Christmas Rally at Shannon

The caravan club held the last rally of the year, our Christmas Rally, at Shannon School.  Not too far away, about an 18km trip from home.  As the school year had not quite finished, we had to wait till 4.00ish till all the children and parents had cleared the school.  We chose to drive up mid afternoon, found a shady spot several streets away, parked up, chatted amongst ourselves,  and waited till the time was right.  The rest of the gang soon ambled in, and we parked up on the hard.

Some of our vans at the school

We ate together on Friday night, providing our own main course, and the committee had bought strawberries and ice-cream for dessert.  The entertainment was a film evening and we sat in the library building and watched as the story unfolded.  Barry had brought up his Christmas Tree for a bit of festive ambiance, it twinkled nicely in the background.

There was quite a bit of interest on Saturday morning when Owen’s friends arrived with their lovingly restored cars, a Mark 1 and Mark 2 Zephyr.

Two Zephyrs

There was even more excitement when we were offered a ride.  Kath and I decided we would really love to have a ride in the Police car, and settled down in the back seat.  Robin came too as the front seat passenger.

Oh dear, in trouble with the police!

Robin really wanted to ride in the Mark 1 as well, he had his own version of this car as a young man and was very proud of it.  Riding in these older cars certainly reminded us of the difference in driving before power steering became a standard feature in cars.

Bring back memories

We pooled cars and drove to a local restaurant, Murrayfield, for dinner on Saturday evening.  With three choices for each course, there was something to appeal to everyone.  I chose salt and pepper squid, battered fish, and peach sponge pudding, all very nice.

Dinner at Murrayfield

While we were happily chatting away and enjoying our meal, a police chase was underway in the area, we found out later.  A helicopter and armed police were called in to help as two cars were pursued during a police chase.  The pursuit started about 4.30pm at Foxton Beach and ended in Shannon, where two people were taken into custody about 7pm.  A helicopter was used to find the offenders and police were armed as a precaution, the spokeswoman said.

More food for Sunday’s morning tea, with Christmas Mince Pies, and Val provided some yummy rum balls.  There was even some left over strawberries and ice-cream that needed to be finished up.  We seemed to have been eating all weekend! 

Festive morning tea

Then it was time to say our goodbyes and head for home.  Some of us will be meeting up after Christmas at the week long Drop In Rally at Foxton School.  Sounds good to us.