Pigs, Bugs and Planes

Our caravan club rambles took us out into the country to Gladstone, for afternoon tea.  Sadly, afternoon tea was over by the time our group arrived, and only coffee was available, if we really wanted to order some.  We suspect that the staff were trying hard to close up shop, and were not too impressed when we all arrived.  Never mind, we drank our luke-warm coffees, and had a look around the grounds on the way out.

Who wouldn’t be impressed by this fine family of piggies standing in the garden, Dad, Mum, and baby.  These were made from corrugated iron, it seems. 

Corrugated iron pig family

Then just around the corner I found another fine pig, this one was a black kune kune pig with a ring through his nose.  He snuffled and snorted as he dug around in the mud, looking for tasty titbits.  (Pigs would have to be one of my favourite animals.  Doesn’t everyone love them too?).

This one is real

We just had to stop and investigate this old Vauxhall, covered in bugs.  This is another piece of “garden art” on the property.  Named “Qualis Vita, finis ita”,  which translates to “as you live your life, your end will be”,  it was made by Nico Thomsen in 2010.  Those bugs look so life life, you can almost hear them rustle and click as they appear to walk over the old car.

Qualis vita, finis ita

There were more iron bugs climbing in the windows, and ranging all over the car seats and steering wheel.  Scary! 

Even more bugs

On the road back to camp was a half scale replica model of the Fisher Monoplane.  Nearly 100 years ago, on June 1913, the Fisher Monoplane made 12 short flights, the first made in the Wairarapa, and among the first flights recorded in New Zealand.  The Fisher Monoplane was designed and constructed by David Percival Fisher and flown by Reginald Harry White, both of Wellington.  Further flights were made in Carterton.  What a sense of excitement the local people must have felt all those years ago watching history taking place with these first flights.

Replica model of the Fisher Monoplane

After all that excitement, it was back to camp for a cuppa, and to carry on with our rally weekend.

Happy little Mushrooms at Carterton

We found out everything we wanted to know about growing mushrooms during our visit to Parkvale Mushrooms today.  This company supplies the Wellington and Auckland markets, and is a seven day a week operation.  It is a family business, owned and run by Clive Thompson for over 35 years.

Parkvale Mushrooms

Our caravan club members were given a tour through the factory.  The mushrooms are grown in naturally fermented compost, which generates its own heat.  Mushroom spawn is mixed through the compost, then peat is added, wet and mixed through to ensure an even crop, and the boxes transferred to the growing room.

Mushrooms in the growing room

Four flushes are picked over six weeks.  Air is circulated around, and water is misted over the mushroom crop.  The mushrooms are picked daily into three categories, buttons, cups and flats.  All the staff we spoke to seem very happy workers indeed, and we were told several times that Mr Thompson was a very good boss.  Some of the staff had been employed, 10, 15, and even 20 years, so that certainly confirmed that the workers were happy.  Experienced pickers can work very fast and get paid by the number of boxes picked each day, in quite difficult conditions, we noted. 

  Mushroom picking

“ Mad Max” is the name of the machine designed and built by the owner.  It does the first early stages of preparation, adding the mushroom spores to large boxes of compost, mixed through, then the boxes are stacked three high and carried by forklift into the factory to grow in controlled conditions.

  “Mad Max”, the custom designed machine

After our factory tour, most of us purchased a big bag of mushrooms to take back to our caravans and cook up for lunch.  We enjoyed our tasty oven baked flats, topped with onion, cheese and bacon, just delicious.  They are just as nice cooked this way on top of a BBQ in summer, believe us. 

On to Eketahuna

It was goodbye to Woodville and off we went down SH2 to Eketahuna, just a short 42km drive away.  The snow on top of the ranges glistened in the sunshine. 

Snow on the ranges

The entrance to Eketahuna Camping Ground was down a very steep drive, and opened out into a nice grassy area.  It is quite some years since we last visited this camp, when it was very overgrown and shaded by many trees.  The trees have obviously been thinned out considerably, making the it a very attractive, although  small  campground. 

Here we are at Eketahuna

The camp is set in a scenic reserve on the banks of the Makakahi river.  A rustic building houses the kitchen, ablutions, and laundry, and is “pet friendly” too.  Just as well, as we have Muffy travelling with us.  Mind you, she likes to stay safe and sound in the caravan so is very little trouble at all.

Amenities block

The sound of clip clop, clip clop attracted my attention, and four horses and riders walked slowly down into the camp.  One of the horses was a beautifully marked  Appaloosa, and the owner confided that the horse was older than her daughter, who was riding him.  It turned out that the horse was 27 years old, and had gone blind, which shows the trust between the horse and rider.  Who would have thought that a blind horse would be happy to be ridden at all?

Out for an afternoon walk

The camp managers knocked on our caravan doors in the evening to collect our fees.  They do not live on site, and had been down to the big smoke of Wellington for the day, they told us.  However, one of the permanent campers on site had sent a text to alert them that there were visitors in camp.  They were very friendly, the fees are extremely reasonable and the camp is kept nice and tidy.  And best of all, the washing machine is available at no charge.  With a couple of days of laundry on hand, I just had to take advantage of that. 

The expected frost did not happen overnight, so it was not too cold at all when we ventured out in the morning.  Today’s trip of approximately 50km will take us down SH2, past Mt Bruce and Masterton, to meet up with our caravan club friends for a weekend rally at Carterton.

Levin to Woodville

Travelling along the Manawatu Gorge makes me feel rather nervous, especially since the last huge rock slide which kept this road closed for quite some months.  With steep crumbly rock faces on one side, and a long drop down to the river on the other, there is not much room to manoeuvre along this narrow windy road.  Robin took it all in his stride, expertly towing our caravan around the many curves in the road, as one after another fully loaded trucks drove towards us on the narrow road.  Luckily we made it through the Gorge unscathed, and drove into Woodville, our stop for the evening.

How many Woodville’s in the world?

We spent the evening at the rather muddy Woodville Recreation Reserve.  But it was quite reasonably priced, and provided what we needed in the way of power, showers and toilets.  Geoff had it on good authority from a number of his former contacts in his working life that the local fish and chip shop was one of the best, so we decided to put the statement to the test.  Our verdict?  Not too bad at all, but certainly not a ten out of ten score.

Camped at Woodville

There were sheep in the adjacent paddocks, and they had worked out in there woolly brains that if they lowered their heads down and wriggled hard, they could squeeze under the fence.  Going from one paddock to another as their fancy took them.   The recycling bins were next to our caravans, and there was a steady stream of locals putting their bottles, papers and plastics in the appropriate bins.  Then the bins were emptied in the early evening and the bags of recycling carried away to the next stage of their journey.  It was good to see such a good effort being made in such a small town.

We took a wander through the town and noticed that the footpaths had been nicely repaved since our last visit.  Sadly, like most small towns, there were many empty shops around.  The local butcher’s shop tempted us with his advertising boards outside his shop, and we came away with some award winning beef and blue cheese sausages, and a nice piece of honey flavoured pickled pork.

The famous artist Gottfried Lindauer settled in Woodville in 1890 and a replica of his studio now stands in the main street.  He was born in Pilsen, Bohemia, and studied at the Vienna Academy of Art.  He arrived in New Zealand in 1874, and soon made his mark as a Maori portrait artist.

Replica studio of Gottfried Lindauer

Gottfried Lindauer

We couldn’t leave Woodville without calling in to the bakery to buy a couple of Eccles Cakes for lunch.  Then it was back to the caravans for an early lunch before we moved on.  Next stop Eketahuna.

Snow on the Ranges

Winter has arrived, and there is snow on the Tararua Ranges behind our new home.  In fact, snow fall is causing problems over large parts of New Zealand.   Major roads throughout the North Island remain closed following yesterday's cold snap, however other highways have started re-opening.  No wonder we needed a nice warming plate of hot porridge for breakfast, and hot soup for lunch.

A dusting of snow on the Tararua Ranges

We have been busy packing the caravan this morning for our long weekend away.  Plenty of winter woollies will certainly be going in.  There is no snow on the roads in our part of paradise, so our trip today should be hassle free, we hope.  We are meeting up with Geoff and Eileen after an early lunch today and driving north.  Through the Manawatu Gorge, and plan to spend the night at Woodville.   According to Geoff, who seems to be an expert on these matters, Woodville has the very best fish and chip shop ever.  So it will be fish and chips four times for our evening meal.  We will report back next time on just how good they were.

Caravan Help Needed

Our friend Geoff needed to fit a water trap to the shower waste on his his caravan.  Could Robin come and help over the weekend?  This was a “lying on the ground under the caravan” sort of job, so yesterday was out of the question.  The rain would have made it most unpleasant.  Today was a much better day, and the windy conditions would help dry the ground out. 

We drove down to Otaki to find Geoff’s caravan towed out of it’s parking place, and all ready to get pulled up onto a pair of run-ups.  With me carefully watching one set of wheels, and Robin watching the other side, we gave Geoff instructions as the car inched the caravan slowly up onto the ramps.  “Stop!!” we called out in unison when the wheels reached the top.  Robin then placed his pair of trolley jacks under the elevated caravan for added safety.  There, the two blokes should be able to crawl underneath the van without it falling down on top of them.

The caravan safely jacked up

They both climbed underneath the caravan.  Did they want me to stay outside to make sure they didn’t meet an untimely end?  But they were happy with the safety measures in place and didn’t need me hovering around and getting in the way.

Now, let’s see what’s under here

It didn’t take too long to replace the original water trap which was a piece of flexible hose circled around and inserted into the waste line. With this removed a specifically manufactured one was installed. The new one can be dismantled and cleaned without removal of the complete unit from the van.  Geoff did most of the work, and Robin was there to lend a helping hand, and give helpful advice when needed. 

It took longer to get the van up on the ramps than to do the job. Once completed it was thoroughly tested by running the shower the make sure that the water in the shower tray drained correctly – there – job done, now it’s time to go inside for a cuppa!

A New set of Tyres

The little blue car was fitted with a new set of tyres today.  We were told that the old ones were in danger of delaminating and would not pass the next WOF.  They had been in service for quite some time, so it was certainly time to replace them.  It’s better to be safe than sorry, so the garage ordered in a new set, and the job was done today.  Off came the old ones, on went the new, with the wheels balanced too.  So little Lazuli has a nice new set, which should last for quite some time.

 

New tyres on the car

In case you are wondering, she is called Lazuli because her paint job is the colour of the gem stone Lapis Lazuli.  Lapis Lazuli’s  deep, celestial blue remains the symbol of royalty and honour, gods and power, spirit and vision. It is a universal symbol of wisdom and truth.  In ancient times Lapis Lazuli was most highly regarded because of its beautiful colour and the valuable ultramarine dye derived from it. Its name comes from the Latin lapis, "stone," and the Persian lazhuward, "blue."

Lapis Lazuli gemstones

To be honest, I named the car - Robin really thinks naming cars is a bit silly!  But then, it’s my little car, isn’t it?