Final Days in Napier

 The Easter weather in Napier was a mixed bag, reasonably fine but with cold winds, making sitting outside a rather chilly experience.  Luckily it had warmed up on Sunday morning and we took ourselves off to the Hastings Market.  Geoff and Eileen had been experiencing battery troubles so decided to head home a day early.  We waved them goodbye with a few Easter Eggs from the Easter Bunny.

What a crowd there was, families with kids, people with dogs and plenty of golden oldies like us.  My aim was to purchase some fresh seasons apples, found them easily enough.  Then we did some cheese tasting, and three lots of cheese jumped into our bag.  A couple of nice fresh bread rolls for our lunch, and some beef from the meat stall, and that was our lot.  We came away feeling quite pleased with our purchases.

After lunch back at the van we took a trip with Owen and Helen out to Esk Valley to see how the Hawkes Bay Caravan and Camping Club was faring after the disastrous Esk Valley floods.

As we had been told, the club had lost their small apple orchard in front of the camp.  The club rooms had been gutted and the club members were waiting to be told what could be done.  Obviously, there had been a lot of work done clearing silt and debris from the grounds, but now everything is at a standstill.  Power and sewerage will need to be reconnected.  So sad to see.

HB Clubrooms will need a lot of work

To cheer ourselves up we stopped for a fruit ice-cream on the way home.  And I just needed to purchase a pumpkin, it will be soup time before I know it.

Helen, Owen and Robin enjoying their ice-creams in the sun shine

We enjoyed  4zees  back in camp with some Easter Eggs the Easter Bunny had dropped off for us to enjoy.

 Oh yummy, Easter Eggs

John and Flo departed the next morning, so then we were down to two vans.    Our anticipated  family lunch didn't go ahead as my niece was not well, so we took ourselves off to check out the delights of Napier.  The Six Sisters row of houses were worth a photo shoot.  Apparently they were built by an architect who wanted a two storey house for each of his daughters.  They are among the few survivors of the massive 1931 Napier earthquake.  Some of the  houses are now owned by commercial businesses, with a few  reverting back into family homes.

The Six Sisters

We then drove around the port to check out Perfume Point freedom camping area.  There was plenty to see, ships and tugs off the coast, families playing on the beach, even a couple of brave people taking a dip.

Whose is this we spotted?  It was Doug and Desma, our friends from the ICA group, who had also arrived for a breath of salty sea air.  We joined them at the picnic table and had a nice long chat.  We couldn't make it to the previous ICA rally so it was great to catch up with them again.

Desma and Doug from ICA group

Back in camp again I started to feel unwell so decided to drive back home in one day, instead of stopping somewhere overnight as we had planned.  Up and over the Saddle Road we went, dropping down into Manawatu, and we were nearly home.  Thank goodness, I was feeling quite peaky.

Wind turbines on top of Saddle Road

My Covid test came back positive - oh dear.  After several years of feeling smug because I had never contacted Covid, my time has arrived.  Guess I wont be going anywhere for the next week or so.

Farmers Market and Car Museum

Our Caravan Club rally at Solway Park got off to a great start on Friday, with the sun rise painting the sky a golden apricot colour at the start of the day.  Our four early bird members enjoyed morning tea in the sunshine. One by one the other vans arrived and settled in.    Sadly the day got colder and colder, sending us inside for 4zees.

 

Sun rise at Solway Park

Saturday was a better day, and we were joined for morning tea by three members of the local Wairarapa Caravan Club.  It was so nice to welcome Harry, Dave and Rae – but I think they came to welcome us to their home town.

Morning tea with our Wairarapa friends

Two of our newer members were presented with their club name badges by our Vice President Don.  Welcome to our group,Flo and John.

Welcome Flo and John

The local Farmers Market was being held in Solway Park, just a short walk away behind the grand stand, so we wandered over to see what was available.  Mmm, fancy cheese, I couldn't go past that stall.  And not just any cheese, this is made from sheep milk!  We bought a few other bits and pieces too, including locally grown mushrooms.

At the Market

We had planned a trip to Pointon's Car Museum in the afternoon – this was a real hit with the men in our group.  Many, many vintage cars had been collected and restored over the years.  I was rather taken with this lovely white Morgan convertible, and I asked the owner to pose with the car for a photo opportunity.

The owner with his pride and joy

There were so many vintage beauties to check out and admire.  I was interested to see that some of the early cars had wooden spokes in the wheels, the next step up from a horse drawn carriage, I expect.

Just a small selection of what is on display

Mrs Pointon has a passion for collecting vintage gowns, and I really enjoyed looking at these.  Club member Dave did some photo bombing, perhaps he rather likes ball gowns too.

Which one do you like best, Dave?

Everyone was asked to bring a donation of a can of food to the rally, and I collected these and split them into two bags.  A lucky draw was held at morning tea on Sunday, with Helen and Val taking home an assortment of cans.  Thanks for everyone for taking part.

Bags full of cans

We packed up and left late morning.  There is a dump station at this camp, nice and handy indeed.  With that all taken care of, we drove down through the Wairarapa towns of Carterton, Greytown and Featherston, then up and over the Rimutaka Hill.  I remember seeing photos of this hill when the only way to travel over the Rimutaka Hill was by bullock cart on a rather narrow track.  The rough jolty trip would have taken ages.

Over the Rimutaka Hill

Driving through Transmission Gully is quick and easy, our rig travelled along no trouble at all.  It was well worth the many years wait to get this road finally built and it is a real asset, we feel.

Transmission Gully

Home at last, it was the usual unpacking, sorting out the laundry and all that sort of thing, before sitting down with a cuppa.  Wonder when our next trip away will be?

Four Nights at Erickson Road Park

Our return to the NZMCA Erickson Road Park was a pleasant surprise.  I remembered coming to see this place when it was newly opened - a bare, windswept area it was back then.  But now it is covered in lush green grass, with many trees planted around the perimeter.

Parking bays have now been created in the park, with gardens planted at either side of each bay. Water, rubbish collection and a clothesline are available,  and a social room is available for gatherings.  There has obviously been a lot of work done, making the grounds look very attractive indeed. 

We arrived about lunchtime on Tuesday, and luckily managed to get three adjacent sites.

The six of us took ourselves out for a meal at the at the Napier RSA.  A very nice meal, reasonably priced too.  Oh dear, forgot to take photos of the smorgasbord meal.  Lovely hot ham and beef, lots of veggies, and a good selection of desserts too.

BIrdwoods was on the agenda, a return visit for some of us but two of our group had never been there before.  The sculpture garden is free to wander through, and we could say hello to the elephants and the hippo keeping cool in the pool.  Birdwoods imports sculptures from Zimbabwe and has other interesting items available for sale in the gallery.

The on-site sweet shop is a real delight, chock full of jars of boiled sweets to tempt us.  We bought some delicious raspberry drops to sustain us on car journeys.  The huge real fruit ice-creams were $5 each and certainly took a bit of licking to get to the end, trying to get them finished before we ended up in a melted mess.

Not far away was the Arataki Honey Visitors Centre, a must for Robin to refill his honey jars.  The place was packed with visitors from a cruise ship in port, all making a beeline for the honey tasting station.  We had to be careful when we parked the car not to get into the bee flight path as we walked to the centre.

The Saturday morning market was much smaller than expected and took hardly any time at all to look through.  After a few purchases we walked through the very pretty and historic  Clive Square.  The gardens were formed in 1884, after the area had previously been  used as a sports ground and village green.  After the devastating 1931 earthquake, the square was used as a temporary shopping centre known as Tin Town.  A friendly local took some photos for us.

Before we headed back to camp we drove by the beautiful National Tobacco Co. building.   Built in 1933 after the 1931 Napier earthquake it is a blend of Art Nouveau and Chicago School styles, influenced by the work of Louis Sullivan, famous for his Chicago buildings of 1880s-90s.  This building is a registered Category 1 by the Historic Places Trust, and is now used by a furniture company.

Summer has certainly arrived in Hawkes Bay with temperatures in the late 20s and sometimes hovering over 30 degrees.  According to those with thermometers, it was much hotter inside our vans, even with the windows and door open, so we are pleased we all have sun awnings to sit under.  Gemma enjoys being outside and has found that it is nice and cool under the caravan.  Or if she is inside, stretched flat out on the floor seems to be the way to go.

My sister Kathleen and her family live in Hastings and we spent some time with them on our last day in the area.  We had a good catch up and had a meal out at the National Service Club.

Kathleen, Lisa and Dennis – rellies from Hastings

We enjoyed our final evening having coffee and a chat with our traveling companions seated outside in the lovely evening air.  Gemma was ecstatic when we returned back to the caravan,  after being on her own for some hours and after gobbling down her late dinner came outside with us too.  There were plenty of chair legs to get her lead tangled around, exciting smells in the cool air, and people going past to keep an eye on.

Farmers Market

We braved the heavy rain and cold conditions to visit the Kapiti Farmers Market in Otaki – it has definitely turned into rain jacket weather, and a wooly hat was needed for those of us who don’t have much hair on top of their heads.  We were told that this market is a fairly new venture, so still has lots of room to grow.

Luckily, by the time we had arrived, the rain had stopped, and most of the sellers had sensibly relocated indoors.  The market was held in the Otaki Race Course grounds, dotted with many lovely mature trees.

I’m always rather taken with tasty treats, so we gravitated to the cheese stall.  After several tastings we had made our choices, purchasing one of the cute little round smoked cheeses at the back, and a piece of blue vein cheese, so yummy.  The owners told us that the make the baby smoked cheeses themselves, and all the other large rounds are imported from Italy.

Lots of lovely cheeses here

I love cheese and Robin loves honey, so he just had to purchase some local honey from the next stand – that will keep him happy.  The particular honey he purchased is from hives on Kapiti Island - one of the largest accessible island bird sanctuaries in New Zealand, set in one of the nation’s most valuable nature reserves.

At the honey stand

One of the local market gardeners had a stand, very handy as I needed some more fresh veggies.  With our shopping done we stopped off on the way home to our friends home, phoning through first to ensure that they were home and that the coffee was on.  Thanks very much,  hot coffee was just what we needed on such a chilly morning.

Invercargill in the Deep South

It was just a short 26km drive today to our next overnight stop at Invercargill.  The car and caravan were humming along nicely on SH29 when the radio news came on.  The news was grim – traffic was banked up for miles as drivers were trying to leave Auckland for New Year, and the same problem was happening in Wellington along Kapiti Coast.  But check out the state of the roads down here as we were getting near to Invercargill – not another  car in sight on the road!

No traffic on the road down here

We pulled into Ascot Raceway, in practically the same place by the grand-stand as we were six years ago.  Muffy was traveling with us back then, and we remembered that she found a bush of cat-nip in the garden and rolled about all over the place  with a happy look on her face!  There is one more power point beside us, so perhaps another van may join us later on.

At Ascot Raceway

The race track

There is a thriving Fruit Market up and running in the old wooden tote building, selling lots of lovely local fruit.  I purchased some fresh Otago apricots and some more cherries – both nice and tasty.  Customers were coming and going all day and there was a bit of excitement in the afternoon.  The father of a family group was looking for the toilets and wrenched open a door, setting off the burglar alarm.  It rang, and rang so loudly, on and on, and we advised the family to stay to explain what had happened.  Eventually the manager arrived to reset it, peace ensued, and the family went on their way.

Ascot Raceway Fruit Market

Robin was looking for a hose connection and what better place to go looking than E Hayes and Sons Hardware world famous in Invercargill.  Ernest Hayes originally started his engineering business in Oturehua, and invented the Hayes fence strainer in 1905 – still manufactured today and used on nearly every farm in New Zealand.  The hardware shop was opened in Invercargill in 1932 and is still going strong today.

Hayes delivery van

Burt Munroe was a southern bloke with a passion for speed and  is well known for his motorbike which was known as “The World’s Fastest Indian”.  In August 1967 Burt claimed the World Record for Class S-A 1000cc with an average speed of 184mph, a record which still stands.  After a stroke in 1977 Burt Munroe sold his beloved bikes and the contents of his shed to Hayes to ensure it remained in Southland.    People visit the shop from far and wide to check out the wonderful vintage bike and other memorabilia – and there were plenty there today.

Burt Munroe’s original bike protected in a glass case

Replica Streamliner aerodynamic shell originally designed by Burt Munroe

On our drive back to the van we passed by the magnificent Town Hall, built in 1906 and fully renovated in 2005 – such a lovely building.  The complex has a Category 1 New Zealand Historic Places Trust classification which means the building is of national significance.

Invercargill Town Hall