Wild weather is covering the country, and our drive to Woodville today had us practically chewing on our fingernails in fright. Buffeted by strong winds, lashed by rain, the caravan was pushed around behind us as we carefully negotiated the bad conditions. It wasn’t an easy drive and didn’t feel safe at all being on the roads. As we approached the Manawatu Gorge we could see the wind turbines up on the sky line. Plenty of units of power would be going into the National Grid on such a windy day.
Wind powered turbines
The Manawatu Gorge has always been one of my least favourite roads. This area is prone to slips, and the hills are covered in netting in some areas to protect motorists from rock fall. With steep hillside on one side, and a sharp drop down into the Manawatu River far below on the other side of the road, there is nowhere to go if the hill starts to crumble away. We had to wait a while for contractors to clear away a small land slip before we continued on our journey.
The Manawatu Gorge road
Once safely through the gorge, I breathed a sigh of relief – although this road doesn’t seem to bother Robin at all. Our Easter Rally is at Coppermine Motor Camp, situated on a sheep farm. We found ourselves a site, settled in and had lunch. Only three vans here so far, but more will be arriving later in the day.
Early arrivals at camp
The camp building are the former shearing quarters, complete with kitchen, lounge, toilets and showers. One chore that needs to be done during the weekend is to keep the chip heater burning, as this not only warms the lounge area, but also heats the water for the showers. Robin stacked the kindling in the grate and soon had a good fire burning merrily away.
Lighting the chip heater
The wind is still roaring, and the rain is coming down in torrents, but we should have a great weekend here with our caravan club buddies. Just hope the Easter Bunny knows where to find us here on the farm when he is out and about delivering those eggs!
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