Carterton 30 May - 2 June 2008

Queen’s Birthday Weekend

A long weekend holiday and we don’t have to tangle with the Kapiti traffic, what a nice relaxing drive over the hill we had. We were the last of five caravans to arrive on Friday afternoon, with Keith and Mary, Bill, Barbara and Jacqui, Peter and Elaine, and Graeme and Kathryn already on site. Pamela and Don arrived later on to take up residence in one of the motel units, and they invited over to their very roomy unit for our Friday evening get-together.

Saturday morning dawned fine with a very heavy frost. In the afternoon we took everyone for a visit to “Shear Discovery”. This museum showcases shearing related memorabilia and is housed in two wonderful old buildings joined together which were gifted to the organization. We were very lucky to have a local volunteer on hand who showed us townies the art of sheep shearing. It was interesting to see how the sheep sat quietly while they were shorn; it is obviously all in the technique. One of the sheep got its own back later on when it escaped while being loaded on to the back of the ute, it enjoyed several minutes of freedom out the back before being captured again

On Saturday evening we gathered in the dining room dressed in our orange finery. The CEO of Tui Brewery had sent a dozen bottles in appreciation of the club’s support of their product, and one of the glamorous Tui girls also put in an appearance. Everyone was asked to help Tui Brewery in their new ad campaign and come up with some catchy slogans. Graeme won the contest with his witty offering:

“I go to caravan rallies for the intellectual stimulation – Yeah right!!”

Another frost on Sunday morning did not deter our intrepid balloonists Graeme and Kathryn or their photo support team from setting their respective alarm clocks and getting up in the dark. The balloon flight had already been cancelled twice so it was third time lucky. We drove around to the Paua Shell factory and our balloonists were put to work straight away helping to inflate the balloon. Then they climbed into the basket and up, up and away. As they quietly glided over the camp ground, Elaine got so excited that she whipped her dressing gown off and waved it over her head!!!

The Queen! - Yeah Right!

The Queen came to call on Sunday evening all decked out in her best tiara, after all it was her birthday weekend. Couples were split into two teams, the Queens and the Consorts and took part in a verbal quiz relating to queenly questions. Sadly the Queens were soundly beaten by the Consorts, this was most unexpected, and the Queen was not amused. Robin then showed the digital photos he had taken that morning through the TV. Then Pamela and Don provided a glass of bubbly to celebrate Pamela becoming a Kiwi.