Howdy Partners

It was a Country and Western themed  Easter Weekend for us, at the 27th CCNZ National Rally at Masterton.  With no animals allowed at Solway College, we first dropped Gemma off at the local cattery for her second only visit to such a place.  Then it was up and over the Pahiatua Track, on our way to Masterton.

As entry to the college was not till 4.00pm, a group of four vans from our caravan club met at Henley Lake for lunch and to fill in an hour or two of waiting time.  If you love water birds, this is the place for you.  Ducks, geese and swans call Henley Lake home, paddling in the lake, grazing on the grass, and snoozing on the lake side.  Then we drove on to Solway College for our Easter Weekend Rally.

Henley Lake for lunch

With helpers guiding the vans into rows we were soon settled in.  Our row was Boothill, named for the place where gunslingers and outlaws were buried in Tombstone, Arizona who "died with their boots on."  The hall was decorated in a country and western theme, and the committee had done a great job. 

The Official Opening took place on Friday afternoon, and in came the banners holders marching to the swirl of pipes.  Although not staying on site, Bill and Val had paid their fees and  joined us for most of the weekend functions.

What a great bunch

On Friday evening a local historian came and regaled us about the history and settlement of the Wairarapa, and told some stories about the more colourful characters and their wheeling and dealings.  One such story was about a life insurance claim, and a spare  hand to add credence to the claim, with the supposed wedding ring – only the hand was female and the missing person was a male!  Whose body had the missing hand been removed from?

We had use of a new ablution block for the weekend, nice and close by, and a few power points were available to vans for medical reasons.  I carefully clambered up onto a balcony to get a good view of all the vans spread out on the school grounds.  It was nice to catch up with members of other clubs who we only tend to see every couple of years at these functions.

Bird’s eye view

Saturday was a busy day and 55 happy campers lined up tp board the big blue double decker bus for a mystery trip at 9.00am.  We had to take a packed lunch with us, and our folded camp chairs were whisked away to our lunch spot, wherever that would be, it was a mystery, after all.  First stop was to the local Farmers Market, where the only purchase I made was a nice hot coffee.  Back on the bus again, our next stop was a sculpture garden, developed by James Tyne.  This features a lot of Corten steel, which contains alloys which forms a protective rust coating which reduces the corrosion rate with time.  A rather expensive material, I was told.

Corten steel garden features and statues dotted about

The massive gate was interesting.  The owner was told that the designer had his own idea of what he wanted to  to make, and if the owner wasn't happy with the finished product he didn't have to buy it.  It opens by turning the very heavy wheel, so a couple of us took turns trying the mechanism for a photo op. 

Locked inside the garden

Lunch was at the farm belonging to Maureen and Mike Ashbee, who kindly offered their property. Our chairs were ready and waiting and we made use of their outdoor area,  not a sound was heard as we munched away at our picnic lunches. “Walk around and explore the gardens”, we were told.  This is a three generation family farm, now managed by Maureen and Mike’s daughter, and they are hoping to get away for trips in their motor home, now they are stepping back a bit from farm duties.

Lunch at the farm

Then for something completely different, we stopped at Ponataki Greek Church. This private church was the dream of George Pantelous who achieved his heart’s desire with the construction of this beautiful church.

The interior was beautifully painted by an 18 year old artist, Stephen Allwood, who took a year to finish his work, including the dome ceiling.  Such beautiful details, and many thanks to our guide who related the history of this building.  No church pews are inside, the faithful must remain standing for the 2 1/2 hour service.  

Greek Church

Our last stop was The Wee Red Barn, famous for their berries.  I was amused to see some goats clambering up high in their enclosure, looking down on our busload of happy campers.   We purchased fruit ice-cream, a large punnet of strawberries, and a jar of raspberry jam, all nice and tasty.  It was a long day out and about on the bus, especially climbing up and down those stairs to the top level.

Wee Red Barn

Our day wasn't over – after dinner we all met back in the hall for a Line Dancing demonstration.  The dancers all looked very smart indeed in their country style outfits as they “strutted their stuff” to the music.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was not all country music used, they danced to a little rock and roll, and other types of music  too.  After the demo, many of our group joined the dancers for some easy tuition and danced away too.

Line dancing demonstration

Sunday morning started bright and early with a cooked breakfast of French Toast, Bacon and Banana, with the BBQs going flat out.

Cooking our breakfasts

The food was served from the Baine Marie, there was Maple Syrup to add, and we settled down to enjoy our Sunday breakfast.  Oh my, it was delicious indeed.

Sunday breakfast

Included in our Goody Bag were two complimentary tickets for the Miniature Railway in nearby Queen Elizabeth Park.  It was a beautiful day, and the park was buzzing with family groups.  Toot, toot, here comes the train!  The passengers disgorged, and then we clambered in.  The track took us several times around the lake, through the tunnel, tooting as it went, such fun.

Trip on the miniature railway

The evening concluded with a catered dinner.  The caterers, Kiwi Kai Catering,  arrived towing their kitchen caravan all painted up advertising the Pink Floyd Experience.  The owner told me that they will be also going on the tour in June and will be feeding the band and crew.  Our meals were very tasty, chicken, pork, with a selection of salads and veggies, followed by individual  berry cheese cake.  We had taken along some bubbly for me and red wine for Robin to complete our meal, and were obviously having such a great evening that I forgot to take any photos!

The catering caravan

The official closing of the rally took place on  Monday morning, the final raffles prizes were drawn, and  thanks were made to the Wairarapa Caravan Club for putting on such a great National Rally.  Goodbyes were said and it was time to hook up the caravans, and we all went on our respective ways.  Such a fun weekend, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely, meeting up with old friends and chatting with new folks from other caravan clubs too. 

Trip to Carterton

The Wairarapa towns are not too far away over the Ranges as the crow flies, but where we live it’s quite a different story going by road.  We have a choice of heading north then crossing over the Tararua Ranges or traveling south and driving over the Rimutaka Hill – a two hour trip whatever choice we make.  Driving over on Friday we opted to go north, up and over the Pahiatua Track.

New sign at the top of the hill

It was a little misty at the top of the hill and we spotted some of the new wind turbines through the mist.  This project has been in the news lately as things have not been going to plan.  Power generator Mercury has run into problems to get its turbine blades up the hill to the Turitea Wind Farm.  The 99 12-tonne, 55-metre-long blades stored in Palmerston North were due to start being transported to the top of the Tararua Range in September.  But a new track being built to bypass a steep, tight S-bend on the Pahīatua Track has slipped and failed, forcing turbine suppliers Vestas to look for another way up.

The schedule for completing the 60-turbine, $465 million wind farm had already been challenged by the Covid-19 lockdown, when work on turbine tower foundations and transmission line preparations stalled.  The current goal is to have the 33-turbine first stage of what will be New Zealand’s largest wind farm completed in April to July 2021 and the second, southern stage by Christmas 2021.  Part of the challenge of getting the turbine blades up the hill was that they were 10m longer than envisaged 10 years ago.  We saw on the TV news that the blades are being transported at night, standing up at quite an angle, what a job that must be.

Goodness, that’s a long load

Once over the ranges, we have to travel south into the Wairarapa, and our first stop was at Eketahuna at the rather royally decorated public loos.  What is the Beefeater doing with those corgis in tow?  Maybe the Queen had a comfort stop here some time ago and this is the royal acknowledgement of her visit.

Seen at Eketahuna

Our next stop was at Pukaha National Wildlife Centre at Mt Bruce for lunch.  We admired a lovely carving of the now extinct Huia in the café.  Their beautiful tail feathers were much prized by the Maori people who wore them in their hair.  It is interesting to note that the female huia has a much longer beak than the male.

Pukaha National Wildlife

Just a week ago there was a ceremony here when  the 942 hectares of  Pūkaha Forest, home to native birds and conservation work  in northern Wairarapa has been gifted to the nation by Rangitane “for everyone to enjoy”. The Rangitane people had received the Pukaha Forest in its Treaty Settlement in 2017 but has now officially gifted it to New Zealand.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has described it as an "extraordinary act of generosity" by the iwi, and she said  it was a privilege to accept the gift.

Gifting of Pukaha Forest

Henley Lake at Masterton was our next stop, such a lovely peaceful place.  Many species of water fowl make their home here, including both black and white swans.  We whiled away a little time soaking up the atmosphere.  The drive into the park was through a a line of beautiful trees sporting their Autumn colours.

Henley Lake

Our trip to Carterton was touched with sadness, we had travelled here to attend the funeral of of SLG friend Les.  Les and his late wife Anne had been much loved members of our Super Leisure Group and we had enjoyed their company at many of our monthly outings.  RIP Les, you and Anne are now together again.

Meeting up with Wairarapa Caravan Club

The grand finale to our three week safari was the Combined Rally hosted by the Wairarapa Caravan Club at Carterton School.  Our arrival had to be delayed till after 5.00pm due to after school care taking place, and we then we drove around to the back of the school.  Park anywhere, we were told, so we all slotted into place and got set up.

At Carterton School

Friday evening was quiz night, so we gathered in the hall, pens at the ready.  “Whaddaya Know” were the quizzes, all about New Zealand and taken from the in-flight Air New Zealand magazines.  Questions such as “Which Guinness world record is held by Dunedin’s Baldwin St?” - the steepest in the world, and “How many sheep in New Zealand?’ – 26 million!  As usual, some of us knew more than others, and the winners were Bill and Val, and Frank and Adrienne.  The evening concluded with a delicious home baked supper.

Morning tea on Saturday was under the large shady elm trees.  As it was a special occasion combined rally, we were wearing our new club tee-shirts, black with flashes of orange..

Morning Tea in the Carterton sunshine

During the weekend the Masterton air show “Wings Over Wairarapa” was happening and it was exciting to watch the airplanes flying overhead – particularly the mighty B52 bomber, such a loud and powerful plane.  Others spotted were Harvards, Yaks, and a Vampire.   

After a free day we gathered under the shady tree again for 4zees (Happy Hour), and what a surprise we got, not knowing what was coming.  We had qualified for our 400 rally badges and these were presented by our club President Barry.

400th Rally presentation

We pooled cars in the evening and drove up to Combined Services Club in Masterton.  With about 25 or so booked in, sadly the staff was under pressure.  Not from our numbers, but one of the cooks didn’t turn up for his shift, and only one ATM was working.  But the staff rallied to the occasion, and our meals were cooked and delivered in a timely fashion, and our group all enjoyed each other’s company, as well as a night off from cooking duties.

Many thanks to Barry and Dianne for bringing along a big box of plums from their orchard to share with us all, much appreciated.  Most of us hooked up and left after morning tea, as we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us to get home.  Driving over the Saddle Road we saw some extra large wind turbines being installed, waiting for the blades to be attached, they certainly are much bigger than the existing ones.

New style of wind turbine

Driving up over the Saddle Road, and through to Horowhenua, we were hot and hungry and looking forward to getting home.  Little did we know what was waiting for us there………….

Wonderful Wairarapa

We recently enjoyed a day in the wonderful Wairarapa with our SLG friends.  Leaving Levin bright and early our 122km journey took us past major road works along the way, coming along well, by the look of it.  Let’s just hope they all meet up in the middle when completed.  We had a quick stop at Pauatahanui Inlet, with a glorious view over the estuary.

Pauatahanui Estuary

Once through our old home town of Upper Hutt, we drove up and over the Rimutaka Hill.  Always plenty of traffic on the hill, including many big trucks – most of them seemed to be loaded up with logs. We stopped to take a photo of this handsome new sign at the entrance of Featherston.  Can you see the shiny black bantam rooster at the base of the sign?  He was clucking away and enjoying the sunshine. Our friend Les was organizing our day out, and we met at his home in Featherston for coffee and cake. 

New sign at Featherston

Morning tea over, plus a good catch up with our SLG friends, we drove through to Greytown for lunch.  Greytown is a pretty little town, quite a trendy place and chock full of shops and cafes.  Our stop for lunch was the Corner Café, a popular establishment with an extensive menu.  Orders coming to our table included a couple of variations of their  fancy home made pies, and a couple of fish meals.  Les couldn't go past his old favourite, lambs fry and bacon, and I enjoyed a plate of locally grown  Parkdale Mushrooms on toast.  After lunch some of us popped in to see Les’s wife Anne, a much loved former SLG member who is now cared for in a local  Rest Home. 

 

The Corner Café

Our last visit of the day was to stop at Schoc Chocolates,  makers of hand made chocolates.  In December 2002 Schoc Chocolates was born. In a tiny turn-of-the century cottage, in gourmet Greytown’s main street (the original confectioners shop), owner and creator Murray Langham of the Chocolate Therapy books opened the doors for customers to buy his sumptuous hand-made chocolates.

My excuse for stopping here, as if I really needed one, was to buy something to pop in with my daughter’s birthday gift.  With 60 flavours available, it was lucky that we could have a few tastings to help us make up our mind.  I found a little something for Nicky, and an interesting  cake of raspberry, pear and apple dark chocolate came home with us.

Schoc Chocolates in Greytown

Saying farewell to our friends, we started on the return journey, getting caught up in homeward bound traffic once we reached SH1.  We were in stop-start mode for half an hour as the traffic banked up between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay – it’s  always a bottleneck here.

Hardly moving at all along this stretch of road

The sun had set on the last part of our journey and we finally made it home.  Our cat Gemma was so pleased to welcome us, winding round and round our legs, after all, she had been home alone all day.  I think it was just cupboard love, as she soon settled down to the business of eating her dinner when I filled her dish.