There’s something about suspension bridges, isn’t there? We just had to stop at this beauty yesterday when we were not far from our next stop at Motueka. This interesting bridge over the Motueka River leads into the Kuhurangi National Park but because of weight limits we could not tow our caravan across. That’s not to say we can’t come back at some later stage and drive across in the Toyota 4WD.
The three of us all had trouble finding the entrance to the Marchwood Park, A & P Showgrounds in Motueka, our camp for the next few nights. Our individual Sat Navs wanted to take us down a long driveway leading into an orchard. We weren’t fooled by the insistent voice commanding us to drive up the unpaved road, and drove around in circles before admitting defeat and asking a road worker for directions. Seems we had to turn right, not left, as instructed. Dot and Derek however, had more faith in their Sat Nav, and after driving up the aforementioned driveway, then had to manoeuvre their long motor-home carefully around and come back out again. Eventually we all arrived at the right place, and the camp manager found us spare power sites, not side by side, but that hardly matters. This is a very popular place and many full timers can winter over at this camp for very reasonable rates. Food for thought indeed, and something to consider for a future long trip back down to the South Island.
This is Geoff and Pauline’s last day with us before they head home and we all thought that a farewell dinner was a good idea. Booking a table, however, was not an easy exercise – we checked out several but their prices were much too high, we thought. We tossed around the idea of all buying take-aways and eating together in our caravan. As a last resort we checked out the Motueka Hotel to see if they had a restaurant attached. Yes indeed, and roast pork was the “roast of the day”, that was the clincher. And very nice it was too.
Off they went in the morning for the first part of their journey heading towards home. In a few days they will be sailing on the ferry across the Cook Strait and they are hoping for a nice calm crossing.
We started off with four rigs travelling together, and Geoff and Eileen left us after 5 weeks or so, and Geoff and Pauline following after 10 weeks of travelling with us. So now we are down to two, one caravan, and a motor home. Guess we will have to think about going home shortly too, perhaps in a couple more weeks.
Marchwood Park is situated right next to the Motueka Airport and we have been entertained watching the large number of parachutists jumping out of planes and landing so close to us. Some come straight down, while others turn over and over doing all sorts of tricks. We really thought that we were watching someone plummeting to his doom – but then realised that these people are highly experienced and have complete control of their parachute as they fly through the air on their way down. There are a number of small aircraft parked at the airport, which is also the site of the Nelson Aviation College.
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