Romany Rambler is sold

 Our caravan, named by us as Romany Rambler, has now been sold by C B Caravans, and  has a new home in the South Island.

The van was purchased on October 2019, and according to the log book, which Robin religiously filled in, we had travelled 30820kms before he passed away in November 2024.  So many monthly caravan club rallies, some with the ICA group we also belonged too, several club safaris, and two South Island trips.  There was certainly such a lot of driving up and down the country, towing the van behind us.

The last log book

Although the caravan is now sold, as a Life Member I will still be keeping in touch with the Heretaunga Caravan Club, and be involved with their social outings.  And I hope to do the occasional trip away, albeit a bit differently now.  

Last weekend I drove myself up to Hastings for a family birthday.  That was hard, as I haven't really done long journeys on my own.  Obviously, I was a bit nervous, rather tense and ended up with a sore muscle on my side!  The drive up to Hastings was through drizzly rain, and the never ending road cones on the side of the road.  There never seem to be any workers to go with the road cones, I noticed, but that seems to be what happens these days.  My little car behaved well on the trip, and as a bonus, I had discovered some petrol vouchers tucked away in the caravan when I cleared it out, so that filled the tank for me.  

My little car parked outside a rather uninspiring motel in Hastings

I encountered quite a bit of heavy fog driving out of Hastings on Sunday morning.  Or was it mist, I really don't know the difference.  Time for a spot of morning tea a little later and I turned off the road into Norsewood.  On the 15th September 1872 the sailing ship Hovding arrived at Napier with 483 new settlers from Norway.  A few days later the men trekked through the heavy bush to reach the area now known as Norsewood.  Families followed and the community became established, and over the years many more Scandinavian settlers arrived.  This family of three happy trolls, father, mother and son are in town to welcome travelers.

The happy troll family of Norsewood

Weekend at Feilding

The weather didn't bode well for the caravan club weekend away at Whisnowsky's Pop (Park over Property) in Feilding.  It was raining when we packed the caravan, and raining while we got on our way.

Another rainy day

Owen had put the flag out on the roadside as not everyone had been to this place before.  Eventually nine vans arrived, and we all fitted in rather snuggly.

One behind the other on the gravel

On Saturday morning we were all invited into Owen and Helen's van at 10.00am for an important announcement.  Goodness knows how the poor caravan coped with 17 people squashed inside.  Our hosts were pleased to announce that the long running saga (4 years) of the deisel heater waiting to be fixed was finally over.  It had now been repaired and refitted, and was up working well.  After all this time, finally, a resolution.  And at morning tea there was a cake to celebrate Helen's 70th birthday.

Happy Birthday Helen

In the afternoon a group of us drove to the delightful Christmas Barn.  So many people had the same idea - the place was packed.

Christmas Barn

So many lovely Christmas objects inside, all beautifully displayed.  Elegant Christmas trees everywhere, all colour co-ordinated, shelves full of goodies, and the barn was full to overflowing with customers.  There was really so much to take in.  While the ladies in our group browsed, the men retired to the cafe, where we eventually joined them for a reviving cup of coffee.  Most of the ladies had a little parcel to take back to the camp, including me.

So many beautiful Christmas decorations

We ate our evening meals together in the evening, and all brought a contribution for the shared dessert.  There certainly was plenty of tasty desserts on offer.  And later, when our meals had settled, there were some spirited games of ping pong (table tennis) taking place.  Seems that Flo was the ping pong champion.

Shared desserts

Our hosts, Selwyn and Jan, joined us for the evening meal.

Look at all these cute teddy bears in the front window of prospective member Graham's van, collected over the years by Graham's late wife.  Graham saw me out and about with my camera and invited me to take a photo.

Teddy Bears sold each year to raise funds for the Cancer Society

It often happens, doesn't it, after a wet weekend, Sunday was fine and sunny.  It was a matter of waiting for the front vans to move out, before the ones at the back were free to go.  As people headed off home, we went north, our next stop was Napier.

Weekend at Pohangina

 Spring has sprung at home and the tree in our front yard is bursting with tender new leaves.  Although a little cloudy, we were looking forward to a nice weekend away.

Gemma decided to make life difficult for us, with all the hustle and bustle of packing the caravan going on.  Why not give my people a hard time and hide for a while, she thought.  We were all ready to go and searched here, searched there, to no avail, then searched again.  Robin finally found her curled up and keeping low in a place I had already checked twice!  I don't know why she acts like this, after all she goes away in the caravan once a month at least so should be well used to the routine by now.  Finally she was secured in the car and we got on our way.

Here she is, in the car at last

We were heading off to the Pohangina Domain, formerly the village school.  As we had a lunch date with my daughter, we were the first to arrive, put our van on site, and left before anyone else arrived.  The ground was  very soft and our caravan unfortunately made a few ruts while we backed the van where we wanted it.  The old school grounds are surrounded by lovely mature trees, and there are plenty of native birds everywhere.  And because it is a rural area, lambs were bleating, cattle were mooing, and the roosters were crowing!

The name Pohangina translates to "ulcerated night", suggesting that the valley had been a place of bloodshed between the local Rangitane people and their enemies.

First to arrive

By the time we arrived back  from lunch, most of the others had arrived, settled themselves, and were out enjoying the sunshine.

Some of the vans on site

We had a visitor join us for the weekend, and I'm sure he was a little upset when his car and van got stuck in the soft ground.  No worries, there was plenty of help to unhook his car from the caravan, and with the help of a couple of mats under the wheels, the car was driven away to firmer ground.

Plenty of advice here

Then it was Owen to the rescue with his shiny black Toyota HiLux, his strop hooked up to Graham's van, pulled it out of the mud, and parked it neatly.  Thanks Owen, for your help.

Owen to the rescue

On Saturday afternoon the Rally Family, Stuart and Helen, took us on a tiki tour to the Totara Reserve camping area.  The reserve was not yet open for campers, the gate was locked, but we were able to walk through and check it out.

While some enjoyed a long walk, others sat in the sun and chatted away.  This is a nice camp, and extremely popular over the summer months.  Then it was afternoon tea time.  We walked back to the cars, took out our folding chairs, thermoses and bikkies, sat in a circle on a grassy knoll, and sat enjoying our cuppas in the lovely sunshine.

Maureen, Helen, Owen, Don, Jenny and Robin

The school room was available for the evenings to our group for a small fee, and we gathered there on Saturday night.  But the power wasn't working!  several hundred homes in the area.  We tried various switches, but to no avail.  Eventually someone went on the internet and discovered it was a local fault affecting several hundred homes in the area.  Whew, it wasn't something we had done, luckily.  The power eventually came on, and Helen and Stuart got underway with our evening activity.  They had secured the driving tests for new and renewing drivers, so we answered the 35 questions to the best of our ability, and memories.  I think most of us would have got our licenses renewed.  In a real test, people are allowed only three incorrect answers to get a pass.

Sunday morning was warm and sunny and Helen and Stuart were busy for quite some time cooking on their BBQ.  What were they doing, we wondered.  Cooking up pikelets for everyone for morning tea, that's what!  Served with jam and cream, they certainly went down well, and were most appreciated.  Thanks so much Helen and Stuart, it's been a great rally indeed.

Cooking up pikelets for morning tea

Caravan Club lunch at Denny's

 We organised a day out for our caravan club members, a lunch at Denny's in Porirua.  The interest was excellent, 20 attended, with just a few members unable to make it.  Denny's is a casual, family style restaurant, with quite an extensive menu, something for everyone's tastes.  Our group of 20 was spread out over three tables, and the restaurant was fairly full with other family groups too.  Our members are spread out geographically, some driving over the hill from the Wairarapa, some from the Horowhenua, Kapiti, and the Hutt Valley.

Every one was chatting away, so I thought it was a good time to take some photos.

Then serious business of checking out the the menus took place and we all made our choices.  It was roast pork for Robin and salmon for me.  It took a while for all the 20 meals to be delivered and the noise from our tables certainly decreased while we ate our lunches.

Our meals

After lunch a bit of table hopping took place as we caught up with the others.  A few ordered dessert, some had coffees and we were all happy little campers indeed.  Robin can never pass by a chocolate sundae.

Chocolate sundae for Robin

It was a lovely time out, both the food and the company were great, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.  We are sure to have another caravan club lunch again soon.