Helping the Aussies

There was a “rat-a-tat” on the caravan door on Saturday morning.  The Aussie tourists had got their rental motor-home bogged down in the sodden ground at the Greytown Campground and couldn’t move.  Could someone help them?  Sure, they were told, but not till we had finished  watching the America’s Cup race on TV.  Once the race had concluded, all the blokes went outside to help.  The Aussie started up the engine, put the camper into gear, and five caravanners of assorted shapes and sizes started pushing.  Not that their combined muscles made the least little difference, the van remained firmly stuck in the mud.

First they pushed from the back

Perhaps if they rock the motor-home from the front it might relieve some of that pressure and get those wheels loose?  So they tried, and tried, but no – the vehicle was still stuck fast.

Then they tried from the front

Onto Plan C.  Just as well Robin has a big grunty 4WD – he could tow it out.  He backed the Toyota Landcruiser to the front of the stranded motor-home but………..  what shall we use to pull it out?  Did anyone have a rope?  Luckily Peter had one tucked away, and it was soon attached.

Attaching the tow rope

Robin accelerated slowly and carefully and the rope tightened.  Success at last, the motor-home was freed from the muddy site.  But the moral of the story is that Robin put his towing strop in the 4WD as soon as we returned home – you never know when it might be needed again.

Landcruiser to the rescue

The Aussie campers were pleased to freed and could finally get on their travels again.  It turns out that they are olive growers from Yackandandah, Victoria.  As a token of appreciation for our help, he gave our group a couple of packets of Dukkah which his company produces.  That certainly made for quite a different type of nibbles later in the afternoon at 4zees.  We purchased some French Bread from  the trendy French Bakery up town, plus a bottle of extra virgin olive oil.  Not everyone had tried Dukkah and olive oil before so we had a quick run down of how to taste it.  With the bread cut into rounds, take one and dip it in the bowl of oil.  Then dip the oiled bread into a dish of Dukkah, and enjoy.  We had two to try, golden spicy nut made with macadamia nuts and sesame seed, and the darker olive and tomato variety.   Mmmm, just love those tasty Mediterranean flavours. 

Greytown Campground

The falling rain and sodden grounds didn’t dampen our weekend rally one little bit.  There was a roomy kitchen area available, and we certainly made good use if it over the weekend.  Sadly, this time around, the weather was not fine enough to sit outside.  Most of us wandered up to the local shopping area in the rain on Saturday morning to spend a few dollars and help the local economy.   Greytown is one of those “trendy” shopping towns, and attracts a lot of weekend shoppers.  We like to visit the local independent butcher when we are camping here, who produces a great range of tasty gourmet sausages, black puddings and salamis.  I couldn’t help myself and bought up large, enough for several extra tasty meals.  Just up the street from the butcher, we noticed a rather unusual car for sale on the back of a truck.  Anyone looking for a racing car?

  For sale in Greytown

Everyone joined in with the “brain teasers” on Saturday night, although we noticed that some brains worked better than others.  The judges decision was loudly challenged at times when the answers were given, but it was all good fun.  Although we sometimes have to wonder at the thought processes of some of our members.  The ladies put their baking skills  to the test and brought along a plate of their favourite home made slice for a shared supper.

President Derek had a pleasant duty to perform on Sunday morning when he welcomed new members Barry and Dianne into our club.  They had attended the obligatory three rallies with our club members and we didn’t scare them off, so that was good.  We hope they enjoy many happy years caravanning with our club.

Derek welcoming Barry and Dianne into our club

After an early lunch, we all packed off and headed for home.  The rain was still falling as we sloshed around in the wet and soggy grass doing those jobs which must be completed, hooking up the van, winding up the legs, then it was “goodbye all”, and off we went.  Our journey took us north through Carterton and Masterton, and up and over the Pahiatua Track.  Just as well Robin was concentrating hard on his driving over this narrow, windy part of the journey, as a large number of big bulky milk tankers came barrelling towards us, on the way from Fonterra’s Pahiatua site.  Every morning, New Zealand farmer shareholders milk their cows, the milk is stored in refrigerated vats on the farms and collected daily by the large tankers.  Fonterra’s Pahiatua site processes 1.4 million litres of milk each day from farms across Northern Hawkes Bay to Southern Wairarapa and Wellington, turning it into 55,000 tonnes of whole milk powder each year.  We think we must have met most of those large tankers on our way home.

We met plenty of these on the road

The rain clouds followed us home all the way, and we dodged showers as we unpacked the caravan. In came the food, the clothes, the big bag of laundry that needs dealing with.  Another rally weekend over, but no matter the weather, it is always great to get away.

Dark clouds on the drive home

Tootling down to Greytown

Friday morning it was goodbye to Pahiatua and hello Greytown, an easy drive down through the Wairarapa.  Greytown Campground is in such a pretty setting, with native tuis and woodpigeons very easy to spot in the as they fly around the tall trees.  Neil and Ann Smith are the new camp managers and have already made many improvements to the facilities and camp sites. 

Greytown Campground

We all arrived early on Friday afternoon, and the eagle eyed blokes soon spotted that Peter and Elaine had a new car.  “Want to look under the bonnet?”, Peter asked.  There was no stopping them, it was like bees to a honeypot, nothing beats checking out a mate’s new car purchase.

What’s under here?

The campground is set in the historical Soldiers Memorial Park, and the land was purchased in 1920 with money raised by the community.  The adjacent O'Connor's bush, 8ha, is one of the last remnants of lowland forest in Wairarapa, with huge totara, matai, titoki, and tawa trees, some up to 400 years old.  This tranquil area provides food and shelter for many native birds, tuis, wood pigeons,  fantails and grey warblers.  The sports field, croquet green, tennis courts, children's playground and camping ground were added largely by community working bees and helped by various grants.  In 1922 117 lime trees were planed to commemorate the 117 soldiers from the community who died in World War One.

Impressive Memorial Gates to the Motor Camp

Native trees in the adjacent O'Connor's Bush

The sunny Friday weather came to an abrupt and in the evening when lightning lit up the skies and thunder boomed overhead.    The campgrounds soon became sodden and we sloshed across the muddy grass all weekend, but that was nothing compared to disruptions the storm caused over the hill in Wellington.  Power was out in many areas, the heavy rain caused flooding, and   some flights in and out of Wellington Airport were cancelled.  Our little band of campers got off quite lightly, by the sound of it.  And Muffy slept blissfully through each and every thunderclap, curled up safe and sound in the caravan.

 

Fork lightning over Wellington. Photo / Twitter.com/charcarruthers

Giant Sun sighted in Greytown

Another rally weekend rolled around, the caravan was packed and hooked on, Muffy stowed safely away on the back seat of the car, and we were off.  First stop was at the petrol station to check the tyres.  Robin likes to make sure both the caravan and car tyres are correctly inflated before we take a trip.  We were travelling over the steep Rimutaka Hill to Greytown.

Checking the tyres

Greytown is a very pretty town in the Wairarapa, with many trendy shops and cafes.   We drove through the handsome stone Memorial Gates topped with a wrought iron archway, and along a tree lined driveway into the camp at the rear of the park.

Soldiers Memorial Gate at Greytown Park

The Motor Camp was quite full with a lot of people staying the weekend to enjoy the Balloon Festival. (We had previously seen this several times so it was not on our agenda for the weekend.) The camp is very reasonably priced at $20 per night, and four caravans from our club enjoyed warm sunny weekend weather.  Lots of family groups in tents were dotted about the camp, and youngsters were riding their trikes around the grass.  We were horrified to discover a wasp nest under a tree root very close to the camp facilities so made sure both the Camp Manager and the young parents were aware of the danger.

Our group at Greytown Motor Camp

The Motor Camp is ideally situated at only a short walk from town, or an even shorter drive, if a bit of shopping or a cafe fix is required.  We needed to purchase a few items and I noticed something unusual in the Supermarket car park.  It is not often you find a sheep being taken to town and parked up in the shoppers car park.

The sheep out shopping

There was quite a bit of excitement on Sunday morning and Elaine came running over to tell us some news.  She banged on the door.  “Are you dressed yet?”, she wanted to know, “come and have a look at this.” We rushed outside to have a look.  As a finale to the balloon weekend, some of the balloonists were out enjoying the calm early morning conditions.  A giant sun balloon was peeping over the trees.

Here comes the sun

The little children were thrilled to see the sun with his cheeky face looking down at them.  More balloons soon followed the sun and the children were pointing, the cameras were snapping, and we all enjoyed this unexpected morning show.

Our weekend in Greytown came to a close, but it wasn’t over yet.  Geoff had arranged to take a day’s leave on Monday so  suggested an extra night away.  Everyone thought that was a great idea - but the question was, where shall we go? 

Open Season on Gnomes

Duck shooting season has started, but what about the gnomes? They were fair game during our caravan rally at Greytown in the weekend, with everyone taking pot shots at them. Graeme and Kathryn were the dastardly couple who organised the gnome shooting gallery on Saturday afternoon. What do they have against gnomes, anyway?

The instigators of the great gnome shoot

They provided us with a plastic spud gun, and we were asked to bring along a raw potato. Dig the gun into the potato, we were told, which makes a sort of pellet. Then aim, and shoot. Pellets of raw potatoes were pinging around all over the place, and some gunslingers even managed to hit the targets. Some of our group took this very seriously indeed, out to win at all costs. Others were absolutely hopeless and hardly managed to shoot a gnome at all.

I just hope that the Gnome Protection Society never finds out what we got up

Things were much more refined on Sunday morning when the men had to make a corsage for their partner to celebrate Mother’s Day, and the ladies made a floral button hole for the man in their life. Artificial flowers were provided to make our task easier. The impartial judge declared that Robin and Eileen’s creations were the winners.

Everyone wearing their floral tributes

It was a great weekend with lots of fun and laughter, and catching up with everyone’s news.

Welcome to the Wanderers

Who are these old friends at our caravan rally this weekend at Greytown? Why, it’s Dot and Derek, all the way from good old Blighty! They left the joys of canal cruising aboard their very own NB Gypsy Rover for a month to meet up with family and friends back here in New Zealand. You can imagine how noisy it was all weekend, chatter, chatter, chatter, catching up on everyone’s news. I presented them with a little Father Christmas clutching a kiwi to remind them of home when they are back on their canal boat enjoying a British white Christmas. There is a bit of a story about this gift, I had put it away in such a safe place that I couldn’t find it for a couple of years!

Special Kiwi wishes for Christmas

Greytown is a nice quiet camp surrounded by large trees and has an adjacent stand of native bush. We practically had the camp to ourselves the whole weekend. Pamela and Don arrived with a brand new caravan, so that got everyone talking. We all gave it the once-over and declared it “great”.

New caravan at it’s inaugural rally

We took a walk on Saturday afternoon, looking at some fabulous homes that none of us would ever be able to aspire to. We can dream, though, can’t we? There are certainly some great properties in this area, and plenty of wonderful old trees. We came across this lovely old oak tree which was well over 100 years old. Lots of fallen leaves everywhere making a carpet of brown and gold all over the footpaths, and the sweet smell of fallen apples from the local apple orchards certainly reminded us that we are now in Autumn.

Robin and the old oak tree

“Wear a Hat” was the instruction for our Wine and Cheese evening on Saturday night. No problem, we all have a funny hat or two tucked away in our caravans somewhere. There were hats with bells, long dangly bits hanging off them, a couple with flashing lights, and one that would certainly have graced a wedding. And who is that man in the black Afro wig, perhaps it’s one of the Jacksons? The selection of wine and cheese was great, too. It was a fun night.

That’s us in our funny hats!

After a very full weekend our cat Muffy was plumb tuckered out when we arrived home. She lay down in the hallway and watched while we went in and out bringing multiple loads in from the caravan. After all, she had to do the meet and greet thing herself with everyone over the weekend. All our friends wanted to talk to her, and tell her how pretty she is. It’s a hard life being a caravan cat, sometimes. I think she will be quite happy staying at home again for a while.

Muffy, all tired out

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Greytown here we come

We woke to a glorious pink and golden sunrise with the morning sun getting ready to appear above the Eastern hills. It looks like it’s going to be a wonderful weekend for a caravan rally over the Rimutaka Hill at Greytown.

Early morning sunrise

Even though our caravan is well set up, it always takes a while to pack for a weekend away. Clothes and footwear have to be taken in and packed way, and it’s getting cooler so we will need to take some winter woollies. Then there are the fridge items to organise, fruit and veggies, meat, cheese and milk. Mustn’t forget the bacon and eggs for our Sunday breakfast. Our cat Muffy is coming away too this weekend, so I have to make sure I take her cat food, crunchies and food bowl. And I don’t want to forget to take my new library book, I’m looking forward to reading that.

After many trips in and out with armfuls of all sorts of items I felt rather like that character in Ralph McTell’s song, “The Streets of London” . You remember how it goes:

She's no time for talking, just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.

We will be welcoming our friends Dot and Derek, home for a month’s holiday from UK, to our rally weekend, their first in 4 years. While we have been going away on caravan trips every month, Dot and Derek have been cruising along the canals of UK in their boat NB Gypsy Rover. Don’t think they will find any canals in Greytown, but I’m sure they will have plenty of stories to tell us of their cruising adventures. It will be great to have the gang all together again.