Taranaki, here we come

After our weekend at Betts Farm we  packed up and headed to the “Naki”, Robin’s old stomping grounds.  We were traveling with Val and Bill, keeping them company as they wanted to finalise arrangements for a future ICA rally.  We hadn’t gone too far on our travels before our first stop, lunch at Viv’s Kitchen in Sanson.   Bill and Val couldn’t go past the world famous in Sanson Cream Horns, while we opted for Chocolate Eclairs.  As it happened, we didn’t manage to eat our cream delights with our lunch, so had them packed up to take away and eat later in the day.  And yes, our choc eclairs were delicious.

Lunch stop at Viv’s Kitchen

Our stop for the night was Stanley School, Wharehuia, in Stratford, a 250km trip, arriving mid afternoon.  Apart from the large noisy dog over the fence who took exception to our arrival, it was a pleasant place to stay overnight.

Overnighting in Stratford

It was a much shorter trip on Monday, only 40km to destination for the next three nights, Ninia Park-Over Property, where we opted for power sites, very reasonable at $10 per night.  Our battery was playing up again, and not holding a charge, so Robin is having a serious conversation with Motorhome Solar to get it fixed shortly.  We have stayed at this POP before, which was formerly a tamarillo orchard, and is a lovely pleasant place to stay.  We practically had the place to ourselves, and Gemma was kept entertained with all the birds hopping around outside – she didn’t notice the rabbits though, wonder what she would have thought of them?

Staying at Ninia

It wouldn’t be a trip to New Plymouth if we didn’t have a meal at Sun World Chinese Restaurant.  Being in Level 2 this was a different experience – there was smorgasbord as usual, but we were served by the staff as we made our selections.  The food is always very nice here, but we noticed the bookings were very light, perhaps the public weren't quite ready to venture out just yet.  

Out to dinner

Full moon tonight

Rain came down overnight and Wednesday dawned wet and miserable.  It was a busy morning, meeting our friend Glenys in town for morning tea and having a nice catch-up with her.  Then we drove around to Urenui  as Bill and Val had another couple of ICA arrangements to complete.  We all purchased fish and chips from the local shop and drove down to the Urenui Estuary to enjoy our lunch. Sadly, it was still raining so we couldn't take advantage of the picnic tables, instead we enjoyed our lunch in our respective cars, looking out over the estuary.

Urenui Estuary

Before heading back to camp we decided to drive the short distance to Urenui Beach, driving through a huge Motor Camp to get to the shore.  The camp was fairly empty at this time, but will surely be filled to capacity during Summer.

Urenui Beach

With the weather being so wet, there was no chance to get a photo of Mt Egmont/Mt Taranaki, sadly.  We are moving south tomorrow, perhaps the weather will clear by then, and we may see the mountain in all it’s glory, if we are lucky.