Riding the Rails

 Time has got away on me, and I'm only just getting around to tell about our rail trip last month.  Happy travelers waited at the Levin Railway Station and chatted away while we waited in eager anticipation. 

Waiting for our rail adventure

Rather like "Mind the Gap" in UK

 The Spiral Spectacular run by Steam Incorporated left Paekakariki and 7.00am and arrived at Levin Station running a little late.  The excited bunch of travelers identified their correct carriage, and climbed aboard, looking for their seat numbers.  The engine was pulling seven carriages, a bar/lounge car, buffet car, and a viewing car.

Here it comes

Our first stop was Palmerston North when the red diesel engine was changed to an electric engine.  That certainly received a lot of attention from passengers as they crowded around to have a good look.

The engine was changed 

The scenery was spectacular, as we slowly crossed rivers high up on viaducts.  We were amazed to see car loads of train spotters who were following us on the trip, racing ahead in their cars to set up their very impressive cameras on tripods as we trundled past.  

It's a long way down

We had prepared a packed liuch of bacon and egg sandwhiches, shortbread, and somehow a couple of chocolate bars jumped in too.  Robin made the trip to the cafe car for two coffees and we tucked into our lunch at Waiouru.  Some passengers disembarked here for a visit to the Army Museum.

Lunch time 

At last we made it to the Raurimu Spiral, a single track railway spiral, starting with a horseshoe curve.  This was built to overcome the 139m, 456ft height difference on the Main Trunk Line.  The Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand have designated the spiral as a significant engineering heritage site.  Unfortunately the passengers had to remain on the train during our stop here.  Guess it was a health and safety requirement, but we had disembarked here on an earlier trip.

Raurimu

On the way back Mt Ruapehu was playing hide and seek with the cloud cover,  but we know it is hiding there somewhere.

Mt Ruapehu

The passengers who had disembarked at Waiouru rejoined the train and we all settled back to enjoy the homeward trip.  Some of us had decided to pre-order our evening meal from the Hunterville Hotel.  The train glided to a stop, the volunteers on each carriage jumped out, and came back loaded with boxes.

Collecting the dinner boxes

Well, we certainly didn't go hungry.  There was chicken salad, a bread roll, fruit salad, cheese and crackers and a brownie.  So much in fact, that we took some of it home with us.

Dinner box

The light was fading and we traveled the last part of the journey in darkness, whizzing by farms and small towns.  Oh look, I think we are almost in Levin.  The train stopped, we were reminded to take all our belongings with us, and we stepped off the train about 8.30pm.  It was a long day, but such fun.

Sunny Days and Chilly Evenings

 Sunny days and chilly mornings and evenings, that's what the weather was like at Napier over our four night stay.  Just as well we had a hard working diesel heater keeping us cozy and warm when needed.  There was a busy morning in camp when a big truck and trailer arrived, plus earth moving equipment.  A few holes in the gravel driveway were filled, and soil added to top up depressions in the grass areas.

We were here again so quickly since our last trip at Easter, to attend the memorial service for my brother-in-law Dennis.  My sister Kathleen passed away three years ago during Covid lockdown, and her husband Dennis died last week.  It was a nice service, sad at times of course, but plenty of happy memories.  Dennis enjoyed writing stories and poetry, painted and did carving, he was  very talented indeed.  This is one of his short poems which those of us who are getting older could certainly relate to.

Hideout Henry

I'm playing hide and seek with Henry, and I'd better find him quick

I'm wobbly today and kind of dizzy, and Henry's my walking stick.

Driving around one day we passed a paddock filled with small round red fruit, not strawberries surely at this time of year.  So we stopped for a good look, and discovered they were low growing tomatoes, they looked like acid free tomatoes to me.  That was unexpected, seems quite late in the season for tomatoes to be grown outside.

Tomatoes growing in May

We were on our way to one of my favourite cafes for morning tea.  Silky Oak Chocolates sell all sorts of chocolately goodies.  We chose an iced chocolate for him and a hot chocolate for her, so delicious.

Silky Oak Chocolate Cafe

Robin was wondering how long our gas bottle would last.  Of course, it emptied in the early hours of the morning, and we woke to find the fridge flashing.  No wonder I couldn't get the gas lit to boil the kettle for our early morning cuppa.   So out he went in the chilly morning to swap the fitting to the other gas bottle, and he got it refilled later in the morning.  Prices for a gas refill obviously vary throughout the country, this fill was quite a bit cheaper than what we pay at home.

Filling the gas bottle

Starting the journey home on Monday morning we fueled up then stopped at the West Shore dump station.  While Robin was taking care of business I walked up to take a photo of the bird sculpture.  Stopping here often, this  was the first time I had taken a close look at it.

Public art installation

Lunch stop was at Woodville and we popped over to check out the Woodville Camp site.  Quite small with about 8 power sites, and $20.00 per person per night.

 Woodville motor camp

Taking a different route home, we drove over the long Ballance  Bridge, along a narrow country road, eventually arriving at the Pahiatua Track, arriving home mid afternoon.

Ballance Bridge

Trip to Hawkes Bay

 We have a family Memorial to attend in Hastings this weekend, so decided to set out early and have a four day trip, instead of rushing there and back.  Our trip up was anything but rushed, due to a couple of detours and the  huge amount of orange road cones everywhere.  The first detour we encountered was close to home, when the road out of our village was closed and we went all round the streets to get back on track.  That took a little bit of time, but soon we were on our way.  

We were joined by a long stream of motor bike riders just north of Levin, and they traveled just ahead of us up and over the Saddle Road.  There was not too much wind blowing up the top as some of the wind turbines were very sluggish indeed.  Just before Dannevirke we were directed on a very long detour indeed, taking us along Top Grass Road.  We estimated this detour was about 15km long, taking us along some roads not traveled before.  

At last we rejoined SH2, and stopped for lunch at the Matamau Diner, north of Dannevirke for a coffee, to go with our lunch, something I had prepared earlier, as the saying goes.  Our caravan looked very tiny indeed, dwarfed by the huge trucks which had also stopped for lunch.

First time we have stopped here.

Then we continued on our way, meeting up with more road works, stop and go signs, and millions of road cones.  That's the way to make money, we reckon, manufacture road cones for all these miles of road works!

At last we arrived at Napier NZMCA park, this was a really slow trip indeed.

Eriksen Road Park is very roomy,  but much of the area had been roped off.  Not because of flooding, as we thought, but because areas of the lawn had been reseeded.

There was still plenty of sites available, we found ourselves one, settled down, and made a cuppa.  Yes, we needed one after the long slow trip.

Home for the next four nights

It was fish and chips from the Filter Room for dinner, they certainly are delicious.  Robin had a bit of a wait as several orders delivered by Uber Eats went out first.  

Robin is on dinner duty tonight

It will be a chilly 6 degrees tonight.  But we are tucked up tight, nice and comfy with the diesel heater keeping us warm.  I'm sure Gemma will spent the night cuddled up on the bed with us too.