First Days at Te Horo School

After an overnight stop at Otaki, it was a short 5km drive down to Te Horo.  Such a short drive, in fact, that we arrived in no time at all.  We weren’t the first on site, by any means, and were directed to the back part of the playing field, behind the climbing apparatus and monkey bars.

Around the back at Te Horo School

There were builders on site erecting a large aluminium framed school hall, and a few terse words were exchanged.  “You can’t park here, this is a building site”, we were told.  Yes…. but the school grounds have been hired out for a caravan rally.  In the end, sanity prevailed, and we assured the foreman that we were a bunch of well behaved oldies who wouldn’t be breaching the security fence, and would be departing on Monday morning.  As the builders weren’t working over the weekend anyway, it was all a bit of a storm in a teacup.

Working on the new school hall

Other vans kept arriving during the day, and we ended up with four Hamilton built Leisureline caravans parked in a row.  There were two Elites, one Southern Star, and one Platinum.  What a fine line-up.

Leisureline Lane

Our long weekend away, Wellington Anniversary weekend, was not an ordinary rally weekend.  Every two years we have a Regional Rally, with each of the four local clubs taking a turn to host the event.  This year it was the turn of the Wellington Club, and the festivities started off with a piper leading the parade of banners into the hall for the official opening.  Shall I let you in on a little bit of gossip?  The smart looking piper has a secret life as an undertaker!

The piper

Carrying the banners into the hall.

The 18th Central Regional Rally was officially opened and we then it was time for supper and some mixing and mingling, meeting up with friends from the other clubs in attendance.  We donned our club colours of orange tops and hats, not an easy colour to wear, and only brought out for official occasions like this.

Some of the Heretaunga Club members

The Saturday lunchtime sausage sizzle was well attended, with the pair of us opting for bacon and egg sandwiches, hot off the griddle.  Very tasty, and even nicer eaten outside under the shady awning.

Kath and Selwyn waiting for their lunch

Happy Hour was spent sheltering under one of the large shady trees on the property.  We were kept entertained by the antics of the large New Zealand pigeons (Kereru) flying around from tree to tree.  Being such large, heavy birds, they often land quite clumsily on the branches as they look for fruit, flowers and buds to eat, but it was too difficult to get a photo of the birds through the heavy foliage.  We did notice two colourful hula-hoops high up in the branches, thrown up by the school kids who probably expected them to drop back down to earth.

And in such glorious weather, what better than a BBQ for our evening meal?  Pork steak, portabello mushrooms topped with cheese, and zucchini all cooked to perfection on the Weber, served with green salad, and eaten El Fresco.  That’s the life!  Then we had to get a move on, make our way to the hall for the evening entertainment.  Wonder what that is all about?   We'll find out when we get there, I presume.  .