Celebrating 60 years of caravanning

Thirty or so vans gathered at Bridge Lodge, Otaki, this weekend to join the Wellington Caravan Club in their 60th Anniversary celebrations.  Members from both our club, Heretaunga, and from the Wairarapa Caravan Club were invited, as well as former members of WCC.

Back in 1950 three enthusiastic Wellington businessmen placed an advertisement in the newspaper to see if there was sufficient interest to form a caravan club.  The first rally of 10 vans took place in Kena Kena Motor Camp, Paraparaumu in October 1951.  In these early days, many people started their caravanning adventures in home made vans.  The club grew quickly and the number of members soon out-grew the capacity of Motor Camps, so rallies were held at school grounds.  Entertainment was a big part of the club culture.  Bands were formed, members put on shows, and performed at old peoples homes.  The highest number attending a rally was recorded was in October 1972, with 115 vans in attendance, and 401 people.  The numbers slowly dropped over the years as families grew up, and members moved away or passed on, or their interests changed.  These days the club has a membership of 20 caravans and campers.

It all looks rather tasty

The main event of the weekend was the catered dinner, with place name settings ensuring that all the attending clubs were well mixed up.  We  enjoyed a great meal of roast pork, hot ham carved from the bone, and a good selection of both hot vegetables, cold cuts and salads.  The dessert was yummy too, with the local firm “Raewyn’s” doing the catering. 

Waiting for our dinner

Speeches were made and it was very fitting that one of the men involved with setting up the club all those years ago was able to talk about his reminiscences of the fun times from those early years.  Then it was time for the cutting of the cake.

Happy 60th Birthday

I got quite a surprise when I heard my name called out to go up to the front of the hall with another member Marle.  It was announced that we were both celebrating our birthdays this weekend, and we joined in with everyone else singing “Happy Birthday”. 

  Bill with the two “birthday girls” singing our hearts out

The after dinner entertainment was the duo Adele and David from Levin, who played all those happy “sing-a-long songs” we all know and love.

Musical entertainment for the evening

It was a very well run weekend, with President Adele and her helpers doing a wonderful job.  Thanks so much WCC, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Rena on the rocks

Cargo ship Rena started New Zealand's worst environmental crisis when it ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga 15 days ago, spilling oil and containers into the sea.  Up to 350 tonnes of oil and 88 containers have spilled from it, polluting beaches mainly in the Bay of Plenty.  The operation by Svitzer Salvage to transfer the oil to a bunker barge started slowly and was later suspended due to heavy seas, but pumping has now resumed again.  It is hard slow work pumping cold gluggy oil (almost the consistency of tar) the length of two football fields to the barge Awanuia.  The Rena has a large crack through the middle which is slowly getting wider, and hopes are held that the oil can all be removed before the ship breaks apart.  It seems to be firmly wedged on the reef, with the weight of the containers helping to hold it in place.  

Photo courtesy of TV One News

Salvage and oil recovery - photo by John Borren

A Maritime NZ diagram shows how the Rena is grounded on the Astrolabe Reef.

Soldiers from the NZ Army are helping Maritime NZ with efforts to clean Bay of Plenty beaches, with local volunteers coming along to help out too.  More than 4200 people have registered to volunteer, and can help out after training and being issued with equipment and safety gear to protect them from the toxic oil. 

Zooming in

There are tuis visiting our kowhai tree in the back yard.  They love to feed on the nectar from the hanging yellow kowhai blossoms.  We try to sneak up on the birds with our cameras in hand.  My little pocket sized Fuji Finepix with a lowly 5x zoom is no match for Robin’s Olympus with a 26x zoom, so no prizes for guessing who took these photos.

Tuis appear to be black at a distance, but their feathers are iridescent dark green, with purple and bronze shadings.  They have a ring of fine white feathers which curl around the back of the neck like fine lace.  Their most distinctive feature is the double tuft of white feathers at the throat, the reason the early settlers to New Zealand called them  “Parson Birds”.  Their song ranges from bell like notes, to chuckles, clicks and squeaks and they are known to be good mimics. 

The lawn underneath the tree is covered in yellow as the discarded petals have fallen down.  We have seen a nest in an adjacent tree, so maybe the birds are busy with nesting duties.  A pair usually lay three or four eggs, and are highly territorial, keeping other birds away from their nest sites.  Let’s hope that a  new generation of babies are living in our garden.

Petals on the lawn

Kiwiana Caravan

It was a step back in time when we visited the Taupo Museum last week.  There was an iconic little New Zealand manufactured caravan on display and I was keen to see it.  The museum had the opportunity to purchase this caravan and set it up in the style of the 1950s and 60s.  The manufacturers plaque screwed on to the caravan stated “Anglo Imp, 10ft 6in X 6ft 9in, made in Melville, Hamilton”.

Anglo Imp caravan

Although a bit lacking in the mod cons we take for granted these days, it was well set up and surprisingly roomy inside.  A vintage table cloth lay over the small table which was set with  plastic plates of the era.

Dining area

The two burner gas hob  would have cooked up many a meal for the family.  Perhaps just a pot of new season’s potatoes and freshly podded peas in the evenings to accompany the BBQ sausages which Dad was cooking outside?  I didn’t notice a fridge but there were plenty of older style kitchen utensils on display.  The knitted tea cosy adds to the home away from home feel.

Kitchen

The seating area at the back of the caravan had an assortment of magazines and a newspaper from the era.  The striped wool rug would be just the thing to wrap around yourself when the evening cooled down, and the hanging pennants showed all the places the family had visited. .

Seating area would convert to a bed

And I just loved this – a fine selection of swim suits hanging out to dry after a bracing dip in Lake Taupo.

Swim suits on the line

This little beauty was the essence of how Kiwis went camping in days gone by.  We camped on the beach, or beside the lake, with a camp table, chairs, and sun umbrella  set up outside.  The kids spent all day frolicking in the water, or playing in the sand dunes, arriving back in camp for meals, tired out from spending the day in the healthy fresh air.  No doubt sun burnt too, we didn’t tend to wear sun hats or use much in the way of sunscreen in those early days.  Mum prepared the meals and Dad cooked on the BBQ.  The kids were in charge of going to the camp kitchen to make the breakfast toast.  Then after the meals were eaten they carried the family’s dishes back to the camp kitchen in a plastic bowl, a tea towel over their arm, to do the last chore of the evening.  Those were the good old days!

An evening at Waiouru

It was time to leave Maraetai Lake behind and start heading home.  We hit the road and travelled along with Dot and Derek to Lake Taupo – known as the Great Lake.  Lake Taupo lies in a caldera created by a huge volcanic eruption 26,500 years ago.  The eruption ejected a huge amount of material, and caused the surrounding land to collapse and form the caldera.  This eventually filled with water and Lake Taupo was formed.  After a spot of lunch at McDonalds and the use of their free WiFi to upload our latest blog, we had a look around then  parted company with our friends.  They were travelling the Taupo Napier Highway and we were heading down south on State Highway One.  We decided to stop for the night at the Army Museum at Waiouru.  Self contained campers can stay free overnight in the roomy car parks behind the building.  Firstly we were required to let the souvenir shop know we wanted to park up for the evening, who advised that security staff patrol the grounds during the evening.  

    All alone in the car park

As we had arrived quite late in the afternoon, there was no time to visit the Waiouru Army Museum.  This houses a permanent collection of historical New Zealand army equipment, photographs and memorabilia, and relates of New Zealand's military involvement in conflict from the Maori Land Wars to the more recent peacekeeping missions in the 21st century.

  Entry to the museum

There was plenty to look at outside the buildings with various guns and tanks on display, although the cold wind seemed to be blowing straight off the mountains.  Waiouru is situated on the Central Plateau and at 1074 metres above sea level it is always a cold and windy place.

  Guns and tanks displayed outside

Behind the car parks are two Type V Prism road blocks, extremely rare and the last known examples of this type.  These were rescued by the Army Museum as they sat in the path of a new bridge development.  Type V Prism road blocks were first erected in Paremata, Wellington, in 1942, during the expected Japanese invasion scare.  They were made of concrete and poured on site.   After the war years most of the road blocks ended up as land fill or used to stabilise sea walls.

   Rare Type V Prism road blocks

No further travellers joined us in the car park, so we were the only ones staying overnight.  The outside temperature dropped during the night but we were quite cosy tucked up in our caravan.   We noticed the security man come and take a note of our car number plate, and he would have made regular patrols around the buildings and car parks during the night, so we felt quite safe.  This museum is full of interest and we are sure to be back this way before too long to have a good look around.  There is a Cafe on site, and we would qualify for admission into the Museum at senior rates, so that is always a bonus.  The next morning after breakfast we were soon on the road again, driving the final 280km to take us home.  

Whakamaru Dam

What to do on a rainy afternoon at Mangakino?  Perhaps we would check out yet another dam on this hydro system.  We have seen several so far on this trip, and previously didn’t really know much about them at all.  The four of us took a short drive to Whakamaru Dam - the Maori name means “to give shelter to, or safeguard”.  This dam was commissioned in 1956 and is one of several on the Waikato River.

Road on top of Whakamaru Dam on the Waikato River

The heavens opened up but we slogged through the heavy rain down through a steep set of steps to get to the lookout.  This sort of rainfall is not at all good for our cameras, and we had a bit of trouble keeping them dry.

Whakamaru Dam and Powerhouse (2nd Picture through the rain)

By this stage water was dripping off of parkas and running down onto our trousers.  The four of us were sorry sights indeed.  On our way out of the lookout car park Robin spotted something strange by the fence line.  We stopped the car to have a look and this is what we saw.  It was a deer skin hanging over the fence with the head still attached.  Looks like someone has been hunting in the forest, but leaving this skin over the fence seems quite a strange thing to do

Deer skin on fence

The rain had finally stopped by the time we returned to our camp site.  A group of campers was standing out on the grass and pointing away in the distance – wonder what was catching their interest?  There was a strange looking rainbow over  part of the pine forest plantations that abound in this area.  But instead of the rainbow being the usual half round shape it seemed to be hovering over the top of the trees.  Very strange, and as we watched and snapped a few photos, it faded from view.

Tale of two Lakes

It was a short 27km drive from one side of the lake of Karapiro Lake to the other, leaving the Motor Camp behind to freedom camp at Moana Roa Reserve.  We were awaiting the arrival of Dot and Derek who were driving down to join us from Auckland behind the wheels of their new  motor home, Gypsy Rover.  We had arranged to overnight together here at the Moana Roa Reserve.

Moana Roa Reserve

It wasn‘t too long before they arrived and we set up our vans looking out over Lake Karapiro, several miles south and from where we had camped the previous night.  It was rather wet underfoot, but the setting was wonderfully tranquil.  There was a lot of catching up to do, as their motor home had only recently arrived in New Zealand, and this was the first time we had seen it.

Lake Karapiro

We dined together in the new acquisition, and raised our glasses in a toast to welcome our friends and their motor home back to New Zealand.  We are sure to have many happy miles travelling around together.

Cheers!

It rained and rained all night, making the ground even more slushy than the night before, but the next day was a beautiful morning.  We saw rowers out on a training run on the lake.  There wasn’t much packing up to do, driving through the huge Kinleith Pine Forest, and we were soon on our way for our next stop at Mangakino, .  We had stopped here previously for lunch on our way north, and decided it would be a good place to stay overnight.  There were several others enjoying this site as well.

Lake Maraetai

The 16 ton paddle boat Otunui (built 1907) was hauled out and sitting on top of a double trailer on the grass, waiting to be painted, but the wet weather during the week prevented this.  Quite a crowd watched as the boat was slowly backed down the boat ramp into the lake.

On the grass

There she goes

Back on the lake

The paddle wheel turning

The town of Mangakino originated in 1945 when the government leased a block of land from the local Maori tribe to build a service town.  This became the base for the construction of dams and power stations along part of the Waikato River.  Maraetai 1 Powerhouse was commissioned in 1952, followed by Maraetai 2 in 1970, although both are regarded as a single unit and is the biggest in the Waikato system.  All powerhouses on the Waikato River are remotely operated from the control room in Hamilton, which monitors and controls the output of each station on the river.