Christmas 2019

 David cooked turkey pizzas for Christmas dinner. The dough didn’t work and he had to do a hurried Plan B, but nobody was bothered, it was lovely to be with them and enjoy the grandsons with their presents.

Dean and Nodoka arrived on Boxing Day. They enjoyed playing games with the boys.

And on to Hawke’s Bay

Our next stop was Anzac Park, just north of Norsewood. It is such a lovely spot, and only $2 a night. It was warm and sunny, a rare opportunity for a BBQ brunch.

From there we travelled on to Clifton Road, another favourite spot close to David and Emma’s. We tucked ourselves away from the wind, but still with a view of the sea and Cape Kidnappers.

A quick trip through the Wairarapa

We had planned to stay at Eketahuna, but the car park by the club was not terribly inviting. So we walked up one side of the main street and down the other, and then we were back on the road again. It did seem like a nice little town though, with not as many empty buildings as most.

We ended up staying by Gate 3 at the Tui Brewery. It was off the main road and a firm surface after the rain. And of course, we had to go and have a drink at the brewery. We met an interesting couple, a singer and an actor who were happy to chat and share the heater we had sat under.

The next day we travelled a huge 12km. It was plenty far enough in the strong cross winds. We hunkered down for a couple of nights behind the town sports complex while we waited for the wind to ease.

Back on the road

The forecast was still for wind, so after leaving Plimmerton we drove only as far as a cafe and function centre at the bottom of the Remutakas. We had lunch in Kaitoke Park on the way, and then a very nice $10 brunch after a night in the cafe’s car park. We figured the eggs were free range when we were joined by a chicken.

Our trip over the big hill and on to Masterton was uneventful, as after what seemed like weeks, the wind had finally gone - at least for a while. The Showgrounds now have a custodian, and the facilities have been upgraded. We made the most of the opportunity to have a nice long shower and get our laundry done.

And to cook our dinner outside on the Q.

Out and about

This is only a fraction of the tickets we collected riding the trains and occasionally a bus. Daily we said thank you to the government and especially Winston for free public transport for old people. We travelled to Waikanae to do our laundry because the laundromat there was close to the train station, and there are some lovely views of the coast along the way.

We travelled up to Kelburn on the Cable Car, just because we could.

And all the way over to Masterton too. We did our grocery shopping and bought shoes in Paraparaumu, and took the bus out to the beach for lunch. Although the weather wasn’t great most of the 3 weeks we were based in Plimmerton, we made the most of our time, and had several opportunities to catch up with Dean and Nodoka.

Thunder and lightning

Not my photo, but taken at the time

Saturday night brought the most amazing thunderstorm. We sat and watched the lightning show and felt the vibrations as the thunder followed immediately afterwards. There was an equally dramatic one in the wee hours of the morning.

We had intended to meet Jane and Keith in town on Sunday, but decided to cancel. The road to the train station was under water.

The path to the NZMCA park had disappeared 

Here it is a day later

From Upper Hutt to Gallipoli

On Saturday we travelled to Upper Hutt on the train. We weren’t sure which way to go when we left the station till Graham spotted this. He said, “Follow those people”. We did, and found our way to town. We had a good look around, ate our sandwich on a park bench and then found a club for a cheap drink to wash it down. We thought Upper Hutt was quite a nice place, unlike some of the suburbs we passed on the way there.

 When we arrived back in town, Dean and Nodoka picked us up from the station. We went to see the Gallipoli exhibition at Te Papa.

 These images are two and a half times real size. Their impact is every bit as large. 

The exhibition literally walks you through the months from the troops landing on the beach to their final retreat. There are many interactive exhibits along the way. Very moving.

Birthday

 It was lovely to have Dean and Nodoka come for dinner on my birthday, especially as they brought cake! And flowers and a card, nice.

We discovered a wee brewery just around the corner from the Plimmerton park. The salted caramel and Jaffa brews were yummy, but Graham preferred the more mainstream IPA and APA beers.

More weather

Saturday was a warm day without much wind, which made it perfect for the Beers in the Basin. Good catching up with Finn as well as Dean and Nodoka.

The weather has been pretty mixed, but that has led to some good sunsets.

This view is looking across to Frieda from Wanda, parked on the other side of the park. We met Terrie here another time when she was just putting the name on her wee caravan.

Windy Wellington

Our first night in Plimmerton was a rocky one, parked side on to the wind. We moved the next morning, and then again the next day when someone else moved on, to get protection from the wind with buildings on our north and west.

Dean and Nodoka invited us around for dinner. It was really windy down on the waterfront, but quite sheltered up at their place in Mount Vic. We walked there from the railway station. It was great to see them. Dean’s skills in the kitchen have definitely improved from when he was a teenager.

By the time we got home, we’d done 19731 steps!

Not the prettiest spot, but definitely the most sheltered 

Blenheim

We had a couple of scary moments on our trip to Blenheim. This one we reported to the Police. Still waiting to hear if anything came of it. The entire passing manoeuvre was on a yellow line.

Taylor Dam, just south of Blenheim, sounded like a nice place to park up. We had lunch and went for a lovely walk around the dam. Spot the tui on the flax.

However, when 4.30 went by and the only people who had been coming and going were hoons and Sunday drivers, we decided town would be safer and ended up in the bowling club car park for a couple of nights. We did our laundry and went for some long walks. 

We started to feel we were just hanging around waiting for our ferry crossing, so after checking the weather we changed the booking for a day earlier and made the crossing on the 26th with a small swell.

Ward Beach

Our next stop was on private land right on the beach. There were several other lots of people there, and it seemed everyone except us had a dog! Fortunately the ones closest to us only had small ones.

The beach was quite stony and difficult to walk along, but it was worth it to see some of the strange rock formations. It was clear that many of them were new since they were thrust out of the sea in the Kaikōura earthquake.

As we moved around to get the last of the sun’s rays, we were invited to join the neighbours with the little dogs. Turned out both couples were from Renwick, not too far away. This was a regular weekend spot for them.

Kaikōura

The Hundalees were much more navigable this time. The two areas where half of the road had completely disappeared after the 2016 earthquake had been built up again and there weren’t as many road works.

We spent quite a bit of the day printing out papers from our lawyer, finding a JP to witness our signatures, and scanning it all back to the lawyer. We didn’t realise buying some land was such a mission these days!

The JP lived out on the peninsula. This is the view from his front steps. Beautiful.

When all that was sorted, we headed out to Donegal House and had an expensive drink for our ‘free’ accommodation. There must have been about 30 campervans, caravans and small rentals over night. Many of the campers had a drink or a meal at the pub.  I don’t think there were any other people there at all.

While we were there we had a call from Murray. He had seen my Facebook post and rang to say he too was in Kaikōura. So next day we went back into town to meet up with him. We stayed the night beside the Pier hotel. Twenty dollars but a fantastic site.

This was the view from our door.

And Murray shouted crayfish!

Parnassus

 When we arrived at Parnassus, after a stop for coffee in Cheviot, we found we were the only people there. We went for a walk around the field. Frieda looked so small all on her lonesome!  It was lovely and peaceful, with plenty of bird song, and sparrows and fantails flitting around, keeping us entertained.

These grounds used to be Parnassus school. The remaining building has recently been done up. There is carpet on the floor, comfy chairs and a couple of toilets, All for $6 a night.

Late afternoon a few more vans trickled in. I think there were 7 of us in all. We had our first BBQ on this trip. The weather has not been very kind so far.

Next day severe weather was again forecast. We moved a metre or so on to the hard surface, just in case. Apparently there were hailstones as big as golf balls in Timaru. We had some heavy rain briefly, but not too much of a problem. A good day for listening to music, and a couple of episodes of The Crown, though we did manage a 5km walk up and down the road before the rain started.

Vineyard camping

Spot Frieda

On Monday we travelled on to Torlesse in Waipara. I drove along the inland scenic route, which I thought would be quiet. Instead, we encountered huge tractors, cyclists, road works and lots of traffic. Then I turned too early for the heavy traffic bypass and ended up doing a scenic tour of one of the new suburbs in Rangiora. Lots of practice at going around roundabouts though.

Kym, the owner of Torlesse, remembered us from previous stays. He said “Didn’t we sit out the front and drink and talk shit one night?”

There was hail forecast, but it didn’t get as far north as us, so we had a pleasant, sunny afternoon. We did some wine tasting later and confirmed our view that Torlesse offers good wine for reasonable prices.

Just after we set up back near Frieda in the last of the sunshine, a small home built camper arrived. The couple were wandering around, drinks in hand, so we invited them to join us. They turned out to be very interesting, a kiwi and an Aussie who met working in Antarctica. They entertained us with stories of a group of them making their own still and brewing spirits, with the only available mixer powdered orange juice - what used to be called Tang!

Windy weather

We were increasingly glad, as the day went on, that we had packed up the awning. We moved 3 times, finally tucking Frieda in as close as we could behind the bowls club rooms to get as much shelter as we could from what must have been gale force winds.

Three other vans arrived and parked in a line. Later the end one, which was keeping some wind off the others, turned 45 degrees to face directly into the nor’wester. The car park, and presumably the bar, was chokka full of 4WDs towing motorbike trailers by evening. We were warned when we ordered our fish and chips, that there was a long wait, but being able to phone and then wait in Frieda was no problem. They were just as yummy as we remembered.

Sunday was a much nicer day, and it was market day. We tried some sheep’s cheese but walked on rather than pay $13 for a tiny piece. We bought a coffee and sat at a table near the old guy singing out of tune, did our lap of the town and bought some pork sausages on the way back. Their venison salami was not even close to Dene’s, which we’ve been having in sandwiches for our lunches.

On the road again....

We finished putting our things in Frieda, closed up the house for a few months, and hit the road about midday. After a couple of months at home, it felt good to be back on the road.

We’ve planned a leisurely trip north, so today our destination was Oxford, only an hour away. After stopping in a picnic area for lunch, we arrived at the Oxford club.

Our lunchtime view

The grass was a bit long in the paddock, but not too wet so we decided to park up and set up the awning. It’s been a while, and we had to relearn a few things, but we got there after close to an hour. How some people claim they can do it single handed in 20 minutes is a mystery! The awning came into its own later, when after a walk into town and a drink at the club we were able to sit out in spite of a cool wind.

Our evening view

Next morning I lay awake from 6 onwards, listening to the wind gusts getting stronger. My 3 weather apps all gave different forecasts, but all suggested the wind was going to get increasingly stronger during the day. By 7.30a.m. I had woken Graham, and the awning was down and everything was packed away by 8a.m! We drove Frieda around the corner to shelter behind the bowling club and went back to bed with a cup of tea.