BBQ King

A BBQ cook-off took place on our last evening at the rally at Kahutara.  The men set up their barbecues for the evening meal, trying to find the best place to shelter from the hot Wairarapa wind.   Before too long the BBQs were hot, and the steaks, sausages, kebabs, and whatever else was on the menu were cooking away.  After threatening to do a “taste test” and eat a goodly portion of everyone’s dinners, Bill and Val did the rounds and checked out each chef was producing.

Robin cooked lamb chops, cheese topped mushrooms and corn on the cob

There was a quiz night in the evening to keep our brains sharp, and we didn’t do too badly.  Not a perfect score, by any means, there are always a few questions which tax your power of recall.  If you know all the answers, quizzes are easy.  If not, they are frustratingly difficult!  People were asked to wear their funny tee shirts and Bill and Val were attired in an interesting selection.  And can you spot “Mr Grumpy” coming through the door?

Bill, Val and Don

The weekend finished on Monday morning, Waitangi Day, with our final morning tea.  Chocolate bars were handed out to the quiz winners, the best kite fliers, the best tee shirt, and all sorts of other reasons, so that no one missed out.  Robin was declared BBQ King and duly presented with a red BBQ apron.  Older readers may recognise the cheeky figure on the apron from “Four Square” grocery chain advertisements from long ago.

BBQ winner of the weekend

Everyone packed up and headed for home.  We didn’t get far at all, as parked up in front of the hall across the road were Joe and Sandra from the Akarana Caravan Club, who we hadn’t seen for quite a few years.  It was great to meet up again with them after all this time, catch up with all their news and reminisce about friends in common.  The Karutara Hall is quite an historic building and was originally part of the Featherston Camp during WW1, in use as Soldiers Clubrooms.  It was moved on to this site in 1921.

Historic Kurutara Hall

After the very necessary trip to the dump station, we started on our home wards journey, up and over the Rimutaka Hill, and along the coast road.  There were plenty of caravans and motor-homes on the road, all travelling home after the long holiday weekend away.  Time was getting on, and we were getting peckish, with still a fair way to go, so we stopped off at “Wendy’s” in Paraparumu  for lunch.  This fast food outlet has a huge car park, so there was no trouble parking up with the caravan in tow.  And with a special lunch time deal of burger, chips, ice cream and a drink, all for the sum of $5 each, we thought we did very well.

We joined the traffic again and headed off for the last part of our drive.  The traffic was much heavier coming southwards towards Wellington, and practically came to a standstill at the notorious part of the road just north of Otaki.  This happens on holiday weekends when the passing lanes are closed off.  Oh dear, it will be a long, hot, slow drive home for those folks.  We moved past on the other side of the road, with nothing to slow us down and were soon safely home.