Railcar Trip to Pahiatua

What a great way to spend a few hours on Sunday - taking a vintage railcar trip from Palmerston North to Pahiatua through the Manawatu Gorge.  This fun trip (one of many ran over the weekend) was full of our Probus Club members and we pooled cars and drove up to Palmerston North Railway Station.   And there it is, all ready and waiting for us.

Waiting at Palmerston North Station

We soon boarded RM31, and sat down to enjoy the journey in the nice comfy seats.  Robin went up the front to check out the controls.  Before too long the carriage was full and we were on our way.

The refurbished interior

Robin was wearing his “Savannahlander” cap and tee shirt and a couple of volunteers came to talk about this Aussie iconic railcar trip.  The railcar took us past farmland dotted with stock.  Horses, sheep, cattle, even some alpacas looked up from their grazing to watch the railcar whizz by.

The rain was lashing down as we traveled through the Manawatu Gorge, looking over to the road which has been closed since April.  The Manawatu Gorge road is likely to be remain closed for some time due to fresh fears about another major slip.   The Transport Agency said a large area above the Kerry's Wall rock face was highly unstable, and it had since  removed all contractors from working there. 

The slip in the Manawatu Gorge. Photo: NZTA

We arrived at Pahiatua and were given a tour through the workshops.  The Pahiatua Railcar Society (PRS) is  dedicated to the restoration of railcars and other locomotives and rolling stock formerly operated by the New Zealand Railways Department. It has the sole remaining examples of the RM class 88 seater and Wairarapa railcars.  We were told of the innumerable hours of work the volunteers undertake to restore these vintage treasures and the efforts to obtain funding.

Then we were taken into another workshop and it was explained that the two units being worked on are two halves of a railcar.  We could appreciate how these restoration jobs take so many years as they are painstakingly rebuilt piece by piece. Such dedication from the members, and excursions like those held over the weekend put some extra funds into the coffers.

There's our railcar waiting to take us back again.  We appreciated the request for passengers to swap sides,  as we would get a much better view of the gorge on the return journey – there were too many heads in the way to get good pictures previously.

The railway tracks are on one side of the gorge, and we looked over at the road propped up on pillars. The road is eerily quiet with no traffic at all for the foreseeable future.

Views of the Manawatu Gorge road

For whatever reason, the return journey always seems much quicker – I’m sure there is an explanation for that. We thanked the organizer, hopped into the car and drove back to Levin.   We had a great time – what can be better than riding the rails on a Sunday afternoon!

Still celebrating our Birthday

The weekend weather continued fine and sunny, although the evenings and early mornings were getting rather chilly.  But with the first day of winter falling on the 1st June, we are doing very well to have beautiful sunshine and no wind over our club’s 40th birthday weekend celebrations.  We were invited to bring along any caravan club memorabilia and put it on the display board for all to see.  Most related to National Rallies from years gone by, when it was not uncommon to have 500 plus caravans on site.  (Sadly, numbers are not so high these days).  Also on display were various goody bag items which had been collected over the years.

Board of memories

Presentation coffee mugs

A group of us took a walk through the adjacent Carnival Park Scenic Reserve.  Believe it or not, this reserve will be celebrating it’s centenary on Boxing Day this year.  The area is full of mature native trees and is teeming with birds and is a very pleasant walk.  Quite different to how the park started out when it was opened back in 1914.  

Plenty of native trees Inside the reserve

We came across a shallow concrete lined structure which turns out to have been an ornamental pond back it the early days.  The  bush walk was much more formal and manicured in those early days, it seems.

Photo courtesy of Taraua I-Site showing visitors at the pond inside the reserve

Current day visitors at Carnival Park

Our group were booked into Purple Haze Cafe for a celebratory meal on Sunday evening, and the owner certainly did a great job.  We all tucked in to a tasty roast beef meal, followed by home made pavlovas and a couple of whopper chocolate logs.  Just delicious, and very good value too, we thought. 

With a final morning tea today, our three day weekend came to a close.  As we were busy packing up the caravan prior to hitching up, I noticed an intruder looking very much at home in the back of our 4WD.  It was one of the camp cats, and she was most reluctant to move from her comfy spot.  But move she did, with a bit of arm waving on my part.  After all, what would our Muffy think if we took a strange cat home with us?

I like it here, she’s thinking

40th Birthday Cake and a trip to Tui HQ

The weather gods are smiling down on us at Pahiatua for our caravan club’s 40th birthday celebrations.  With lovely sunshine and no wind we took advantage of the pleasant conditions to while away an hour or two sitting and chatting together outside.  Our President Derek formally welcomed us all to the rally and the birthday cake was cut.  It’s such a big cake it will do for a couple of morning teas, I think.

Happy 40th Birthday to Heretaunga Caravan Club

Then Derek welcomed new members Charlie and Lorraine into our club.

We took a trip to the “world famous Tui Brewery in Mangatainoka” in the afternoon.    The plan was for the blokes to partake in a Tui beer (or two)  and the ladies could be more civilised and have a coffee, if they wished.  Or a beer maybe, it was up to them. 

The famous Tui Brewery tower

One of the many humorous Tui signs

The garden bar was humming, full of  people everywhere.  A group of bikies who had their bikes close by, we noticed.  They obviously didn’t want to leave them out of sight in the car park and had brought them into the garden bar with them.  After they had finished, they started up their bikes with a hiss and a roar as they noisily departed.  There were a sprinkling of kids with their parents, young people and plenty of oldies like us.  We finally found ourselves a table or two, and sat in the sunshine while we supped on our own particular choice of coffee or beer.

  Bill, Derek and Robin at Tui HQ

In the evening we got together in the camp lounge and enjoyed watching a slide show of club happenings from years gone by.  There were plenty of exclamations as we all saw younger and slimmer versions of ourselves without a grey hair to be seen.  Thanks to Selwyn for providing the equipment for the slide show. 

We were asked to bring along a block of our favourite cheese for the Wine and Cheese event after the slide show.  What a tasty lot of cheese there was to sample.  The blue cheese soon disappeared, people either love this or hate it.  Then we had several yummy fruit cheeses, a feta topped with chilli, and a block of English Cheshire purchased at the English Corner Dairy in Auckland, and plenty of others to try.  It was a great evening, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Strange Happenings in the Night

We enjoyed our “discounted prices for oldies” meal at the Ashhurst Inn and wandered back to the camp replete and ready for bed.  Must have been sleeping the sleep of the just as we didn’t hear of the disturbance in camp during the night.  After a bout of pruning a bonfire had been burning away all day, smouldering during the occasional shower or two which passed over.  Obviously one of the neighbours in the vicinity got a bit worried and put a call in to the fire brigade.  The fire engine arrived in the dead of night, flashing lights strobing in the darkness (but without the siren, as a courtesy to the campers), and proceeded to douse the bonfire.  All this excitement was related to us the next morning by a young lady in a campervan.  She did wonder when she saw the bonfire burning so close to the cemetery if in fact she had stumbled across some type of Satanic ritual!  And to think that we hadn’t seen a thing.

All that’s left of the bonfire the next morning

It was just a short hop, skip, and jump of a drive, just 30km to Pahiatua where we were having our weekend caravan rally.  We arrived, found a nice concrete site to park on, and Muffy decided she would like a trip outside .  She doesn't like to venture out too much these days, and enjoyed a nice roll around on the sun warmed concrete.

Muffy enjoying the sun shine

Yet again, someone in the club arrived with a brand new caravan – us this time.  We had to admit that we had been keeping our new acquisition a wee bit of a secret – we had collected it from the Leisureline factory in Hamilton a week ago.  We’ll show the inside a little later.

Our new Romany Rambler

There’s a busy weekend planned for this rally, as this is the Heretaunga Caravan Club’s 40th Birthday, so there is a lot happening.  Eating out, a drinkie or two, a birthday cake to cut, reminiscing about the last 40 years, it promises to be a great weekend.  

Carnival Park Motor Camp, Pahiatua

Pahiatua Golf Club

We were all packed up and on our way, leaving Levin behind to travel north and then through the winding Manawatu Gorge, stopping at Woodville for a few necessary purchases.   As an avid book reader, I was quite amused to see this quote by Groucho Marx painted on the wall of the local bookshop.

Sign seen at Woodville

Just a few km heading south, we turned off SH2 into the beautifully manicured grounds of the Pahiatua Golf Club, our overnight stop on the way to the caravan club rally at Greytown.  The car park was full of golfers who had arrived to take part in the Thursday afternoon “Haggle”.  They were organised into teams and off they went, teeing off, and pulling their golf trolleys behind them.   

Our overnight stop

A couple of hours later they straggled back from the golf course, loaded up their bags of clubs back into their cars, and went into the club rooms to the bar.  One of the men knocked on our caravan door and invited us to join them in the bar, so we did.  The golfers were a bit taken aback when I walked into the bar with Robin.  One of the golfers was all set to tell a risqué joke, and was worried that as the lone female in a bar full of blokes, I might be offended.  “Go right ahead”, I said, “I belong to a caravan club and hear all sorts of jokes”, so out came the one about the bull-frog.  Not to be outdone, Robin raced back downstairs to retrieve a joke from the caravan, one he was planning to tell at our usual Friday night get-together, and proceeded to read it out to all the golfers.

Robin reading his joke to the golfers

It wasn’t till well after 5.00pm that the golfers finally finished their drinks and drove off home, leaving the car park clear so we could finally manoeuvre our caravan into place for the evening closer to the building. 

Parked overnight at Pahiatua Golf Club

We strolled through the lovely grounds the next morning.  The grounds around the club rooms were heavily planted with flowering shrubs and trees, I noticed some Camellias, Daphne and Ericas.  Young lambs were feeding close by, including an interesting looking piebald black and white lamb.

Unusual black and white lamb

Robin spotted a rabbit hiding in the grass

And down by the gate there was a rowing boat going absolutely nowhere with Sailor Ed at the helm.  In fact, that waterway looks rather uninviting, don’t you think?

Sailor Ed in his boat

Many Golf Clubs offer their grounds for campers to stay overnight.  These facilities usually offer power, water, showers and toilets, (although there was no power available at this particular club) and the prices for an overnight stay is very reasonable.  As well as bringing much needed extra funds into the club coffers, campers get to stay somewhere safe overnight in pleasant surroundings.  We also provide extra security, just by being there.  It is a win-win situation all around

Polish Children’s Camp Memorial

We said our goodbyes to my sister and her family and hooked up the caravan.  I was on “tree watch” as Robin carefully towed the caravan along the drive.  On our arrival at Hastings the large tree leaning out over the driveway came off second best when it tangled with our caravan.  Just hope it didn’t scrape any of our paint in revenge. We had an easy and uneventful run south and pulled into a lay-by off the road just south of Pahiatua for a lunch stop.  There is a memorial to the former Polish Children’s Camp which was previously on this site.

Memorial to the Polish Children’s Camp

This piece of land has seen many changes.  It was once part of the Pahiatua Racecourse, established in 1902.  Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the racecourse was converted into an Internment Camp for foreign nationals, who lived there for two years.  The campsite was once again utilised when New Zealand offered hospitality to Polish children made homeless by the effects of WWII.  Over 700 Polish children and 105 accompanying adults arrived in 1944.  They had previously lived in forced labour camps in USSR, before journeying to Iran. 

The children attended primary school at the camp and were taught in the Polish language before attending New Zealand Secondary Schools.  They then took up apprentice training or entered the workforce.  The Children’s Camp was officially closed in 1949 and was then converted into a “Displaced Person’s Camp” for people who became stateless as a result of the boundary changes in Europe after WWII.  When this camp closed in 1952 the buildings were sold and the land reverted to farm land.  In 1971 the former residents of the Polish Children’s Camp wanted to mark this part of their lives with a memorial.  The land for the rest area was donated by the Balfour Stud Farm and the monument was unveiled in 1975.  It is wonderful that the NZ Government changed the lives of so many children from the ravages of war by offering them a new home out here in New Zealand. 

We arrived safely back home and began the task of unloading the caravan.  Two loads of washing later, with the fridge and tiny bathroom cleaned, and the floor vacuumed, things were ready for our next trip away.

Pahiatua in the rain

A bit of rain didn’t dampen our spirits at the Combined Rally at Pahiatua.  A total of 13 assorted caravans and motor homes from the participating clubs of Heretaunga, Wairarapa and Wellington Caravan Clubs arrived for the weekend.  One kind camper had gathered up a large bag of nice fresh feijoas from trees on his property for us all to share.

This weather doesn’t look too good

We gathered in the camp dining room for morning tea, 4zees and in the evenings.  It was a bit of a squash, but we all managed to squeeze ourselves in and find a seat.  A few games of Housie was organised on Saturday evening, with David from the Wairarapa Club calling out the numbers.   

David the Housie Caller

We all entered into the spirit of the games and it was “eyes down” as the numbers were called out one by one.  Not necessarily the numbers that we had on our cards, we noticed.  The lucky winners were rewarded with a chocolate bar.

Elaine and Peter, Robin and Jenny waiting for those elusive numbers

Supper was served later in the evening.  Everyone was asked to provide a plate of supper to share and most of the ladies had  brought along some tasty home baking.  The marshmallow shortcake was particularly delicious, and I reminisced with the other ladies about making it myself for my young children’s birthday parties in earlier years.

   Tasty supper selection

The weather was still very damp on Sunday when everyone was packing up and heading home.  We were not going home though, we were heading north to Hastings for our next stop.

Carnival Camp, Pahiatua

Ballance

The fog rolled in, then the rain kept falling, from drizzle, to unrelenting rain fall, and back to a light drizzle again, which made for puddles everywhere and piles of wet squelchy fallen leaves underfoot.  Even the sheep down the driveway to the camp were sodden as they tried to shelter under the large trees.

Sheep trying to keep out of the rain

Perhaps we should take a little sight seeing trip?  Robin was keen to check out a freedom camping site at Ballance that he had read about.  Even small, out of the way places like Ballance have their share of interesting history.  As we drove through the rural Ballance Valley we  came across a plaque commemorating the site of the first Butter Factory.  It didn’t actually say if the factory was the first in the area, or the first in New Zealand.  The factory was built for the cost of 400 pound in the late 1800s and used water from the adjacent creek to turn the water wheel, turning the separators and butter churn.

Site of water powered butter factory

The freedom camping site didn’t appeal to us al all as it was just a pull-off area on the side of a  busy road.  There were toilets and water available, but no protection from traffic.  The adjacent Ballance Bridge spanning the Manawatu River was well worth checking out and much more interesting.

The Ballance Bridge

Sadly this bridge was the place of a tragic accident not too long ago.  An adventure tourism operation was taking place, where young people swung under the bridge.  One young girl leapt off the bridge for her swing ride but her harness was not properly attached to the bridge and she died when she hit the river bed.  The operation was quite rightly shut down, and it is a much more peaceful place these days.

Manawatu River