Back in Thornton.

We left Taupo in fog last Friday morning. It didn’t clear until we were turning off at Rainbow Mountain.

We went and had a look at Lake Aniwhenua reserve. The lake was quite weedy looking, so it wasn’t that pretty. Heaps of tents were set up, but no people about, so I don’t know where they were.

You can camp there for 7 nights, but you have to take your rubbish with you when you leave. 

We got to Thornton at about 12. We got a great welcome from Louise.

We did a bit of a circuit around the campgrounds later in the afternoon and  met up with Mike. (He took over from Eddie when we went south). He was putting in pegs to show where the new houses are going to be. Louise is building 3. Her father is going to have one. They are alongside Mike’s at the back fence. There will be a bit of a view of the sea from the balconies. It will bring the permanent home here up to about 13

Eddie reckons if we win lotto he would buy one.

I offered to do the gardening 1 hour a day and Louise took me up on the offer. They aren’t too bad, so I think I am back just in time. Eddie had a spongy pad for me to kneel on, so that will make it more comfortable. Eddie is going to do some odd jobs too, just as and when he is needed.

When Eddie took the bikes off the rack on the back of the van and found my bike had blown a tyre. It was getting a bit low on tread, so I suppose I should have changed it a while ago. I was glad it didn't blow when I was riding it. That would have given me quite a fright.

We went and got the groceries on Tuesday. Not much has changed in Whakatane that we could see.

I did my hour in the garden, but didn’t set the timer on my watch, so I did 20  minutes longer.

My hips have been a bit sore since I started gardening. I did a lot of bending over one day, because there wasn’t any room to kneel. I have managed to kneel a lot more since. Louise said she could see the difference all ready, so that was nice. 

Heading North.

On Tuesday we had a cool and drizzly morning, but came out ok by the afternoon. I got a good go in the garden in the afternoon, so there was not much left to do.

The fantail came back again for a short while in the afternoon.

I have a collection of hair shampoos that people have left behind. I think it is 6 bottles. Some of them are almost full. There are also 2 conditioners. One is full and the other one is a huge bottle that is almost a litre. It is pretty full too, so I am doing well and won’t have to buy any for ages. Bonus!!

We went to Petone on Wednesday morning. We were very surprised to go past at least 12 cyclists on the Remutaka road. It must have been an event as they were all wearing the same t-shirt, but I couldn’t read what they said on the back as we drove past. A couple of times, we had to stop and wait for them to go around a bend as we couldn’t see around it to see if any cars were coming the other way. I found it rather dangerous and I don’t know why they are allowed to go on such a narrow winding road.

On Thursday, we have had a couple of people come in, so I got Alan to check them in for practice and I did a bit more in the garden. We went to say goodbye to Gabrielle, in the office, this morning, so I didn’t have a lot of time to do the garden before it got too hot. I did get it all done on Friday, so I was pleased about that.

Eddie put the bikes on to the back of the caravan too, so all the jobs were done in plenty of time for moving on.

We left Tauherenikau on Saturday and had a good run up to Clive, near Hastings. On the way up, we stopped for morning tea at a rest area near Eketahuna. There was a memorial to the 734 Polish children refugees. They came in 1944 after being deported to Siberia and then sent on to Iran for a while. The rest area was near where their camp was. We never knew anything about them.

Polish Children Memorial

Polish Children memorial plaque

We stayed in a council camping area which is free. It is on the banks of the Clive River. There are toilets here, but no showers. We haven’t used our shower or toilet since we went to Tauherenikau, so it’s a bit strange. The shower seems very small after the big ones.

We went for  a stroll along the bike and walking trail beside us. We went about 2 ks by the time we got home. There are alot of bike and walking tracks around here. You can bike all the way to Napier on them as well as out to Cape Kidnappers.

Clive River bank

On Sunday morning  we were entertained by kayaks, canoes, waka, and outrigger canoes all rowing up and down the river training hard. Later in the afternoon the jet skis came out to play which was a bit noisy. Eddie still managed to have a nap, so it wasn’t too bad. 

We drove out to Clifton. We did think we would go and see the gannet colony out on Cape Kidnappers, but you have to walk along the beach and the tide was right in. It is a 5 hour walk too, so we weren’t really prepared for that. We could have done a tour, but we thought it might be too expensive. We had a nice lunch at a cafe there called Hygge. A strange name, but there you are.

On Monday we came to Napier. It took all of about 12 minutes to get here. Such a long trip!! We are staying in a New Zealand Motor Caravan park. It took longer to pack up and re-set than it did to get here. Ha ha. The camp is a big area, which must hold a lot of vans. It was probably packed for the Art Deco weekend in February.

I went for a short walk in the afternoon. I found a walking track and ended up doing a circle. I managed not to get lost, but I had my phone with me in case I needed to use the GPS.

We left Napier this morning at 9:45 to come to Taupo. There were lots of road works along the way, so progress was slow at times. There was a notice as we left Napier to say the delays would cause about a 48 minute delay and I think it was about that as we arrived in Taupo at 12:45. 

We drove through Eskdale Valley and the sight of all the broken houses was very sobering and made me feel very sad. There was a lot of silt laying on the paddocks too with only weeds growing in them.

Fantails

 Autumn is here all ready. It was almost like waking up one morning and realizing that summer has gone for another year. The mornings are darker and cooler too. The days are still warm, so that's nice. We have noticed the trees starting to change colour.

We will be leaving Waiarapa on Saturday morning. Our first stop will be Clive, near Hastings to spend a couple of nights. We are looking forward to moving again.

Our tomatoes have nearly finished, so that is good timing when we are leaving. The wild flowers that we planted were a great show and now there are lots of seedlings coming up. I hope no one thinks they are weeds and pulls them out.

On Sunday we took down the awning. On Monday we went into Masterton to the VTNZ for the COF for the van. That is a certificate of Fitness that heavy vehicles have to have. They aren't cheap, so it's quite nice to get a discount via the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. We passed, so that was a relief and we don't have to worry about it again until September. 

Lately there has been a fantail coming into the stables behind us in the evenings. It sings and flits about for quite a while and then disappears. It is very cute. Yesterday there were two of them. We enjoy watching them.

A Fantail Story.

Many years ago, I worked in a glass house that grew orchids for export. One day I was working by  myself in a little glass house, when a fantail came in. He sat on a wire near me and started to sing. It was so loud and I wondered how a little bird could make so much noise. It sang and sang until I thought it would burst. I could feel my eardrums vibrating with the soud, it was so loud. It was amazing and then it flew off and I felt really priviledged to have heard it.

Martinborough Fair

 We went to the Martinborough fair on Saturday morning. It is huge. I don't think we appreciated how big it was when we were told it was big. The square in the centre of Martinborough was full of stalls plus 8 streets off the square. There were so many people with their dogs. We do wonder why people take dogs to a thing like that. It seems ridiculous to us. We saw one lady with 3. I think it must be quite distressing for the dog, with lots of smells, heat and legs in their faces all day.

Parking was a premium of course, so we stopped at the first space we came too and walked into town-- about 2 ks I think. We wandered around for a while until we found some chicken nuggets and chips for an early lunch. Eddie was over all the people by then, so we came home. We got a bit lost going back to the truck and ended up a long way from where we wanted to be. Eddie got out his phone and put the GPS on to find out where we were. We were very pleased to get into the truck and stop walking. I had done a 7k before breakfast that morning, so I had done almost 15 ks by the end of the day. I thought I might be a bit stiff the next day, but I wasn't, so that was a bonus.

We had a fish and chip tea after all that effort. It is the first time we have had fish and chips since we have been here. It wasn't that exciting, but better than the nuggets we had for lunch.

It was very stormy on Monday and the Remutaka road was closed for a time. It can be very windy up there on a normal day, so it must have been really bad to close the road. It is the main way over to Wellington. The alternative route is back to Woodville and over the Woodville track or the Pahiatua track. That adds quite a few hours to the journey, so you would have to be really wanting to be in Wellington to do that.