Waiarapa Racing Club.

On our way home, from Petone to visiting my parents last Thursday, we found another campground, just

south of Featherston. It is owned and run by the Wairarapa Racing Club. It is only $22 a night, so we went

there on Saturday instead of Carterton. It is about 45 minutes from

Petone. It has all the facilities. Water, toilets, showers, rubbish and a kitchen.

The campsite is on the banks of the Tauherenikau River. It is a trout river, so Eddie is going to have a go at catching

some trout. We went to Hunting and Fishing in Masterton and got Eddie some waders and a trout license.

One day, we went for a walk along the river bank here in Masterton. We ended up at a road entrance, so we

turned around and went back to a foot bridge. It is very new and solid. It had a label that said it could hold

100 people. We came home on the other side of the river. We imagined it was a very popular place in the

summer on a hot day.

The foot bridge over the Waipoua River.

There are little carvings on the side of the bridge. Each one is different.

The river from the bridge.

It was a lovely sunny day for shifting. It was a bit odd, only coming about half an hour from our departure point.

We were here by 10.

When we arrived there was another van set up in the spot we had chosen, so we had to choose another one.

We were going to go next to Tony, who we met when we came and looked. In the end, we set up in the shelter of

some trees behind us. Hopefully they will keep the worst of the southerly winds off us. It turned out to be the

best spot, because the sun had gone off Tony’s site by 3, but it was still shining on us. 

We did a walk along the river and back. Then we went and checked out the laundry and did a bit of a stroll

back to our van. We met a lady gardening. She lives in a house on the property, which she bought from the

racing club. She has a dog called Reacher, who is a pound puppy, beardie cross. Very cute. She said he is

nothing like Jack Reacher. Not brave at all. She also has a rather overweight tortoise shell cat, called Peaches. 

Later we met a man, who lives in another house here. I think he is the caretaker. His name is Bastion. He also

has a dog ,called Ernie. He looks like a poodle, but perhaps with something else mixed in. He is quite a character and very friendly.

The racing club is 160 years old. They have 5 race meetings a year. The rest of the year is full of weddings, music festivals, car rallies and the police dog competitions.

Wedding venue

The old stand

We went and made ourselves known to the racing club secretary on Tuesday, We found him in the office and after

a bit of a chat he asked if we wanted a job as custodians. He just wants someone on site to  greet people,  do the

cleaning and the gardens. The gardens were planted by the NZMCA, but they haven’t been weeded for

a while and need doing. We said yes ( of course), so now we are here for the summer. Funny how things work out. 

checking out camping grounds

Last Friday and Saturday we have had 2 fine days in a row. Well I thought that was what was going to happen, but there were showers on Saturday afternoon to spoil it. I got the washing dry, so that was good.

We were going to go to Marsteron on Sunday, but the rain is going to be worse on Sunday, so we went on Sunday instead.

We went to Scotts Ferry, which is on the other side of the Rangitikei River. We were going to stay there when we came this way, but the lady said we wouldn’t be able to as it was so wet. We went to have a look at the camping ground and it still has a big puddle in the middle. It isn’t a big camp, with only 10 sites. The owner was towing out the electrician, who had come to do some work  and got stuck. We watched from the top of the stop bank and had a chat with them when they were out on the stop bank.

The village of Scott’s Ferry made us laugh as we drove along the road that went through it. The houses were all labeled as follows.

Dew Drop Inn; Snapper Inn; Flounder Inn, Les b Inn ( the owner’s name is Les we found out from the men we spoke to). Holiday Inn, Return Inn, Amble Inn and lots more I can’t remember. The funniest one was the empty section with the name on the gate, Nothing Inn. 

We had a good trip over the Woodville Saddle. The GPS was a bit weird. It wanted to take us through the centre of Palmerston North. It started off taking us to the road to Woodville, which was the way we thought we would go. Then it tried to take us back on to the road through Palmerston North. Eddie went the way he knew. Even when we were over the saddle it wanted to take us back to Palmerston North. It suddenly came right at Woodville. 

We followed a milk tanker over, so it was a slow drive. When we got to a passing lane, we had to let traffic behind us to go past. There are a lot of wind turbines along the top of the hills. You don’t realize how big they are until you pass one that is close to the road. We had lunch at the Tui brewery at Mangatainoka.  There was a bit of snow up on the Tararua ranges. 

On Sunday a friend came for a visit from Ashurst. We had lunch and then went to the Queen Elizabeth park and had a walk around. It is quite a nice park with a few deer in one area. They did look as if they needed a bit of care. The stag needed his feet looking after.

We went on a mission to find our next site to move to. 

FIrst stop was Lake Ferry. It is on the south coast with the southerly roaring in.  The lake opens out into the sea, so I don’t think of it as a lake really. Lake Wairarapa is further north and a river links the two. The campground is very wet and it was hard to find a spot where we wouldn’t sink. There are a lot of permanently sited caravans there and a few people living permanently too. We thought it would be ok and Eddie was happy to be beside the sea. The price was right too.

 Next we stopped at Featherston, but we wouldn’t fit in there, so on to Greytown. It was a pretty site with lots of native trees that have been there a long time, so they were very tall and of course, created a lot of shade. The sites here were wet too, but we found one we wouldn’t sink on, so that was good. We thought it was better than Lake Ferry and the price was the same. 

On a whim we went to Carterton on our way back to Masterton. It was the best of the lot, with hard ground to park on and not a lot of mud. It’s a wee bit dearer than the others, but a nicer place, so that’s where we are going to go on Saturday.

After lunch, yesterday, we went for a walk up and down the main street of Masterton. It took almost an hour by the time we wandered home again. 

Masterton is a bit bigger than we realized. It is quite a nice town. They have a lovely swimming pool complex too. We went and had a look at it on our walk today.

We have discovered a lot of the towns are bigger than we thought. When you go past them on state highway 1, you don’t realize how far back they go towards the coast. It’s been a bit of an eye opener. 

 

 

Wind turbine on the Taraua Ranges

Deer park Queens Park Masterton

Hot pools and snow

One afternoon, when we were in Taupo we went to the Wairakei Thermal Hot Springs and Spa for a soak. It was lovely and made your skin feel nice and soft. It was pretty hot in places, so we sat in different places where the water was hot and then moved to a cooler spot. The water coming over the water fall was very hot.

Our van at the Taupo race course.

The hot water fall in the pool

On Thursday we left Taupo and went to Tangimoana camping ground. It is a little wild west type village.  A lot of the houses are made of what ever was at hand and are holiday homes. There are some permanent residence. There is a rubbish collection once a week, so there must be enough households to make it worth while. We are about 35 ks from Palmerston North. 

The Desert Rd was very snowy when we came across. 

We were driving past the volcanoes and only Nghauruhoe was out of the clouds. It looked very pretty in the sunshine. Eddie pulled over, so we could take a photo of it. As we were getting out of the truck, it started to snow, so we just pretended we had pulled over to let the traffic pass and kept going. It wasn't too snowy, but you never know what can happen up there. 

Off to Taupo

 We woke up last Wednesday with the rain lashing the windows. I wondered what the noise was to start with. There was also a bit of thunder and lightning and strong winds. It was better in the afternoon, but cold. We didn't venture out much that day.

I don’t think I mentioned that we bought a new fridge last week. We are over waiting for our old one. It is still at the repair shop. It is supposed to be going to Hamilton to get re-gassed. It has been too long and we just want our money back really. It has never been a good fridge right from the beginning. This is the 3rd time we have taken it for repairs.

Later in the week there was a southerly blowing which made it cooler. When I went for a walk in the afternoon, I spotted a bit of snow on Mt Tarawera. No wonder the wind was cool.

We got some lights on shopping day, to put into the pantry. They work on movement, so everytime we walked past the pantry they came on. Eddie put some dark tape on part of the sensor, so they only come on now when we put our hand into the shelf. It did make us laugh.

We left Thornton on Monday morning and came to Taupo for four nights. We are going to wait and see what the weather does on the Desert Rd before we go further south. 

We are parked at a NZMCA ground. There is only water here and rubbish. Some camps don’t even have that.

We went in to Taupo, to get fuel and refill the gas bottle. When we got back all our neighbours had gone. We wondered what we had done ha ha.

Louise has asked us to go back in November while she is away for 4 days. She is taking the family on a Disney Cruise. They go out to sea and come back to Auckland after 4 days. I think they have games and entertainment by the Disney characters on board. We will probably stay there and camp up on the hill over the summer break, so we don’t have to worry about where we are going to go. It can be expensive in camping grounds over summer. 

Tomorrow we are moving to a camping ground near Bulls.