Success is getting what you want; happiness is liking what you get

Monday 19 August 2013

Weekend at Paekakariki

After the stress and worry of that BIG earthquake, followed by a host of aftershocks, we settled back down into “caravan rally mode” for the rest of the weekend.  Such as 4zees outside in the sunshine – what could be nicer than that?  Although we did keep saying, “Is that another one coming?”, while the ground continued to move under our seats in the afternoon and shake our caravans during the evening.

P8160011 It’s 4zees o'clock!

Although there were other campers dotted about at Paekakariki Holiday Park over the weekend, we seemed to be the biggest (and noisiest) group. The grounds and gardens are well kept and flowering spring bulbs made a bright and cheerful statement.  We noticed several Monarch butterflies fluttering around the trees.  Out came my new camera to snap this beauty sunning itself.

P8180028 Monarch butterfly in the sunshine

The bright sunshine also showed up a whole lot of spider webs hanging off the roof line of Geoff and Eileen’s caravan.  Rather than feeling shame faced for not cleaning the outside of his caravan regularly, Geoff seemed quite proud of his spider web collection.  He regularly takes his resident spiders on caravan trips, we know, and even took some down south last year when we travelled together on our South Island Odyssey.

P8160008He loves his spiders

P8160009Some of Geoff’s Otaki spider collection

Don and Pamela planned our weekend and the details were written up on the club notice board.  Our rally weekends are not too organised, and there is always time for plenty of socialising, sitting in the sunshine, reading, or just blobbing out, whatever takes our fancy.

P8170013 Rally Captain Don writing on the blackboard

We all took part in making an impromptu speech on Saturday evening – that was a little difficult for most of us.  The men were given a feminine subject each, and the ladies had to talk about such things as electronics and model railways.  The timer was on and we bumbled through our subject matter, trying to think of enough to say until the bell rang signalling the end of our ordeal. As a reward we shared Don’s birthday cake for supper, as he celebrated turning another year older.

P8170027 Happy Birthday Don

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