On to Otorohanga

It was raining when we left the lake and started on the next stage of our trip, traveling along minor roads again till we reached our destination of Otorohanga. 

Nearly there

The plan was to stay at the NZMCA  camp for three nights so we could attend a family birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The camp was about half full when we arrived, several campers had dogs, all on leads we were happy to see.  And our next door neighbour had a tabby cat who spent most of the day snoozing under the awning tucked up on a picnic chair.

Staying at Otorohanga NZMCA Park

I think the heat was getting to Gemma as she lay stretched out on the bed for the rest of the day, too tired to do anything.

Flat out on the bed

Otorohanga is a nice little town and the following day we went exploring. 

We found an intriguing sign saying “Historic Tree”, wonder what that is all about?  And there it is.

Historic tree, Huiputea

This 300 year old Kahikatea tree was the site of a skirmish in 1822 between Ngati Maniapoto and Ngapuhi.  The war party captured some women and made camp under the tree.  The women were carrying baskets when they were captured and were told to place them under the tree, which became known as Huiputea, heap of baskets.  Other Waikato warriors tracked then and the Ngapuhi were defeated. 

Our explorations took us north, and we stopped at Kihikihi, home to Viands Bakery – we just can’t pass a good pie shop by.  Originally the plan was to enjoy one of their pies for lunch, but it was only mid morning.  Instead we purchased two cold pies, and popped them in the freezer when we returned back to the caravan,  to enjoy at a later date. 

Viands Pies at Kihikihi

Driving on to Hamilton we refilled the gas bottle, and topped up the diesel in the car.  Next on our list was to find the Whatawhata Berry Farm we had read about.  Seems every man and his kids where here too, the car park was full to bursting.  Pick your own berries was  in full swing and seemed to be a family favourite thing to do in the Christmas break, we saw lots of family groups carrying their cardboard baskets into the strawberry fields.

Whatawhata Berry Farm

That idea sounded like too much hard work for this pair of oldies, so we purchased some berries from the farm shop instead, blue berries, raspberries and blackberries, yummy.  And ordered a mixed berry ice-cream each too.  With such a crowd, it took a while, but certainly worth the wait, they were delicious.

Robin collecting our icecreams

We found a seat under a sun shade and got to work on those ice-creams.  The weather was so hot that the ice-cream was melting as we did our best to consume them before it all ran down our fingers!  Luckily we won the melting race, with just a few drips here and there.

Busy eating ice-creams

There was a pair of giant jandals out in the car park, that needed a photo too.  I've got no idea about the story behind this sculpture, Mr Google was no help at all.  Perhaps someone else knows?

Giant jandals at the berry farm

Then it was a peaceful drive back to camp, where we spent most of the afternoon cooling off while  sitting under the shade of the awning.  Gemma was happy to be outside too, and a couple of neighbours popped over to see her and say hello.  “Is she friendly?”  a lady asked me, hoping to pat her.  I had to say that she wasn’t really the most friendly of cats, she just wanted to sit outside without being bothered.