Farewell to Eketahuna

Come Sunday, it was time to pack up and start heading home.  But not before Bill was called on to come to the aid of another  camper with his jumper leads who had a flat battery.  It was another damp morning so we had our last morning tea under the veranda.  The rain had made the grassy sites a bit boggy and Selwyn needed a little helpful advice as he towed his new caravan off the grass and onto the road.  Then it was time to say farewell, head off to the dump station, before the drive back home over the Pahiatua Track.

White kiwi on the main road through Eketahuna

The origin of Eketahuna, as a European settlement, was Sir Julius Vogel's Immigration and Public Works Act of 1870.  Some 7,500 new arrivals, the majority from Scandinavia, landed in New Zealand by the middle of 1873. Vogel's  scheme was  to open up this part of the country by clearing the bush, and building new roads, bridges and railways.  The settlers called their new home Mellemskov which means, 'Heart of the Forest'.   However, by the end of the seventies the name had reverted to the Maori one of Eketahuna which means, 'to run aground on a sandbank'; so named by the local Maori people to describe that location where their waka (canoes) could travel no further up the Makakahi River, which bisects the township.

Up and over the Pahiatua Track

It always seems much quicker driving home than the original trip to get there in the first place.  Goodness knows why, it must be a travel phenomenon!  Or maybe the roads just seem more familiar.  95kms later we were home.

Home again

After a quick lunch, the real work began – unpacking the caravan.  First the food, then the clothes.  In came the laundry bag, and on went the washing machine.  While I was busy inside the caravan cleaning the fridge, the bathroom, and vacuuming the floor, Robin was just as busy outside with his bucket of soapy water and the water hose.  Around the corner in our village Derek was doing the same to his motor-home.   We had driven through some road works at Shannon, and the road side sign advised drivers to wash any cement splashes off vehicles.  There – everything is nice and clean, all ready for our next trip away in a couple of weeks.

From Alfredton to Purple Haze

Due to the incessant rain, our planned picnic lunch at Alfredton Domain did not happen on Saturday.  But the weather cleared after our (non picnic) lunch in camp, so we decided to go for a drive anyway.  Most of our camping buddies had not been to Alfredton before, and were not aware that camping was permitted in the domain.

There are pretty areas under the trees for picnics or overnight camping.  Toilets and water are available. and we noticed a young family camping out under the trees. 

View of the domain

Sheep from the adjacent farm browse in the domain, so visitors must make sure to keep the gate shut.  A handsome peacock kept a wary eye on us when our posse of cars arrived, but I crept up behind him to snap his photo.  He probably belongs to the farmer who owns the sheep.

The Alfredton peacock

In the early days Joseph Masters, responsible for establishing the small farm settlements in Masterton and Greytown, had big plans for Alfredton.  But although street plans were drawn up, most were never built.  With the combination of poor soil and a much harsher climate than the lower reaches of the Wairarapa, and it was hard to eke out a living.   Then Premier Julius Vogel's decision in the 1880s to take the railway line north from Mauriceville to Eketahuna, rather than through Alfredton,  stopped any further development.  This is a very quiet rural area, and Alfredton has a small school and a golf course.

 

We climbed back into the cars and drove through the countryside to Mangatainoka – home of the famous Tui Brewery.  But no, that wasn’t our stop, we were having coffee at the pretty little cafe and lavender shop, “Purple Haze”.  It was pretty as a picture looking out over the lavender beds from the cafe as we enjoyed our coffee and cake.  “Purple Haze” is such a descriptive name for this business, and the lavender is almost ready for harvesting, we were told.

Lavender beds at Purple Haze

We all gathered under the veranda again in the evening, warmly dressed to keep the evening chill away.  In keeping with the New Zealand theme for our Waitangi weekend rally, I presented a short quiz as a brain teaser.  Questions such as “what year did women get the vote in NZ” (1893), “when did decimal currency start” (10th July 1967), and “which was the first town to have electric lights” (Reefton), had them all scratching their heads for a while.  It was congratulations to Bill as he got the most correct answers. 

River Walk

We took another walk along the Cliff Track yesterday, making the most of the good weather before the predicted rain arrived.    Our group of ramblers were keen to check out the old swimming pool, where we had heard the local kids making shrieks of laughter as they splashed in the river the other day.

There was a very steep track leading down to the river which needed a bit of care to negotiate.   The broken rock on the bank was reflected in the water looking just like a scary mask, Robin thought. (Can't see it myself, though).

Reflections at the old swimming pool

We had to duck our heads to get under a large tree growing over the track, and leaning over the cliff down to the river.  Guess it will topple right over and down into the river in years to come.

Our group of happy walkers 

When we arrived back in camp we found that the last arrivals for the rally weekend had arrived.  Don and Pamela bring the number of club caravans to five.  The camp also had a steady arrival of tourists in camper-vans looking for an overnight stay.

We gathered under the veranda for the evening and as it was Waitangi weekend, everyone had been tasked with writing a small poem about our wonderful little country.  Not that we are biased at all – but New Zealand is also known as “Godzone” (God’s own country).  Most people took the time to put something in writing, and Bill wrote a wonderful long poem about Captain Cook, and there were several interesting shorter poems read out as well.  My own offering went like this:

I’m pleased I’ve been to Scotland, where the purple heather thrives

And seen the sights of London, where history comes alive

But New Zealand is my birthright, with it’s mountains and it’s streams

I’m proud to be a Kiwi, and it’s coloured all my dreams

We travel around our country, and explore this land of green

From northern tip to way down south, there’s not much we haven’t seen

I’ve English blood and Scottish, with a bit of Romany too

My relatives were settlers here, makes me Kiwi through and through

I’m glad I’m born a Kiwi, and although I’ll sometimes roam

When I’ve had my fill of trips abroad, I’ll gladly come back home

Waitangi Day at Eketahuna

Two more caravans joined the rally and helped bring our numbers up a little yesterday.  Bill and Barbara arrived first, and announced that they were finally moving into the 21st century – their caravan was now certified to self containment standards and they are joining the NZMCA.  This was welcome news, as now all our club members have self containment.

Selwyn and Kath caused quite a ripple of excitement when they arrived in camp towing a new caravan.  They are now the proud owners of an Eldis Crusader Typhoon.  Everyone gathered around to check it out, and we were given a grand tour inside.  The natty set of retro caravan cushions go nicely with the burgundy upholstery.

Selwyn and Kath’s new caravan

Retro style cushions

There was an intriguing looking door which had everyone very interested to check out.  Seems it is a narrow cupboard for such things as gumboots and coats.

Derek investigating the mystery cupboard

We enjoyed lunch outside together in the Eketahuna sunshine, but in the middle of my cooking duties the gas bottle ran out.  Luckily Robin had loaded a spare bottle in the back of the 4WD and he soon had the empty one off and a new one in place.  Then we were soon  “cooking with gas” again.  It’s always a bit of a mystery just how long a gas bottle will last, particularly as we have attended the occasional off power rally and run the fridge on gas.

Off with the old and on with the new

It was nice to take advantage of the sun shine as the weather man promises that rain is on the way for the weekend.  This camp is surrounded by large trees and we have seen tuis and fantails out and about.  Then someone spotted a kereru (wood pigeon) perched up high in tall tree, his plump white chest feathers gleaming in the sun shine, and the blue-green feathers on his upper body and head glitter with purple-bronze iridescence.  Kereru feed on buds, leaves, flowers and fruit from both native and exotic trees.

Kereru sunning himself

We were kept busy watching campers as they rolled into the camp during the day, and set themselves up on the site of their choice.  Robin was impressed with the 5th wheeler driven by a pair of Aussies – he would dearly love one of these rigs for himself.  Eketahuna is a small camp, well off the beaten track, so we are amazed that so many overseas tourists seem to find their way here.

Eketahuna via the Pahiatua Track

There were road works aplenty on our trip up to and over the Pahiatua Track yesterday.  Men with “Stop/Go” signs controlled the traffic flow, and it was slow going over the newly sealed road.  Trucks and workmen were busy over quite a long stretch and the orange “witches hat” road cones down the road centre made sure both the workers and the car drivers were kept safely separated.  We know we have reached the top of the track road when we come across the sign welcoming travellers to the Tararua Region.

Welcome to the region

Rolling farmland 

Then it was downhill and we drove through the gently rolling farmland of northern Wairarapa.  After travelling a total of 95kms we had reached our destination for the weekend rally, Eketahuna.

We’ve arrived at Eketahuna

We were the first of our group to arrive at this pretty little camp and soon had settled in, with the porch awning erected, and the satellite TV dish pointing in the right direction to get a signal.  Dot and Derek arrived an hour or so later and parked up next to us.

Two of us on site

As our fellow club members are arriving on different days over the weekend, the camp manager suggested we put a ‘reserved” sign up on the adjacent four plug power point box .  After all, the club had booked spaces for this rally some months earlier.  This job was no sooner done when two camper vans arrived with overseas tourists.  They really, really wanted to go on our reserved site despite the sign attached, and I think if we had not been present would have just plugged in.   We saw the tourists in earnest conversation with the manager with a lot of arm waving and pointing our way.  Hopefully the situation was explained (again) and the tourists finally pacified.  

Later in the afternoon the four of us did the historic Cliff Walk just up the hill from the camp.  The walk way was opened way back in 1911, to commemorate the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.  We have stayed at this camp several times recently, but had never ventured along this path before.

   The Cliff Walk

It was a nice easy walk, with good views of the river below.  We heard the shrieks of laughter as local children were having fun slashing about in the swimming hole. 

The river below

We stopped to watch as hay bales were being loaded onto a truck and trailer unit far below.  The tractor buzzed around the paddock, picking up the bales and deftly loading them into place.

Carrying two at once

Our walk finished not far from town, so we decided to reward ourselves with an ice-cream. This probably undone all the benefit we derived from our exercise, but it certainly tasted great!

Off to shaky town - Ekatahuna

We’re packing up the caravan and leaving home  once again, heading off for a long rally weekend at Ekatahuna.  On Thursday 6th February the country celebrates our national day, Waitangi Day with a public holiday for those in the workforce.  So we decided to hold our caravan club rally from Wednesday to the Sunday. 

Moving our caravan from it's allocated site around the corner to the visitors car park in the front of our home prior to going away makes it so much easier, and we  can plug the power to chill the fridge down.  The clothes are packed, and some of the food, and the last minute things will be added in the morning.

Parked outside our villa overnight

The large 6.2 earthquake a couple of weeks ago was centred 16km from Ekatahuna and the small town got quite a shaking.  The local supermarket made the TV news showing quite as mess as bottles were smashed all over the floor.  The quake was felt strongly in both the North and South islands, with multiple reports of damage from those closest to the quake.  I contacted the motor camp to make sure that everything was still standing and it was safe for our group to attend.  The only damage was to a hot water cylinder which split, but this has since been replaced.

So, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that there will be no more earthquakes during our 4 day weekend at Ekatahuna.

A BBQ Breakfast

We are making the most of the good weather, especially now those pesky wind seemed to have died down.  After enjoying our evening meal on the BBQ last evening, we decided to cook our Saturday morning breakfast outside too.  On the menu was bacon and eggs and tomatoes.  Not just ordinary fried eggs, these are known in caravan club circles as Benton Eggs.  The secret is to get a slice of bread, carefully cut a circle out of the centre, and drop the egg inside.  This keeps the egg nicely in place and it doesn’t run everywhere.  This recipe isn’t really our own invention, we saw another caravanner cooking eggs this way, and goodness knows who first came up with the idea.

Flipping the bread and eggs over

The warm weather is certainly making our small garden grow.  Our rhubarb plants are growing amazingly well  and we are enjoying cooked rhubarb with our breakfast cereal.  Silver beet is coming along well, and we have just picked our very first tomatoe.

Our first tomatoe

While the weather is staying so nice, we may as well have another BBQ tonight.  What shall we cook?  Perhaps some homemade hamburger patties, served in big bread rolls, that should do the trick.