It’s been a Blue Dome Weekend

It was great to meet up with our caravan buddies for the weekend, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  As former TV Weatherman Augie Auer used to say, it’s been a blue dome weekend.  Beautiful clear blue skies, hot sunshine and a relaxing weekend away, what more would we want?  We traveled up “The Country Road” to Pohangina Valley, to stay in the Pohangina School Reserve.  The school was closed in the  early 1980s and the 1.93ha reserve is now a popular community asset. Groups like our caravan club are welcome to come and camp in the lovely grounds, and the school building is available for hire, if required.  Friday evening was spent catching up with members, and in the evening we gathered in the hall for an intelligence test as we tried our best to answer a quiz.

There were horses grazing in the paddock behind our vans and the owners came to tell us they would be moving one on Saturday morning.  This horse was a bit flighty we were told and they owners were a little worried how it would react when walked between the vans.  We offered to move our 4WD well out of the way to give the horse a wider pathway without the feeling of being hemmed in on both sides.  The owners arrived bright and early, and spend some time talking quietly to the horse, feeding him carrots, before finally clipping on the halter rope and leading him away. Luckily it all went to plan, and there were no high jinks with a rearing horse kicking his heels up against any of our vans.

Quietly does it

We had a good turn out for the weekend, with four new prospective members attending, and Debbie and John from the Wairarapa Club joined us as well.  With being away on our South Island trip, this was the first caravan club rally we had attended for three months, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

As happens in these weekends away, the conversations covered a great many topics, including compressors this time.  Dave assembled his bait gun, (which uses a compressor) and that certainly got everyone interested to see how it all worked, and gave us a demonstration.

 

That’s a big one, Dave

There was a new caravan in the club, and we all went to check out Lorraine’s new acquisition over the weekend.  It is a lovely little caravan indeed, and will suit her and Snowflake wonderfully.

Lorraine’s new van

Sunday is not the same without bacon and eggs for breakfast, and Robin did the honours on our Baby Q Weber.  The smell of bacon wafting in the fresh air drew some appreciative sniffs, and hints to be invited to join us.  There was only enough for us two, and the bacon, eggs, tomatoes and toast were delicious!

Breakfast Al Fresco

The two of us had a family function to attend, so missed out on some of the planned activities.  But we were back in time in the early evening to join in a game of Card Bingo.  Prizes were awarded at Morning Tea on Sunday, and several of us were awarded a silver cup for our efforts.  In fact, one of our visitors scooped the pool with being awarded both a gold cup and a silver!

Many thanks to Dennis and Glenys.for organizing such a fun rally, and special thanks to Barry And Dianne for bringing along their freshly picked apples to share with us all.  Some left after morning tea, while others stayed on  to make the most of the glorious weather and have lunch in the sunshine.  We wished Dot and Derek safe travels as they started on a holiday to the Far North.  As the last ones to depart, I had the responsibility  to be gate monitor, closing the reserve up as we left for home

Farewell to Pohangina