Let’s try Clareville

Deciding to take an extra day tacked on to our rally weekend generated a huge amount of discussion.  We were all in agreement to move on from Greytown and try somewhere different.  Suggestions were made, discussed then discarded.  Shall we try somewhere off power?  We really didn’t want to travel too far, for just an extra night.  Finally the decision was made to try Clareville.  We had checked it out recently and were rather taken with the power sites  away from the main camping area.

Plenty of room for us at Clareville

Clareville A & P grounds are just north of Carterton, and comprises of 100 acres. This is the home of the local annual Agricultural and Pastoral Show.  All sorts of other organisations use the grounds, some of which include dog shows, horse events, and hockey played on the all weather Astroturf.  Large amounts of the area are leased to a local farmer.The area we chose to park in had a nice rural outlook with sheep grazing behind us, and nice shady trees to give us shelter from the afternoon heat.  Horse lovers were putting their steeds through their paces in an adjacent area.

Trotting the horses around the rink

There had been a lot of work done recently in the grounds, with a large number of poles installed containing four power points on each pole, a water tap and a night light on top.  The manager told us the cost of each pole was $1500.  The fee per night for our stay was an extremely reasonable at only $15 per caravan.  The toilet facilities were not flash, but clean and tidy, while showers were only available in the main camping area.  Not to worry, we all have showers in our caravans. 

  The newly installed power connection poles

There was a huge open fronted barn across from us, so we just had to go and have a look.  We spotted some hay bales stacked on one side.

Huge barn complete with hay

Our arrival at the barn set the many resident pigeons into a bit of a panic, as they started fluttering around and around amongst the ceiling joists.  The barn had a large amount of hay bales, rolled hay and bales of straw all neatly stacked.  The sweet smell of hay filled the air and sunlight filtered through the ceiling skylights as pigeon feathers fluttered down.  Peter was measuring the bales with his outstretched arms while trying to determine how many bales of hay it would take to make one rolled bale.

Bales of hay

Eileen had noticed a road sign for refreshments not far from where we were camping and suggested going out for afternoon tea.  Some of us decided that sounded like a good idea and we drove up the road to Awaiti Cottage Tearooms, which are housed in an 120 year old building.  We all decided that the Spicy Apple cake looked just right and it was delivered to our table with our coffee orders.

  Jenny, Don, Geoff, Eileen and Pamela ready for afternoon tea

The evening skies brought a special phenomenon into view when we gazed at the full moon.  In fact is was a “Super Moon”, also known as a lunar perigee.  Perigee moons are about 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than lesser moons. This occurs when the Moon is at the closest point in its orbit to Earth.  This last happened 18 years ago, and will occur again in 2016.  

Picture courtesy BARRY HARCOURT/Southland Times

EYE FULL: A full moon photographed over Te Anau early yesterday. The weekend's full moon is a super 'perigee moon' the biggest in almost 20 years.

With this extra day tacked on to our rally weekend, we finally made our way home late on Monday morning.