Family, Holiday and a little stitching

Just in case you are wondering, yes, we are still on holiday.  During our time in Hawkes Bay we called in to see my sister Kathleen and her husband Dennis, who live in Hastings.

Kathleen with me

There were two “new to us” places to stay at while we traveled slowly southwards.  Guess it’s no coincidence that they were both by breweries!  The first was GodsOwn Brewery – Godfrey the brewer was originally from South Africa, married to Kiwi wife Rachel, and they have realised their dream of brewing craft beers on their own piece of rural paradise.  Of course, we had to meet for 4zees in the large safari tent.  Geoff and Robin ordered the tasting selection of six different beers, and they arrived in quite an impressive wooden rack.

Trying GodsOwn beer

Our last night on our caravan safari was spent camped on the river bank at Mangatainoka Reserve. This is a very significant stretch of water, in the history of beer brewing.  In 1889 Henry Wagstaff stopped on the banks of the Mangatainoka River to boil up a pot of tea.  The water tasted so good that he decided to build a brewery, and so Tui Brewery began.  All these years later Tui Brewery is still going strong, producing plenty of Tui beer, incidentally, Robin’s beer of choice, although I’m not a beer drinker. 

Camping besides the Mangatainoka River

While we were camped here, it would be rude not to walk across the road to the famous Tui Brewery, don't you think.  It took us no time at all – the beer drinkers were happy, while others had coffee and hot chocolate.  And here is the famous seven storey brew tower, built in 1931, so brewers could use gravity to turn malt into beer. Strangely, the builders forgot to put in a lift and stairs, and this quirk has only added intrigue to the site’s long history. The tower is now classified as a Category 1 Heritage Listed building and has been earthquake strengthened.  Advertising photos often  show a bevy of beautiful Tui Girls leaning out of the windows, but they weren’t there when we were visiting. 

The famous Tui Tower

We stopped for lunch at Henley Lake, full of ducks, geese and swans, which certainly had Gemma intrigued.  These birds were much too big for her, so she was happy to peep through the screen door at them.

Henley Lake, Masterton

Then it was just a short drive to our last stop on this trip, at Carterton for a caravan club rally.  The Wairarapa club are hosting a double celebration, the 20th Regional Rally, and their club’s 80th Birthday.  Quite a lot to celebrate.

80th Birthday Cake

And lucky us, we won two raffles during the weekend.  Coffee, mugs and biscuits in one, and a pretty tea towel and chocolate in the other.  All very nice indeed.

Raffle prizes

Blog reader Helen popped in to visit us at Carterton, arriving in her rather flash red car, and bringing some home baking with her, so kind.  We had a good catch up, and it was interesting that she knew our caravan club friend Val from their working lives some years ago.  What a small world.  Helen duly admired our new caravan, my stitching projects, and of course Gemma.  Helen is a great knitter and I was most impressed to learn that she spins and knits fleece from her own small herd of alpacas!  (Such a shame I forgot to take photos.)  And I’m still slowly stitching along, hand quilting a little more on the border of my Autumn stitchery.

This is a long three day weekend (Wellington Anniversary Weekend) so we will finally arrive home on Monday.  I can't wait to make friends with my sewing machine again!