Caravan Club Weekend at Mawley Park

During the night at Ashhurst Domain the weather turned to custard.  Down came the rain, and the wind blew through the trees sending debris down on our caravan roof. Not a peaceful night at all.   We did wonder how the bad weather would impact on our trip the following morning.  Luckily the wind wasn’t an issue and we drove over the rather narrow Saddle Road.  With the Manawatu Gorge permanently closed this is one of two alternative roads over the Ruahine Ranges.

Up and over the Saddle Road

The higher we got, the more the mist was swirling around, and the wind turbines on the Apiti Wind Farm appeared ghost like at the top of the hill.

Wind turbines

We were the first to arrive at Mawley Park camp, Masterton, and soon settled down – in fact, we arrived a day early on Thursday, just because we could.    These sites seem to be made for tourist motorhomes, as the one we are occupying is actually two sites.  Luckily there is little wind over this side of the hill, but plenty of rain.  This area, the Wairarapa is always drought prone, so sustained rain will be great for the farmers.  Maybe it will be wet all weekend, we will have to wait and see what the weather gods decree.

Another rainy day

The other members arrived, some on Thursday, like us, and the rest on Friday.  The local fish and chip shop was visited by hungry caravan club members who wanted a night off from cooking duties.  There was a great turn out, with only two couples unable to join us for the weekend.

It was a rather wet weekend

This was our first caravan club rally since lockdown, and everyone was happy to get together again after so long.  Lots of catch ups took place.  The days were fairly free, and several took the opportunity to have a nice lunch out downtown, while others did a grocery shop, all helping out the local economy.  The usual club Morning Teas and 4zees took place, and in the evenings Dave had organised a few quizzes for us, to see how our brains survived lockdown. 

There was a special occasion on Saturday morning when we had a Flag Breaking Ceremony, for our new club flag.  Selwyn had ordered the new flag but going into lockdown slowed things down and the order was put on hold.  But we had it for this weekend, and we looked outside early on Saturday morning when we heard  a lot of clanking going on.  It was  Selwyn, sheltering from the rain under our awning while he replaced the halyard as the one originally on the pole as not suitable for the new flag.

Selwyn getting things ready for the flag ceremony

As our longest serving members, Eileen and Geoff were asked to pull on the cord to unfurl the flag.

Our new club flag

After rain showers on Sunday morning, the skies cleared and the sun came out, isn’t that usually the way when it is time to go home?  Visitors came calling to join us for Morning Tea  – it  was so nice to welcome Dave and Rae from the Wairarapa Caravan Club.  Our two caravan clubs have quite a long association and meet up together from time to time.  Then it was time to pack up and head for home, and we drove over the Pahiatua Track on our return journey, looking out over Palmerston North and we descended the hill road.

A visit to the Dump Station, and then we were heading for home, and unpacking after our three weeks away.  All in all we travelled a fair way, we clocked up 2000km on this trip.