Moving on to Pio Pio

We said our goodbyes to friends at the Motorhome, Caravan and Leisure Show – it was time to move on.  That’s what most of our neighbours seemed to be doing – although we could stay till 5.00pm, most of the vans decided to leave in the morning. After refilling the fresh water, we headed off too.

Driving down SH3 we stopped at the Kihikihi – a Maori name meaning cicada.  This little town has two  businesses of note, the first being the Laundromat on the main road.  After being away since Tuesday, we really needed to visit the laundromat.  Robin left me to deal with the laundry while he went to use the dump station.  Lots of locals use this business too, they came and went with washing, or more often, clothes washed at home which needed drying.  With our laundry washed, dried, and neatly folded up,  we then stopped at the Viands Bakery, home to award winning pies and all sorts of other tasty goodies. 

 

Next stop was to have our lunch at the Haurua rest area – a very historic place as it turns out.  There is a large plaque which confirms the selection of Potatau Te Whereowhero as the first Maori King in 1857, and that this would be hereditary to his family. 

Lunch stop at Haurua

And behind the rest stop we spotted the Haurua Marae.

Lunch over we continued down SH3, stopping at Te Kuiti to view the recently erected sculpture of rugby legend Colin “Pinetree” Meads, who grew up on a farm in the area.  Colin Meads was not merely the most famous All Black of his era - the Te Kuiti sheep farmer personified a rugged rural masculinity that evoked a bygone era even in his playing days.  His iconic status in New Zealand society was recognized in 2001 when he was made a New Zealand Companion of Merit (the equivalent of a knighthood). In 2009 the government reintroduced the former system of titles and Colin Meads accepted the title of ‘Sir’. He stated, however, that unlike his former team-mates Wilson Whineray and Brian Lochore, he didn't want to be addressed as 'Sir' . They, he argued, deserved the title as they were ‘perfect gentlemen’, whereas he was ‘a bit rougher’.  In June 2017, Sir Colin Meads attended the unveiling in Te Kuiti of a larger-than-life bronze statue of himself with ball in hand. Sadly, he died of pancreatic cancer two months later.

  

Statue of Sir Colin Meads at Te Kuiti

Piopio was our stop for the night.  All the streets in Piopio’s town centre are named after New Zealand native birds. Piopio itself is the name of an extinct native bird – thought to be a type of song thrush.

We are staying at the pretty little Domain, on the hard as the grass is rather soft and we don’t want to get bogged down.  No power, but with toilets and fresh water available we will be quite happy tucked up here for the night.

Overnighting in Piopio

More from the Motor Home Show

There’s so much to see at this show that most people purchased a 3 day pass.  As Robin and Geoff did, but Eileen and I were content with just a single day of looking around.  Give me too much to see and it all blurs together after a while!  I did enjoy the exhibition “Memory Lane”  which showcased retro caravans of years gone by.  These have been lovingly restored and proudly displayed by their owners.

  

We met up with this Lilliput caravan at Taupo and followed each other along the road to Hamilton.  And yes, he told us, he does go camping in it.

And I loved this little pink decorated van, with pretty bunting and accessories.  Perhaps a  pink flamingo standing outside would be the finishing touch?  Definitely styled with a feminine touch.

Retro caravans on display

And to give you some idea of how many are taking advantage of the free camping, or very reasonably priced power sites as we are, here is a view after I trudged up to the top of the hill.  And we have been told that there are a lot more vans tucked away out of sight, so we must go exploring later.  Seems to be about 900 vans here for the show.

View from the hill

With a little help from Geoff, Robin erected our new wind break.

A few showers of rain didn’t keep the day trippers away on Saturday.  They still came trundling down the hill.  Some vans departed after the first night, but others arrived to take their place.

Still more people arriving

Around the camp sites: 

Our neighbour and their cat called “Cat”,and a large areoplane under cover.

Gleaming Airstream van and red Chevvy

“First Wife & I”, is there a new 2nd wife waiting in the wings?

So that’s it from Day 2.  Robin’s been back to the show to have another walk around all the exhibits.  We’ve dodged the showers, and put up with the wind gusts, watched people leave and still more arrive to take over their sites.  Then we walked around the huge camping area and caught up with a few people that we knew – all good fun. 

Motorhome, Caravan and Leisure Show

Billed as “Big Show, Big Brands and Big Dreams”,  the show certainly delivered.  Chock full of both well known brands, plus some we had never heard of, there was plenty to look at, inspect, and pass judgement on.  There was even a private sale area for pre-loved vans.

Queuing for our entry tickets was the first challenge, with the crowds of campers on site joined by the day visitors.  But eventually we reached the head of the queue, paid our money over and walked through the gates.  The Camec stand was very popular and we entered their tent to see what was on offer – and of course, ended up buying something.  A wind-break for our awning, as it turned out, plus some Loo Green, always need plenty of that, and then we drew out a lucky number and won a extendable mop as well.  The lovely ladies at the stand offered to store our purchases for us until we had viewed the show, so we didn’t have to carry the big bag around with us all day.

 

The large indoor area was full of gleaming motorhomes and caravans

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All the big names from overseas were there.  Jayco, Winnebago, Dethleff, Elddis and others.  I always rather fancied a Winnebago and told my son years ago that when he made his fortune he could buy us one, but we are still waiting.

Winnebago and Dethleff

But we can’t really go past our home grown Leisureline vans, and spent some time checking out the new ones.  And talking to prospective customers, telling them they really couldn’t do better than a Leisureline.  You can tell that we are really pleased with ours.

The Leisureline Stand

And then we saw something completely different, a tiny little “tear-drop” shaped Road Chief with a pull out kitchen at the rear.  This comes with two awnings which really expands the floor space, plus a toilet tent.  Cute – but not quite us, I don’t think.

Road Chief caravan

Not all vans are white – how about a bright red one?

There were electric bikes on offer, boats and rubber boats, even cars.  Camping furniture, backing cameras, whatever you were looking for, you could probably find.  We stopped and had a chat with the editors of RV Travel Lifestyle and NZ Today, which we subscribe to, and told then how much we enjoy their magazines.

After all that walking around we made our way to the “Seat and Eat Zone” to buy some lunch, and more importantly, find somewhere to sit down.  This area was incredibly crowded, but it was lunch time, after all.  Eventually we made our minds up what to purchase, found four empty seats, and ate our lunch with Geoff and Eileen.  I really wanted a coffee but couldn’t face waiting in the long queue behind 20 people or so, so gave that idea up and had one later on back in our van.

Seat and Eat area

More news from the show tomorrow……….

All Roads lead to Motor Home Show

We spent two nights at the handy Taupo Airport NZMCA Park.  Always a great place to stay, with lots going on.  Rigs come and go, and there is always something happening at the airport.

Romany Rambler and The Manor at Taupo

A very easy walk took us past the helicopters just across from the road and we watched as one after another fired the engine up.  The noise changed dramatically the faster the blades rotated, and one after another, the helicopters lifted off and went about their business. 

Taupo airport is not terribly busy with just a couple of flights in and out each day.  But there was a trio of private planes parked up, we noticed, big boys toys indeed.

Private planes at Taupo Airport

On Thursday morning the camp thinned out considerably as many were heading off to the Motor Home Show at Mystery Creek, Hamilton, just like us.  With the fresh water tank filled, and the waste dumped, we were finally on our way.  Off we went, driving past the timber town of Tokoroa, and the quirky little town of Tirau, festooned with many corrugated signs and sculptures.  No time to stop and explore, we were on a mission to get to Mystery Creek and find our site.

After a bit of a run-around, being sent to this area and then another, we finally found our correct sites.  Parking at the show is free, but we had opted (and paid for) for power sites instead.  Seems  that the various lists were not available to the people doing the parking but we finally found the correct sites.   And with more than 500 vans booked for the weekend, there is sure to be a hiccough or too.  Not only do we have power, but we are also parked up with people from the Motor Home Forum, which both Robin and Geoff belong to. 

 

Happily on our power sites in the correct area.

And still the vans are coming in, there is still a lot of parking for the wardens to do. It will only get busier before the day is out, we expect.   So far we have been and checked out where the loos are (nice and handy), and the water taps, and there seems to be plenty of rubbish bins dotted around the grounds.  All very necessary items, of course with the huge crowds expected.

We’re in the crowd somewhere

The show opens tomorrow, and then we can walk over to the large hall and check out all those brand new rigs that will probably be well out of our price range.  But it’s always nice to look, and maybe come away with some new ideas.  We will let you know what takes our fancy.

Off on a Road Trip

We've only been home a week from our Aussie Adventure Holiday, but Robin was itching to get in the caravan and take to the open road again.  Today is a very special day, he’s now the grand old age of 70!!

It’s Robin’s birthday today

The temperatures have been rather low at home, low enough to have a sprinkle of snow on the Tararua Ranges behind our home.  Perhaps we will see some more snow on our road trip north – who knows?  So it’s goodbye to Levin, and we will be stopping in Taupo tonight.  Can you see a peep of our caravan Romany Rambler in the car park, getting packed for our trip away?

Snow on the ranges behind our village

But first, we had something very important to do.  The General Elections take place in two weeks, and we will still be away.  So we went down to the local library to cast our votes before we set off on our trip.  So did lots of locals – we had to queue up behind quite a few who also had the same idea as us before we got our voting forms. 

Democratic duty – done!

After stopping for diesel at Sanson, we were buzzed by four F16 fighter jets from Singapore which are at Ohakea Airport for four weeks' training.  Singapore pilots are flying high in the Manawatu sky as top-level talks continue about the Asian nation setting up a permanent air force base in New Zealand.  Not a terribly good photo, the jets were just too fast for me.

F16 roaring past overhead

The trip went well, although the weather couldn’t decide to be sunny or rain all over us, so we got a bit of both.  We passed lots of new lambs in the paddocks, and groups of young calves, just weaned from their Mums, it seemed.  Lunch was at Taihape – around the back by the railway station.  I heated up some savouries I had brought from home, and we enjoyed a coffee from the handy coffee cart.

 

We stopped for lunch at Taihape

Driving along the Desert Road – but where were the mountains?  Mostly covered in low clouds, it seemed.  But I managed to catch a glimpse of Ruapehu hiding under the clouds.

Mt Ruapehu is under there somewhere

We arrived at the NZMCA Park at Taupo Airport mid afternoon, and found ourselves a site for the next two nights.  Although Geoff and Eileen are traveling up north with us, they were running a little late and arrived later.

At Taupo Airport site

There was no cooking duties tonight, the four of us went out for a celebration birthday meal at the local Cossie Club.    Between us we had steak, chicken, salmon and scallops.  And very nice it was too – the meals are great there.

Waiting for our birthday meal at the Cossie Club

70th Birthday Lunch with SLG

Robin has the distinction of being the “baby” of our Super Leisure Group - quite a well grown-up baby at almost 70.  He didn’t want a lot of fuss (why not, I wondered) so I booked a lunch for our group at the Wellington icon, James Cook Hotel.

James Cook Hotel, The Terrace, Wellington

Driving down from Levin we allowed plenty of time, just in case of hold ups, parked the car in the underground car parks and arrived at the Whitby Room Restaurant to await our guests.

Everyone arrived in good time, and we soon settled down at our allocated table.  And here is the Birthday Boy with his special balloon.

Happy Birthday, Robin

Sunday Lunch Buffet had plenty of choices.  Most of us had an entrée, and I chose seafood, including some of those lovely large prawns, which I had to remove the heads and tails.  Ugg, I hate getting my fingers messy!  Hot ham, chicken, fish, beef ribs,  roast veggies, and plenty of salads were the choices for the main course, and there was quite  large dessert selection too.  Finishing off with cheese and crackers, and tea or coffee, we were very well fed indeed.

Our SLG friends at lunch

There was plenty to talk about, as usual, reminiscing, and relating our recent Aussie holiday tales, so the conversation kept swirling around the table.  Yvonne had made a beautiful hand made card for Robin, on behalf of the group, which had Romany Rambler pictured on the front – how nice is that!

Custom made birthday card

With lunch over we said our goodbyes and headed off to our respective homes.  But not before we paid for the car parking – not $8 for the whole time as we had thought, but $8 an hour, making a total of $24 parking for lunch.  Never mind, it was close and convenient, after all.  Wellington Harbour looked lovely in the afternoon sunshine as we drove past, although the wind was rather nippy.

Wellington Harbour

And when Robin stopped the car at the top of Pukerua Bay Hill to adjust the GPS, I just had to take the chance to leap out of the car for a Kapiti Island photo from the lookout

Kapiti Island in the distance

Robin’s actual birthday isn’t till Tuesday, so we may well have another celebration or two during the next week or so.  After all, turning 70 is rather special, don’t you think?