Labour Weekend at Himatangi Beach

Labour Weekend here in New Zealand means a 3 day weekend, so of course we headed away to meet up with our friends from the Caravan Club. "Labour Day" public holiday came about because of the efforts of Samuel Parnell, an English emigrant carpenter who settled in NZ way back in the 1840s, and insisted on working only an eight hour day. Eight hours work, eight hours recreation and eight hours sleep was his philosophy. The Labour Day Act became law in 1900.

Robin was itching to get away in the caravan as it has been 3 months since our last rally. We spent the weekend at the Himatangi Beach Motor Camp, at Manawatu, about 140 kms from Upper Hutt. This camp has many permanent caravans on site and is full of families who come out most weekends over the summer months, many bringing their dogs with them. Beach buggies packed with Dad and the kids head off for a fun time playing in the sand dunes. More serious fishermen load up their beach buggies with rods to try their luck surf casting. Then in the afternoon they all come back and hose the salt and sand off their vehicles, and we saw many sorry looking dogs being hosed down too.

There was a story going around the camp about a couple of cars caught in tide overnight so we all had to go down to the beach and check that out. It was certainly a sorry sight. There were two vehicles in the water and the high tide had already covered them. Seems a local hunter was coming back and drove into a deep hole while crossing the stream. His friend came to tow him out and this car started floating down the stream into the sea, and the electrics shorted. The only way out was for the two of them to clamber out of the sun roof. This could have very easily ended in tragedy for them both.

It was great to catch up with our caravan friends and they were all interested in hearing about our recent trip.