Carterton Holiday Park

Our caravan club was staying at Carterton Holiday Park for Anzac Weekend, and I must say that this would have to be one of my favourite motor camps.  There have been several improvements made since our last visit here, including adding some drop down heavy plastic curtains around the verandah area of the kitchen/dining room.  There is new outdoor furniture in place and it all looks rather smart, and allows the area to be used as the weather gets cooler.

Enclosed veranda now

With so many lovely big trees around it does make finding the satellite TV reception a bit of trial and error.  Robin backed the van onto our site, tried the TV, no reception there.  So back it went another foot or so, and after going round and round, the dish finally locked onto the satellite.  Then the van was finally unhooked from the car, legs down, power plugged in and we were set for the weekend.  This camp also has drains on each site for grey water which is a real bonus, one less tank to empty when it is time to go home.

All set for a great weekend

We had quite a big group for this rally.  Nine of our club vans, three vans from the Hawkes Bay Club, and two prospective members vans.  It was a bit of a squeeze in the dining room in the evenings, but we all made it.

View from the top of the camp

Some decided to settle in a day earlier on Thursday but most of us arrived of Friday.  It was great to see Selwyn and Kath again, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a photo of Selwyn with his very special “Fisk” named coffee mug. 

Good morning Selwyn

Also at morning tea on Saturday, Helen and Stuart were inducted into our club, after completing three rallies, and deciding that yes, we weren't such a bad bunch after all and they would like to join us in our caravan rallies. 

Helen, Stuart and our President Owen

Paul and Wendy were visiting for the first time and what a surprise, they are now the owners of Dot and Derek's former Autotrail Savannah Gypsy Rover. 

We haven't seen this van for a while

The weather has been so nice we were able to enjoy Morning Teas out in the sunshine, and gather in the dining room for 4zees and later in the evenings.  Although the autumnal daytime temperatures have been nice and sunny as it usually is in the Wairarapa, once the sun goes down the temps certainly drop.

Robin cooked our usual Sunday breakfast on the Weber BBQ on Sunday morning.  Delicious as usual with bacon, tomatoes, and eggs cooked in a slice of bread.  Known as “Benton Eggs” we have been told, but we can’t claim this idea, we copied this method from another camper years ago.

Sunday breakfast on the BBQ

Visitors came to call at Morning Tea on Sunday, Pam and Terry from the Wairarapa Club, who live nearby.  It was lovely to catch up with them again, and Pam looked very elegant sporting her pretty flower sun umbrella.

Pam and her sun shade

We all had dinner on Sunday evening at the nearby Buckhorn Restaurant, and our large group had a room to ourselves.  Plenty of good food choices, lamb shanks for those who enjoy this dish, steak, burgers and chicken.  Something for everyone, and I must say, that when the meals were brought out, all the chatter stopped while we concentrated on our dinner plates.   The Buckhorn, as the name suggests, was decorated in Wild West style.

Inside the Buckhorn Restaurant

Monday was Anzac Day and the Motor Camp Mother delivered some “just out of the oven “Anzac Biscuits and Fruit Loaf for us to enjoy with our morning tea.  That was very thoughtful, and we certainly made short work of the home baked goodies.

A few couples were staying on for another night, and most of us packed up and got on our way, hoping to beat the long weekend traffic.  For a change, we decided to go home via the Rimutaka Hill, joining up with the new Transmission Gully Road at Pauatahanui Interchange to continue northwards. 

Heading home

Solway Park and a Trip to the Coast

It was time to pack up and leave Timona Park, and move on to our next stop, Solway Park Showgrounds in Masterton, a distance of 121km.  We were a little late leaving as we had a family breakfast to attend at one of the local cafes.  Once back in camp, we hooked up, and made the obligatory visit to the dump station.  Then off we went, driving over the Saddle Road.  And there they were, those wind turbines up on the hill, working away to turn the power of the wind into electricity.

We hadn't travelled too far when we came to a grinding halt, stopped by a young women in high viz holding a stop/go pole, which we noticed was taller than she was!  After waiting in line for ages, a slow stream of cars and trucks trundled towards us.  Finally we got the go signal and off we went, driving past the problem on the road, a tree had come down in a land slip and was covering one of the lanes.  A team was working hard to clear the road and get traffic moving properly again.  

Hold up on the road

Once over the Saddle Road, it was easy driving from there on.  Oh look, there’s the “world famous in  Mangatainoka” Tui Brewery tower.  There is a freedom camping area across the road from the brewery down by the river, but we weren't stopping here, and continued on our way.

Tui Brewery at Mangatainoka

We soon arrived at our destination, found a site and Robin went to pay for our three night stay here.  This is a lovely place to stay, beautiful grounds surrounded by magnificent mature trees.

Solway Park

The historic grandstand peeking through the trees

With a brand new NZMCA park at Riversdale we packed a picnic lunch on Thursday and set off to check it out.  We drove through pine forests, meeting up with heavily loaded logging trucks on the road, finally arriving at Riversdale.  The newly opened  park is quite small and can accommodate 28 vans.  At this stage there is no water or rubbish facilities available, and we were surprised to see about a dozen vans on site.

Riversdale Beach NZMCA

The pretty little St Joseph’s Catholic Church is close to the camp

Riversdale Beach was a bit wild

Next stop was  at the tiny hamlet of Tinui at the cemetery and the start of the Tinui Walkway.  Tinui was the first place in the world to have a formal celebration of Anzac Day. Back in 1914 there were well over 1000 single men in the area, many volunteered to the services and some lost their lives.   In 1916 Rev Basil held an Anzac ceremony at Tinui on the hill top and erected a cross.  This cross was later replaced and is in the original position on top of the hill overlooking the village.  The popularity of this Anzac Day Service has grown enormously over the years, with visitors and locals alike making the early morning trek up the hill.  In the car park we saw the Memorial to Peace boulder, donated by a local family.  This huge rock is local sandstone/shale concretion and dates from 70-80 million years ago.

Memorial to Peace Boulder at Tinui Walkway

Back in the car again and we drove to Castle Point Beach to see the lighthouse.  Castle Point Lighthouse is the North Island's tallest lighthouse standing 52m above sea level and is one of only two left in New Zealand with a rotating beam. It is owned and operated by Maritime New Zealand.  There is a walkway up to the lighthouse which we had walked up previously.  Not this time though, not with my sore back and Robin’s sore knees, we decided to admire it from the car.

Castle Point Lighthouse

Some heavy duty boats parked up on their trailers

We had taken a picnic lunch with us, so sat in the car looking out over the beach while we enjoyed our sandwiches and coffee.  This beautiful sandy beach seems much more suitable for paddling and swimming than Riversdale Beach, and we noticed several family groups enjoying the water.  Not too bad for April, we thought.

Castle Point Beach

That was the end of our coastal adventures so we made our way back to Masterton, stopping off to buy some fresh strawberries from the Wee Red Barn cart.  They will be nice for dessert, and maybe some for breakfast as well.  Back at Solway Park we noticed that horse jumps had been erected in the show grounds.  There is going to be a 3 day horse jumping event taking place, so things will be very busy, and noisy too, we were told.  Just as well we are moving on tomorrow.

Ready for the horse crowd

Kiwitea and looking for Fords

We woke to a fine but coolish Easter Sunday morning so needed the diesel heater going to raise the temperature inside to a more comfortable level.  And look, the Easter Bunny had come calling, lucky us.  Here they were, waiting on the breakfast table for us.

Just for us

After Robin cooked the Sunday breakfast of breakfast sausages, eggs and tomato, in place of our regular Dilmah teabags, we decided to go all fancy and get the tea pot out, together with our cannister of Russian Caravan Tea.  Then Robin went to check the diesel usage after having the heater on night and morning for several days.  Yes, all good there, he told me, still plenty of fuel left.

We called around to see the family at Kiwitea for lunch.  With tasty soup simmering away, and bread fresh out of the bread maker, it all smelt delicious.  The kitten had grown since we last saw her at Christmas, and was quite comfy on the sofa.  Granddaughter Megan arrived too with her new pup Gracie, and had brought  a couple of dried pigs ears for treats, one for Gracie and one for the resident dog Noodle.

All nice and cozy

There is always plenty of work to be done on a farm, holiday weekend or not.  SIL Robert got Shimon to help him in a concreting job, and Robin went out to cast an eye over the proceedings.  Things were looking grim when Robert’s new generator was not up to the job of powering the concrete mixer.  “Would you like to borrow my generator?” Robin asked, which just happened to be in the back of our 4WD.  That certainly did the job, as Robin often says, a red Honda generator (like ours) is the only one to own.

Our red generator to the rescue

Once the concreting job was over, we said our goodbyes and set off to find a couple of camping places for possible future caravan club rallies.  First up was Bartletts Ford, a nice large open grassy area with plenty of room to park.  There was only a handful of people staying there over Easter.   A short walk down the track brought us to the river.

Bartletts Ford

Not too far away was Londons Ford, with a large family group enjoying Easter, complete with a sofa to sit on outside in the Autumn sunshine.  As before, the river wasn't too far away at all.  Both these camping sites have toilet facilities, but they are only open during the summer period.  We preferred Bartletts Ford of the two areas, it seemed a bit more open and not so shady.

Londons Ford

Driving back to Feilding we stopped at Kimbolton for a welcome ice-cream, nothing nicer on a nice warm day,is there.  Parked outside the café was a horse float we had been following on the windy rural road for a while.  The owners went into the café as well, and left the door of the float open to give the horses some fresh air while they waited.

Hello horsey

Arriving last night and parked next to us at Timona Park were Karen and Graham, from the Palmerston North Caravan Club.  We joined them for 4zees and as we hadn’t seen them for a while, had a lot to catch up on. 

Hello again, Karen and Graham

It’s Gemma’s birthday today, and she has just turned four.  She rather enjoys being a caravan cat, coming outside safely on her lead to check out the birdies, and keeping well away from all those dogs – there are plenty of them here at Timona Park.  Lots of locals come here to exercise their dogs off the leash so we don’t allow her outside by herself.  Here she is helping with the blogging, keeping the lap top bag under control for me.

Four years old today

Timona Park for Easter

What’s the weather going to be like for Easter, we wondered?  It could go either way weather-wise, some Easters are cold and wet.  But it look's like sunshine mostly, although the mornings and evenings are starting to get chilly.  We packed up the caravan, ready to leave after an early lunch on Thursday.

Almost packed and ready to go

Mustn't forget to take these with us

It was a good run up to Feilding, with not too much traffic on the roads, although I'm sure that it will get heavier later in the day.  We decided to stay at Timona park, a first for us, staying in the freedom camping area.

Staying at Timona Park

Located on the banks of the Oroua River, this park is popular with locals who walk, cycle and jog by, and exercise their dogs in the sports fields.   The onsite playground includes a tiered fort with mini slides, while the BMX track is also very  popular.   Overnight parking is allowed here for self-contained motorhomes and campervans.  We had a bit of an oopsy with our evening meal on Thursday night.  Because the caravan clock on the wall hadn't been turned back at the end of daylight saving, the meal was cooked and ready to serve very early indeed!  The clock has  been altered so now we know the correct time.

Oroua River

Granddaughter Megan and her boyfriend Michael have just purchased a house, so of course we wanted to go and see them.  We had been invited around for lunch on Good Friday.  There was a working bee busy making the existing fence higher, and gates erected, for they also have a new corgi pup.  While all this work was going on, Megan was cutting the terraced lawn  with her new electric mower.

Megan with her new mower

The fence building team

Gracie wasn't too sure what to make of the visitors in the house,  and there was such a lot of noise going on outside with sawing and banging going on,  so she was having time out in the bedroom, minding her own business.  Such a pretty young dog, although not too sure yet of the grand parents.

Gracie and Megan

Now it’s Autumn the temperatures have been low in the evenings and mornings.  Cold enough to have the diesel heater going to warm things up inside the van.  Robin decided he had better check the tank to see how much fuel had been used – plenty left, he informed me, we wont be going cold any time soon.

Hardly used any, so far

Granddaughter Emma and her boyfriend Shimon called around to the caravan  to see us on Saturday afternoon.  It was lovely to catch up with them both, and Shimon bought us some Easter Eggs, which of course were very well received.  We opened one packet to try, had to give them the taste test didn't we.  The Crème Eggs have been safely spirited away for us to enjoy later on.

Shimon and Emma