One of the nice things about travelling in a Motorhome is visiting all the out of town village like shopping areas and the Farmers Markets.
Fun in the Sun
While we were staying in Ardmore recently, we visited the Clevedon Farmers Market which is just out of the village but well signposted.
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Coastguard Donations
Busy carpark
Smoothie time
The vege department
Kids enjoying themselves
Always somewhere to rest
Even a motorhomer
You know you’re in a rural spot when you see this.
We found out very quickly how popular this is when we first looked for a park. Its amazing, people everywhere.
There is everything from Veges, Cheeses, Spices and Jams all with some live music and a hay bale to sit on. Its a great atmosphere.
The weather wasn’t really behaving itself when we went with showers but it didn’t seem to worry anyone with lots of shelter there.
Sunday mornings from 9am – 1pm.. well worth a visit. If you want to park there with your motorhome, get there early 🙂
The weather forecast for the whole weekend was a shocker but we knew we’d be safely tucked up once we got to Paeroa.
We left early on Friday night after Fiona finished work and headed down to Ardmore to stay in my son Alex’s driveway so we could see Ayden playing rugby in the morning. He had a really good day and after scoring a few tries, he got Player of the Day so that was special and good to see.
Grandson Ayden with the ball. The expressions on their faces are priceless.
After a cup of coffee, we left Ardmore and headed for Paeroa where we were meeting up with other Motorhomers who are part of a really active Facebook group called Motorhome Friends NZ. North Island Admins, Steve and Karen did a great job organising the get together at Paeroa RV Centre.
A Happy crew
After settling down Rafe in a little corner of the park, we headed into the 3pm meeting in the Hall. There was a pot belly stove stacked up nicely belting out the heat so it was nice and cosy despite the showers outside. We were really lucky to be able to get a powered site as there was a dire shortage of them so thanks Paeroa RV for helping us out there.
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Our little corner
Some of the permanent dwellers at Paeroa
Motorhome Friends with their vans
In the hall on Saturday
Karen welcoming everyone on Saturday.
Gaylene and Les from Huntly
Andrew and Debbie from Tauranga
Karen and Paul from West Auckland
Mat and Kylie from Taranaki
Alan and Lyn have been fulltiming in their bus for 4 years.
Vicky and Shonne from Omaha
Carol and Roger from Waiuku at Miranda Holiday park
It was really nice to catch up with people and put faces to names. I’m a relative newcomer to the group but Fiona and I felt right at home with them all.
Steve getting the Karaoke gear organised
There was a Kareoke night which we didn’t get to but I gather it was a huge success and everyone had lots of fun. We had two lots of Motorhomers around for drinks in Rafe. Nick and Karen who have just bought a Autotrail Comanche which they are living in full time. The Comanche is a biggie with dual axles at the back and is 8.4 metres long. A nice van.
We also had Gaylene and Les from Huntly with us and it was nice catching up with them too.
The view in the yard
In the morning, there was a 10am coffee meeting to farewell each other. The rain was pretty steady by then and not a good time to be trying to photograph people with their vans but I managed to get a few.
The Hot pool at Miranda
Given the weather was like it was with squalls of heavy rain, we decided to head to Miranda Holiday park and hunker down in the hot pools and not long after we arrived met some others from Paeroa there too. Isn’t it funny how great minds think alike !
At Miranda. Given the weather, it was nice to be plugged in and sheltered.
We arrived in Hamilton about 10:30 and followed the GPS instructions to the Hamilton West school where the Waikato NZMCA rally was setup.
Gael and her team had done a fantastic job of parking more than 50 Motorhomes and caravans onto the school field in the traditional lines with the 3 metre gaps.
Catching up with Helen and Rob
We met our friends Rob and Helen with daughter Chloe within minutes of arriving. They had come down the night before and had already been up at the crack of dawn to check out the Balloons just over the road at the lake. It was time for a cup of tea.
There was a Dethleffs Sunlight van right behind us in the line which was at Vantage RV when we had our water pump replaced a few days ago so it was nice to see Alan too.
At Dawn, off to the Lake.
Friends from Taupo, Gary and Dianne arrived not long after and parked beside us in their new Dethleffs XLI. It was nice to see them again too. Within minutes of their arrival, we introduced them to Rob, Helen and Chloe but then made the worrying discovery that the Dometic fridge in the XLI wasn’t running on gas properly so their food was at risk. Potential Motorhomers nightmare!
The last time they were away, the 240v element had failed so they had taken the XLI in to have it repaired. The 240v and 12v worked but the gas that was then working fine, now didn’t work! Don’t you hate it when that happens ! Calls to the original repairer did not help and after shifting the food into our fridge in Rafe to keep it cold while we spent a couple of hours sorting it at least protected their food. After an hour or two, while Gary was on the phone to another technician, he noticed a lose unplugged wire from the gas solenoid that looked like it was important. We took the cover off Rafes fridge to see where it went. After popping off another plastic cover and plugging in this wire, the fridge was away again. Crises averted! Well spotted Gary!
By then it was afternoon tea time and so it would have been rude not have a small celebration for the fridge working again and the fact that the weekend wasn’t going to be disaster after all!
At around 6 pm and after a fridge debrief, a few glasses of wine, cups of coffee and tea and cheese and bikkies, we left to head to the Balloon festival.
An NZMCA volunteers doing the sausage sizzle at the school
Lots of people
The food stalls
The queue for the food
The fireworks
The Hamilton council had done a wonderful job with the bus system and had laid on free buses for all to get to this fantastic event. We were told that we had to use the green route buses which made it really easy. The bus picked us up from just outside the school and delivered us to the Waikato University campus, some 20 minutes or so later to see thousands of people eagerly waiting for the balloons. It was a great atmosphere and people everywhere having a good time. There was quite a well setup sideshow area too. Huge queues for the food stalls but that didn’t seem to worry anyone.
At about 7:30, the balloons started to get inflated but then the rain came down. This put a bit if a halt to the other balloons inflating but as they say, the show must go on and the music continued. A huge fireworks show followed. Despite the brief rain, everyone seemed to have a good time and it was a great show.
We arrived back at the school campground by 10pm after getting onto the second bus out. Again, an amazingly efficient bus system and to clear that volume of people so quickly with no dramas was extremely well done.
Inflating the BalloonsAt the lake in the morning
In the morning, we walked over to the beautiful Hamilton Lake park to watch the balloonists inflate their balloons. Again, the weather wasn’t playing the game and there was too much wind for the balloons to fly but it was a great spectacle all the same.
Over the lake
A great day and well done Hamilton council and buses for doing such a great job and hosting a great event, despite the weather.
A great turn out from Motorhomers saw the car parks chocker on Thursday. Friday arrivals were redirected to Ellerslie racecourse to the centre of the track. There was a free shuttle going to and fro from the show to the carpark which worked really well. Ellerslie was free and we got a free bag of lollies for the inconvenience, what inconvenience?
The show seemed a bit smaller this year, maybe I missed a bit but the big difference I noticed this year was the trend towards caravans.
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Dethleffs Xli
Dethleffs Xli
Dethleffs Xli
Dethleffs XLI
Dethleffs Xli
Dethleffs Esprit. I’m not sure what Bernie (in the blue) said but the punters look a bit stunned 🙂 It would have been something good knowing Bernie !
Frankia
Frankia
Frankia
Frankia
Dethleffs Corner
Rockwood Caravan
Inside the Rockwood
Inside the Rockwood
Inside the Rockwood
Burstner Elegance
Burstner corner
Autotrail
Autotrail
Autotrail corner
Autotrail Commanche
Autotrail Commanche
Bailey Caravan
Bailey Caravan
Bailey Caravan
Kea Caravan
Kea Caravan
Eldiss Caravan
Camec Stand
Dometic and waeco stand
Kea Motorhomes
Jayco with slid outs
Jayco with slide outs
The Jayco
Jayco pop up
The interior of the Jayco pop up
The NZMCA stand
NZMCA stand
New retro caravans
Time for a rest
CI corner
It was really nice to see the Lilliputs there with their classic cars.
Vintage Caravans and carsLilliput
The Dethleffs caravans were impressive. Lots of space and nicely decked out. The title pic is the interior.. nice ! The pictures really tell the story.
To beat the traffic south, we stayed overnight in Rafe, in their Ardmore driveway with Alex, Sarah and the boys.
At around 8:30 in the morning, we heard the little knock from 3yr old Liam wanting to come in. Fiona let him in and he jumped on the bed and played his favourite games on Fiona’s iPad.
We got up and had breakfast 15 or so minutes later when Ayden(7yrs) arrived to join in. He went on to tell us that Liam had sneaked out to see us and in doing so, got stuck in the cat flap in the back door. To cries of “help please” Sarah got up to help him back out of the cat flap and free himself. We had no idea but when I mentioned it to him later, he shrugged his shoulders and just grinned at me. 😀
Dancing
After saying goodbye, we headed towards Paeroa to stop briefly at Countdown for groceries and then on to Katikati to join in with the NZMCA promoted Katikati Wine and Avocado festival at Uretara Domain.
Rafe in front of the the park. Although we could have stayed there, we moved later over to the edge of the park closer to other Motorhomes.
We did this for the first time last year and it was a real hoot. Great music, interesting food and nice wines. I bought a nice bottle of Chardonnay and Fiona had a cider and we ordered several bits to make up a great lunch. We joined up with some nice people from Tauranga. After them, we were joined by another couple also from Tauranga but originally from Auckland. As it turns out, our sons had both been posted overseas one after the other to the same place. Small world stuff.
It was a great day. The Katikati Lions club did a great job arranging parking for about 30 odd Motorhomes and setting up the event.
The normally free are next to the reserve.. Chocker !
Earlier in the day
Everyone was involved
One of the stalls
One of the wine dealers
Lions club people cleaning up as the day went on. They did a fantastic job.
One of the early bands
One of the wine stalls there
I’m not sure who they were but she was amazing on the bagpipes too.
You can see the Motorhomes in the background
One of the main bands
Dancing
Talks around the cricket pitch
Later I moved Rafe over with the other Motorhomes once some cars left.
Last year, we were in the normal free parking next to the domain but this year, there were more vans so we parked right on the domain behind a temporary fence which worked really well.
Later we were invited over to our neighbours two buses for the customary happy hour with about 18 others from Motorhomes.
The proceeds of the festival were for the local rescue helicopter.
A great fun day for everyone and I hope this years charity, Katikati rescue Helicopter rescue squad did OK from the proceeds.
We missed the shuttle for the second day in a row by all of 5 minutes! Punishment was a reasonably pleasant walk into Napier in the sun to see the Art Deco parade, the event of the festival. There were more than 250 cars, dancing on street corners, motorbikes, the NZ Army band, pipe bands, it was all on. Everyone was having fun.
An amazing car/caravan combination on the walk to the parade.
It seemed like half of NZ was in Napier, people everywhere.
I parked myself on a traffic island after talking to a marshall and hearing the planned route.
While I was waiting for the parade to start, I received a cell phone call from John, a boatie mate from Devonport. Where was I? Standing on a traffic island in the middle of the main street of Napier was my reply. It turned out he was in Napier too within eyesight and we were catching up after the parade ! How small is NZ !
Once the parade started, I had to keep moving. Great fun.
Warbirds in action over the waterfront
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Entertainment in the soundshell before the parade started.
The traction engine giving people rides
After the parade finished, we looked for a cafe to have lunch.
On the way home, these people stopped so I could get a piccie if them.
They were all chocker with all the people so we decided we’d head back to Rafe for some lunch. As we walked, we got a phone call from John who suggested a cafe on the way .. And we met John and Katherine shortly after.. amazing. They had been house sitting out of town and had come in for the parade. We headed back to Rafe after that and joined our Waiuku friends for happy hour and later tea for our last night in Napier.
After sneaking out if the park to get some water and groceries and sneaking back in again, we missed the last shuttle bus to town so we walked the 1k or so into town to check out the fun and it was well worth the walk!
Is that a gun
Traction engines, steam rollers and so many amazing cars.
I got talking to Dave, the owner of a one off Studebaker that he got his license in when he was 15 and later bought the car. The car was made in Hastings with a wooden frame and has steel over the top with a full genuine Studebaker everything else in it. A lovely car.
Dave with his one off Hastings made StudebakerThe Studebaker
We bumped into Dave and Rosemarie and all the crew from Waiuku there and they were really enjoying the scene and we’re all dressed very nicely. The pictures below tell the story.
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With the traction engine
Dave and Rosemarie with the cars
Dave admiring the Le Frame 14 litre motor
The retailers of Napier were all decked out in their finery, all enjoying he festival.
The ladies from Waiuku all decked out magnificently. Fiona on the left.
There was a couple who turned a street into their dance floor with a busker and did a very impressive floor show for the crowd around. Very good dancers and the crowd really appreciated it.
Impromptu dancing to the busker
I even bumped into an old friend of mine Geoff who was also a photographer with me at the NZ Herald 30 odd yrs ago. NZ really is a small place !
As the day wore on and it got hotter, we found the 1918 Austin Bus was going our way home so after a $5 donation, we were on our way.
The view out of the windscreen of the 1918 bus. Steam roller in frontThe 1918 Austin Bus that we came home in
We woke up this morning to find a whole lot more Motorhomes and another Dethleffs Globe4 right next door. I can count on one hand the number of Globe 4’s I have seen around on the road so to have one right next door was amazing.
Two Globe 4’s in the same region!
We met Bill and Lynley at the Dethleffs annual rally at Miranda late last year. They had then just taken delivery of their new van.
Bill is a keen cyclist and suggested we have lunch at Ahuriri Cafe, a neat little cafe around by the port so we got ourselves organised and off we went.
The sky was blue but black towards the west and the forecast was for heavy rain.
From the pier looking along the waterfront
In Ahuriri as the car went past
Across the road from Ahuriri cafe
Fiona riding past the marina.
Riding back around by the port
A rare Le Frame race car outside the Masonic
Outside the Masonic
In their classic gear having a nice lunch
A great lunch and nice catching up with them both.
Just biking along by the port, we came across an elderly couple out for a walk in all their finery, him with spats, bow tie and plus 4’s and hat, her with her cloche hat, nice long period dress and fine shoes, bid us a very cheery good afternoon. Very nice and very friendly. Great atmosphere and everybody is enjoying the fun.
On the way back, we stopped at the Masonic to check out the vintage cars and people all dressed up enjoying the moment.
We stopped for a yummy Gelato on the waterfront on the way back to Rafe and just got the bikes back on the rack when the rain came down.
The park is filling upAnd with a sea view too. More than 90 Motorhomes and caravans.
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.
There is everything from Veges, Cheeses, Spices and Jams all with some live music and a hay bale to sit on. Its a great atmosphere.
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