.
Gas Station / General Store
There is history everywhere you look. The Café used to be the original Bank of NZ and has been used as a Barbers shop, the local Doctors rooms, Music teacher and lastly a Café.
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The old Post office
The Pub
part of the Museum
Museum
Over the road
There is also a Viking Longboat in a glass encased shelter down in the reserve on the corner.
The Viking Longboat
After a walk around the town and a stop at the Norsewear Clothing shop to buy some shirts we got under way again. One of things at the Norsewear shop is that if you spend more than $10 there, they’ll give you a pair of nice wooly bedsocks in either black or white adorned with either Caravans or Motorhomes. Fiona went for the white Motorhome socks and they look very cosy.
The “Wooly Socks” shop
A neat town and there is a camping ground there too if you want to stay. A neat wee town just oozing character and history.
Our friends from Christchurch, Rory and Henny were in town for the NZMCA AGM Rally with their friends from New Plymouth so it was a must for me to catch up with them as they had seen Fiona during a shopping trip, but I had missed them.
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Downtown Rotorua!
Rory and Henny and I met years ago when I was away on a blog hunting expedition on my own and we bumped into each other in Coromandel of all places. It turns out that Rory used to buy ice creams from my Grandfathers General Store in Diamond Harbour when he was a small boy. Later we worked out that he also knows some of my other cousins in Christchurch too.. small world 🙂
The UCC on the left and Rory and Henny’s new Burstner on the right
While parked down by the waterfront in a carpark, I thought I saw Rory and Henny roaring round the corner next to me and when I rang a few minutes later, it turned out it was them. They were heading for the supermarket and we arranged to meet after that.
Rory decided that we’d head over the a bigger carpark where we could comfortably fit three Motorhomes in while we had lunch without upsetting the car parkers.
Nice view
Rory had a plan and setup his near new Burstner Lyseo with Tony and Sheri from New Plymouth, with an area in between where could put out chairs and tables out for a bit a knees up for lunch.
It was really nice seeing them both again and also meeting their friends Tony and Sheri and their UCC Mercedes based Motorhome.
Lunch with a great view and there were lots of Motorhomes there, possibly having a break from the rally.
This was the main reason why we wanted to come to Rotorua. We moved Rafe to Cozy Cottage Holiday Park as it’s a bit less to bike! We’ve stayed here before some time ago and as they were doing a deal and because I’m a sucker for Hot Pools which they have, yippee, we’re in!
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Walking through Redwood Forest
Its also closer to the Redwood Park area. As it was Easter, the park was chocker but mostly with tents and a few Caravans.
The Tree walk
After checking in, we got the bikes ready and headed off to the Redwoods Forest area. Although we had a brochure with a map on the back of the Trail to get there was as clear as mud and we found ourselves having to stop and get directions a few times but got there and its a great ride just getting there once you know where you’re going 🙂
Fiona checking in
I waited with the bikes and got some pictures around it while Fiona did the walk. It looks great with platforms on the bigger trees with suspension bridges between. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour. There is also a night time walk you can do with the trees all lit up which comes free with the daytime walk.
Into the forest
After Fiona got back, we got on the bikes and opted to do the “Mokopuna” trail which takes you around an easy route through the trees and about 2/3rds of the way around there is an exit chute from the forest where you can head back into town for lunch which is exactly what we did.
Magical
On the way back we rode past the Racecourse where there were 600 odd plus mostly white Motorhomes enjoying the NZMCA Annual AGM. An awesome sight seeing so many parked in one spot.
After the walk and onto the ride.
After lunch we headed back to the Park for a hot swim after our 16 odd K’s ride.
A couple of years ago I went to the Tokoroa Timber Town Romp and it didn’t disappoint with Bagpipes, Scottish games and some bands in the hall for entertainment later. A great event over three days put on by the Waikato NZMCA Crew.: Des, Michael and Neil along with many others.
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The main parking area at Te Aroha
I missed last years event so I was determined to get to the Te Aroha weekend run by the same very clever people.
A Boat a home !
The venue was the Silver Ferns Event Centre at Te Aroha so the parking was on the football fields surrounding it. For the 60 or so Motorhomes and Caravans that made the event, there was plenty of room. Neil was out their as chief parker and it was great to see him again too.
In the Dethleffs corner
On the Friday when I arrived it was catching up with everybody with the main events happening the following day.
One of the highlights was the Kayaking where two groups of 7 were taken up river and set off to be picked up further downstream. Nice big wide Kayaks and everyone had a ball.
I’ve never really got to see the domain and the historic buildings where the Thermal Baths are so I walked into town to see them and have a general gander around the town. Its not big but full of very friendly people and with the influx of 60 odd Motorhomes, the NZMCA’rs were very dominant in their red shirts 🙂
Escaping the Heat
Some were off on the bike trails north and south and there was also an organised trip to a berry farm for fresh fruit ice creams.
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Des getting things under way.
Heading into town
Setting off in their bikes
The Waihaou river
On the Railway bridge
Amazing Sculptures
The old Hotel
In the domain
Kayaks return
After a couple of hours of wandering around the town and watching the Kayakers return, I wandered back to Rafe.
Te ArohaBaths MuseumCroquet
A nice event in a lovely town. Well done again to the crew for putting it on.
With the Covid scare stopping our Anniversary weekend trip dead in its tracks, we headed off to Pauanui for the weekend to catch up with family and friends with our bikes on the back.
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Fantastic Beach
Its a great place for bikes as its all pretty flat and as most of the locals there use bikes to get around, they seem pretty tolerant and used to seeing them on the road.
We checked in at our favourite place for parking there, the Pauanui Sports Club. The Pauanui Club have been offering parking for NZMCA’rs for a few years now and doing a great job of it.
Looking good
The first day we were there, there was a knock at the door in the morning and it was our grandson Ayden who had biked around to say hello. We were later joined by his Dad, Alex and brother Liam.
Alex teeing off
The mini golf course next door was the place to be which was also busy with the long weekend. Granny Fiona went along too. 8 yr old Liam found a water trap within a few strokes of his club. As it was quite hot, he was in no hurry to get out either 🙂
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Liam cooling off !
Liam fishing his ball out of the water 🙂
Fiona and Alex
Ayden at the mini golf
Fiona and Liam at the mini golf
Off to buy a slushy after with Granny.
We had been invited out to tea with one of Fiona’s old school friends Janette and her husband Evan. Always nice to see them so we were off on our bikes to their place for a great night.
Busy busy
The next day we spent meeting the neighbours. Paul and Ruth on one side from Auckland and Peter and Wendy from Tauranga on the other. Small world stuff too. It turns out I’d met one of Peter and Wendy’s good friends involved with the Motorhome industry who we met again later in the weekend. I also used to work with Paul’s brother in Auckland 30 plus years or so ago in the newspaper industry..
We took the boys to the village to get some lunch.
We finished off here by having fish and chips with the grandkids around at their place. A nice weekend.
I’ve been a great supporter of the Pauanui Club. They’ve been great supporters of the NZMCA and its members and provide a great facility. It is run with little human intervention meaning, no booking, no sites are marked out.
Due to its popularity now, I think time has come for the sites to be marked out and a limit placed on the numbers like the NZMCA sites.
Over the weekend, we ended up having 14 vans in there with only half having some reasonable fire gaps between them.
An extra one out by the Airfield
The general thought here was that it would be a good idea that the club put some “below lawn mower height” pegs in to define some sites and make sure that everyone is kept safe. Cheap and easy and it can continue to be run as it is.
Busy busy busy
Its a fantastic place to stay with great people and long may it continue.
Nice to get away for the long weekend and catch up with everyone at a great spot.
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.
..After checking out the Cathedral which is massive, we headed down the main street towards a market.
Bugger It, we are off - www.buggeritweareoff.com 
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