Our old Home Town

 Although we have been living in Horowhenua for the last few years, I always think of the Hutt Valley as my home town.  Robin lived here too as a young boy before his family moved to New Plymouth.  The drive down along the motorway and then on to the Transmission Gully road makes the journey quite quick these days.  We traveled down to meet up with a friend for lunch

We stopped across the road from the Lower Hutt Town Hall, and I reminisced to Robin how I used to attend Youth Club on Sunday afternoons at the adjacent Horticultural Hall, which has now been replaced.  What fun I had as a young teen rock'n'rolling the afternoon away.  Dances were also held in the Town Hall - those were the days.

Town Hall and the black building replaced the Horti Hall of my youth

Across the road are taps supplying fresh artesian water for residents.  People come and go to fill their containers with this water, and there is a much larger outlet at Buick St, Petone, in fact there are 25 water fountains supplying artesian water across Lower Hutt.  The water comes from the Waiwhetu Aquifer, a natural underground water system located the Hutt Valley and Wellington Harbour.  Aquifer water goes through a natural filtration process underground.  Then before the water comes out of the taps it goes through a filtration and UV treatment on-site to ensure it is safe to drink.

Artesian water taps at Dowse Square

As we had a little time to spare before meeting up, we decided to drive down to Petone Beach, park up and enjoy a coffee from the coffee cart.  There were plenty of people walking by, enjoying the sea breeze on a lovely sunny morning.  Wellington City is across the harbour.

Coffee in the car at Petone Beach

Petone Beach has seen a lot of history.  In 1840 the first six immigrant ships arrived at Petone Beach.  With the help of the local Maori people, the first settlers built huts along the foreshore.  Many of Petone streets are named after the early settler ships, and there is an interesting Settlers Museum which tells the story of these new arrivals.

We were here to meet up with my old school friend Merilyn who had flown up from Dunedin for a family Memorial Service for her brother.  It was a sad time for her, farewelling one of her siblings, and I was pleased we had a couple of hours together.  As usual, it was just like we had never been apart, there's always plenty to chat about.  We last caught up with Merilyn and her hubby last year on our South Island trip.  And guess what, we told her, we are hoping to have another South Island caravan trip in the New Year!  That's the plan, anyway.

Jenny and Merilyn