Ohaupo and Back

After a very wet caravan rally weekend at Whanganui River we farewelled our camping buddies and headed off on separate journeys.   I joined the masses (with Gemma in my little car) trying to find my way out of Whanganui bypassing road closures, detours, slips and flooding to get home.  And Robin towed the caravan northwards to Ohaupo for a caravan service.  He came across a number of stop-go traffic lights on the Paraparas as well as several slips half covering the road.  Eventually he made his way to the NZMCA park at Taumaranui for the night, being the only van on site.

Caravan rally at Whanganui

The next day he drove on to Leisureline at Ohaupo where he was very conveniently plugged into power for the night.  The service got underway and discussions took place to check out a leak and extra work required  when the caravan is booked in for this later in September.  Returning to collect the caravan after the service, the next overnight stop was at Otorohanga.  A visit uptown to Haddards shop was on the “to do” list to purchase a couple of pair of shorts from this iconic shop for the summer season. 

Otorohanga

Where to next?  It had to be Ohakune Club  for the night.  And what a night it was, up close to the mountain it was so freezing cold it woke Robin up.  At 3.00am the trusty diesel heater was fired up, on went a wooly hat, and Robin finally got back to sleep.  There was an ulterior motive for stopping at Ohakune, a visit to “The Chocolate Éclair Shop”.  The fruit turnovers were packaged up and put in the freezer, he ate one chocolate éclair after his meal, and the others came home to share.

That’s a lot of goodies

Then he made the last part of the journey heading home, stopping off at Flat Hills in Ohingaiti along SH1 for brunch.  There is plenty of parking there for caravans and motorhomes.  Home at last in the early afternoon bearing chocolate eclairs as a coming home gift.  Then the unpacking began and the caravan was finally moved back into it’s parking place around the corner.

Time to unpack the van

With “King’s Birthday Weekend” coming up fast, we will be packing the van once more and heading off on another adventure.  I’m sure it will take a while to get used to that phrase, after all it’s been “Queen’s Birthday” for 70 years, so the new name doesn't easily roll off the tongue just yet.

Very Wet at Whanganui

The weekend rally with the caravan club was held at Whanganui River Top 10 Motor Camp.  With instructions not to arrive prior to 2.00pm, we met up with Owen and Helen on a lay by and spent some time enjoying our respective lunches  with them.    Then it was time to move on, arriving at the camp just after 2.00pm – surprise, surprise, there were plenty of early bird club members already there.  The instructions were to keep off the grass, which was sodden, and we maneuvered the vans onto concrete pads.  These are obviously made with camper vans in mind, as they were not very big at all.  There was a great turnout for the weekend, with 11 vans in total.

Whanganui Top 10

The facilities at this camp are excellent, and the following morning I took a little walk around to the wet grounds to see what I could see.  The Whanganui River is right on the edge of the camp, and the locals have a saying about it.  “I am the river, and the river is me”. 

Whanganui River

There was a playground for kids, and a bird aviary.  Those birds didn't want their photos taken, when I approached the netting, they quickly flew right over to the other side.  There was a well stocked herb garden and a multi armed sign post showing you where to go, or maybe, where you have come from.

Around the camp

On Saturday afternoon the rally families had us driving around and jumping in and out of cars.  Each car had a team of four, and we were sent on our way with a list of instructions to find various things around the town.  Plus we had to take a cell phone photo to prove we had been there.  Our instructions took us to the Drurie Hill elevator to confirm what year it had opened – way back in 1919 as it was a way of getting home owners from the new Drurie Hill subdivision down the hill to work and school.  Previously, they made their way up and down a very steep line of steps – imagine doing that with a pram and a couple of toddlers!

This way to the elevator

Then it was in the car and back up the hill to check out the Memorial Tower. Questions to be answered were – how many steps to the top of the tower, 176 it stated on the plaque so we didn't have to clamber up the top, counting as we went.  And 513 people from the Whanganui district died in WW1.

Memorial Tower

One attraction we had to find, which none of us knew about, was the Queen’s Park Carillion.  We were expecting to see a concrete tower, but it was not constructed like that at all.  The Carillion in Queen's Park was installed in 1981 to mark the opening of the Farm Equipment Company's new factory in Wanganui. The company was owned by Dutch firm P J Zweggers en Zonen, and as this was their first factory to be built outside Europe, they wished to provide a traditionally Dutch gift to the town.  The bells were constructed in the Netherlands by prestigious bell foundry Petit & Fritsen and installed in Queen's Park by Emmett Brothers. The Carillion is equipped with eighteen bells and can be controlled manually by a keyboard housed inside the plinth, while it uses a hole punched plastic tape to play programmed melodies. 

Very attractive Carillion with 18 bells

Our car trip ended with us all finding our way up past Virginia Lake to the Pukeko’s Nest Café for an ice-cream, or coffee.  It certainly was an afternoon with a difference, taking us out and about around Whanganui.

Time for refreshments

In the evening we all pooled cars again and drove to the Whanganui East Club for a meal.  Lots of nice choices, but sadly to Robin’s regret, the lamb shanks were no longer available.  We had roast pork instead, and very nice it was too.

Dinner time

It rained incessantly on Saturday night and we awoke to news of flooding, trees down, and road closures.  This certainly made getting home a bit of a trial.  Robin was taking the caravan up to Ohaupo for a service and I was taking Gemma home in my little car.  Getting out of the city was a challenge in itself as I came across a road closed sign, was sent up the hill to the water tower and back down again hoping to get on my way, but no, this part of the road was closed too.  So I decided to back track and take the country road to Fordell, getting lost a couple of times along the way.  More detours, another road closed, driving through water flowing over the road, help, get me out of here.  I found out later that flooding and slips forced the closure of parts of State Highway 1 and State Highway 3 after torrential overnight rain, no wonder I had to travel so far along narrow roads to get back to the main road.  I was so thankful to get back home safely.  Robin just took things quietly on his trip north and arrived at his overnight stop safe and sound too. 

Anzac Parade State Highway 4 in Whanganui was closed due to a slip. Photo / Finn Williams

No wonder I had so much trouble getting out of town on Sunday.  I was concerned about Gemma being in her carry cage for much longer than anticipated, and must admit driving in those conditions was a worry for me.  But it all ended well, thank goodness.

Old Folks

The weather this week has been cold and wet.  The sun is out now, although temperatures are still low, low enough to have our heat pump on in the evenings.  And just to show us how chilly it has been, there was a dusting of snow on the tops of the Tararua Ranges behind our home.  Brrr, winter is not too far away now.

We had a day out at the movies yesterday, cashing in a Christmas gift card from grand-daughter Emma.  What to see?  I thought the film Allelujah sounded good.  A bunch of old folks in a small hospital, living and laughing their way through their troubles, so I thought.  That should be good for a laugh – after all, some people would class us as old folks these days.

Allelujah

The cast was excellent, with Jennifer Saunders, Judi Dench, and Derek Jacobi.  But the story was unexpected, and rather dark.  When the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital is threatened with closure, it fights back by galvanizing the local community. The hospital invites a news crew to film the preparations for a concert honouring its most distinguished nurse.  And what a nurse she was, moving on her elderly patients with an evening cup of hot milk laced with morphine.  Her dubious methods all came to a close when dishy Dr Valentine finds out through some sneaky around the corner I-pad filming by Judy Dench who wanted to share it with the film crew.  The film ends with the small hospital closed, the nurse arrested, the patients moved to other homes, and the nursing staff to other hospitals.  The last few scenes show Dr Valentine run off his feet in a Covid Ward, tending to a former patient from Liverpool who loses the battle with Covid.  Not at all the “feel good” story I was expecting, but definitely showing the stresses  that medical staff are battling with these days.

Just as well we decided on lunch out in the movie café, to cheer us up a bit.  Our menu choices were a bit different.  Battered pork belly bites for him, and Asian dumplings for her, followed by a coffee and a Coke, very tasty indeed.

It was a good day out, and we came away with the thought of a couple of other films we would like to see.   

Weekend at Shannon

We spent the weekend with the caravan club at Shannon School.  Being a school day, there was supposeably no entry to the grounds till 4.00pm, but I suspect most were on site earlier than that.

Shannon School

It was a bit of a tight squeeze through the gates, and we were parked up on two adjacent areas.  For those, like us, with longer vans, it took quite a bit of maneuvering to slot into place.

We all managed to squeeze in

Once we got organised, and the legs wound down, Gemma found the caravan wardrobe door open and squeezed inside for a while, she loves these kinds of hidey holes. Just look at that cheeky face peeking out.

Here’s looking at you, Mum

The use of the hall was included in our fees for the weekend, and we gathered there on Friday evening.  Some of the longer term members were encouraged to reminisce about the early years of the club, places we had visited, things we had got up to in our younger years.  And how the clubs had changed over time, with several of the local clubs no longer in existence.

On Saturday afternoon Robin and I had planned a mystery tiki tour of the local area, to conclude with a BYO afternoon tea.  Cars were shared and off we went.  First stop was quite a marvel of engineering, the Moutoa Sluice Gates.  These were built in 1962 as a flood protection measure.  The Manawautu River here runs very sluggishly, and when in flood the river would overwhelm the stop banks and flood farmland.  The sluice gates cause much of the river flow to take a short cut, bypassing 30km of low capacity river channel, directing the flow down the 10km Moutoa Floodway.  This happens about every fifteen months or so.

Moutoa Sluice gates

Back down the road a short way we stopped again, at the site of the WW11 Whitaunui Military Defaulters Camp, one of two in the area.  Sadly, nothing to see now, but in it’s time the two camps housed 250 conscientious objectors. The huts used to house the men were built by the Public Works Dept., mostly two men huts measuring 8ft by 10ft together with some single men huts.  The unheated huts were furnished with beds and straw mattresses, a pillow, and old army blankets.  The men were also provided with a small table and stool.  You could imaging how cold the winter conditions would be.  The men were required to work in wet conditions, cutting flax.  One of the more famous detainees was Rex Hilary, brother of Sir Edmund Hilary.

Photo of the huts at the Detention Centre

Back in the cars again we headed up to the hills for our final stop, the Mangahao National White Water Centre.  No races down the river this day, of course, but we could see the overhead rails all in place.  Thousands of man hours were poured into making rock groynes, clearing out the river and establishing the site.  Throughout the 70s and 80s the Mangahao White Water Park hosted dozens of successful events.  Over the years the park has been upgraded to international standards, and training takes place here by locals and international teams.

Part of the course

There were handy picnic tables on the river bank so we settled down to enjoy our afternoon tea.  Out came the thermoses, the coffee and biscuits, and we all soaked up the peaceful atmosphere.

Afternoon tea on the river bank

There were walks to be had, down the path along the river, or up the road to the nearby power station.  That’s the way I went, over the bridge to view the rather old building.  The Mangahao Power Station was opened in 1924 and continues to provide power to the National grid.

Mangahao Power Station

This was the last stop on our mystery drive so we made our way back to the school and 4zees time.  In the evening we gathered back in the school hall for another get together.  Most were happy to chat the evening away, while others played a game of snakes and ladders on a rather large floor mat, tossing a big foam dice around to see if their points took them climbing up the ladder or sliding down the snake.

Saturday evening sun set

After Sunday morning tea we packed up and headed for home.  I was intrigued by the school skate boards and helmets all lined up in the hall passage waiting to take the students on rides around the school grounds.

Ready to roll

It was a great weekend away, with most of our members attending.  Good fun, and not too far from home. for us.