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.