Mowhanau Camp, and sharing the shower with a weta

What a morning wake up call I had in the shower when a large weta crawled out of the drainpipe to join me in my ablutions.    There I was, standing in the shower stall after I had put a dollar coin in the slot to get my five minutes of hot water.  As the water started flowing I noticed something big and black emerge from the drainpipe not too far from my bare tootsies waving its feelers in the air.  It was trying very hard to hang on tight against the flow of water and I was terrified it would jump out and run up my bare leg!  What to do?  I didn’t have another dollar coin on me to cut my losses and go into another shower.  Luckily, the force of the water finally carried it away and I breathed a sigh of relief.  All this wary watching the drama happening from the furthest away corner cut into my five minutes shower time and I had to quickly get on with my shower and shampoo before my allotted time ran out. 

We had arrived at Mowhanau Holiday Park, at Kai Iwi Beach the previous day to attend the Easter Rally with our Caravan Club friends. The camp was quite full when we arrived mid afternoon, with even more caravans and motor homes arriving in the early evening.  Family groups erected tents and gazebos and groups of children were busy playing impromptu games of cricket and riding their bikes around.  Our caravan Romany Rambler can be seen just over the boundary fence in the camp, parked up next to Geoff and Eileen’s caravan.

Romany Rambler at Mowhanau Holiday Park

Derek had his hands in the bucket on Saturday morning doing some washing.  He wasn’t too keen on me snapping his photo while he was doing this chore – but did I take any notice?  No way.

Derek doing the washing

Kai Iwi beach was just a short walk away and a group of us strolled down in the morning.  This is obviously a beach to be wary of and there were warnings about rising sea levels and eroding cliffs.

Signs at the beach

The beach was crowded with people carefully picking their way amongst piles of driftwood, collecting shells, and some hardy souls were splashing about in the surf.

   The cliffs at Kai Iwi Beach

A huge tree trunk washed up on the beach

We have been lucky with the weather remaining warm, and enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine, catching up with everyone’s news.