Pohangia Paradise

This is indeed a beautiful area of “God’s Own Country”, here in the Pohangia Valley.  Maybe the weather helped form that opinion, as we couldn’t have been luckier with the weather for our caravan rally.  The sun shone, the wind was a gentle breeze, the birds were singing, we were surrounded by majestic tall trees, and best of all, we were in great company.  And just look at that fine line up of Leisureline caravans, all in a row.

Made in NZ - Leisureline caravans

We had the use of the old school building over the weekend, but with the weather being so wonderful there was no point in sitting inside during the day.  So much better to be outside in the fresh air.  But it came in very handy in the evenings as a place to gather together.

Pohangia School building

This little country school has had a checkered career.  The original school building was burnt down in 1927, and a year later another building was relocated to the site.  The swimming pool was opened in 1957, and is still in use,   with local families having key access.  It was great to see it so well utilised over the weekend.  A new teacher’s house and another classroom were built (1957-60) and were removed when the school closed down in 1972, and the pupils transferred to Ashhurst School.  These days the old school grounds are used as a picnic and camping area, and the pool is very popular with locals and well looked after.  

A group of happy campers walked down the road to have afternoon tea at the local café, Country Fayre.  This is housed in the old Council building, and has the original “U shaped” council meeting table in one of the rooms.

Country Fayre Café

The café was busy serving two large groups of ladies, but we didn’t mind waiting our turn.  It gave us a chance to check out the crafts on offer, and have a look around this repurposed building.

This establishment was run by volunteers so the menu was understandably limited.  But “Devonshire Teas” all round certainly hit the spot, with a choice of tea, coffee, or milkshakes.

 

Devonshire Coffee for me

Right next door was a Honey Shop, ran on an honesty system we were told, and a few of us walked around the back of the building trying to find the local honey.  Bees were buzzing everywhere and we were trying not to upset them.  Finally we found it behind a closed door, containers of amber honey all lined up.  It looked so nice and was quite reasonably priced so I selected a large jar of Bush honey to take back to Robin – he is the honey aficionado in our household.  Luckily I had the correct amount of cash to put in the honesty box.

Pohangia honey

Robin made good use of the Weber Baby Q over the weekend, cooking sausages one night, steak and mushrooms the next evening, and bacon and eggs for breakfast on Sunday morning.

Scotch fillet steak and mushrooms

Special thanks to Barry and Diane who brought along a big box of plums and apples from their property.   Seems that their fruit trees are doing wonderfully well and they have plenty of surplus fruit to share with everyone.   It was a wonderful weekend – we were very happy campers indeed!