Long Weekend at Manawatu Caravan Club grounds

We enjoy staying at the Manawatu Caravan Club grounds, but it is not usual here in New Zealand for caravan clubs to purchase their own land.  Members have static caravans on site, with large permanent awnings and usually an attractive patio area for outside BBQs and enjoying the sunshine.  There are about a dozen spare sites for travelers, or other groups like ours for casual camping.  With large ablutions blocks, a laundry,  kitchen, and large hall,  both members and visitors are very well set up indeed.

Looking across a sea of caravan roofs and awnings

The alarm clock was primed to ring bright and early on Sunday morning and we were off and away.  Dot was all set to embark on the first step of her journey to the UK, and we drove Dot and Derek to Palmerston North airport to see her off.  First stop was the bag drop off area, then on to the café for an early morning coffee.  Check in time is always early, so there is lots of waiting time involved.  The café was very crowded with lots of passengers accompanied by family and friends to see them off

First stop in the journey  – Auckland

Then it was back to the camp grounds to carry on with out weekend.  Some took themselves out to a local café for lunch, and others visited the ever popular Mr Grumpy’s for an evening meal of fish and chips.  Robin did a good deed in replacing a broken part on Lorraine’s awning.  It was only a tiny part, but very necessary indeed.

He replaced that little part right there

We had a couple of evening quiz nights in the hall to test our brains.  My quiz on the Queens of England was more difficult for our club members than I had anticipated, and Val’s quiz on plants had us scratching our heads too.  Most people did very well on naming capitol cities.  My theory is – this type of thing is always easy if you know the answers. 

There was an interesting poster on the wall in the hall, which explains our love of caravanning.  Why travel to France, when you can do it just as well here in Foxton!

The rain came down on Monday morning and we farewelled our visitors who had travelled up to the AGM rally to stay in other accommodation.   It was so nice to catch up with them again – safe travels home.

Farewell to Pamela and Don

The next job was to help roll up the awning on Kath and Selwyn’s van and get it ready for towing.  And it only took most of the male club members to attend to this, I noticed.

What way does this go, they are wondering

Then one by one, everyone headed off for home.  We stayed for an early lunch, and were soon on our way too, calling into the dump station on the way.  It was another great rally, even longer for us as we enjoyed four days away.