Away for the Weekend

We spent last weekend away with our caravan club friends, just a small group this time with four caravans and four motorhomes staying at the Coach House Museum.   A visit to the museum while staying here is always a must.  Inside the museum was a treasure trove of all thing to do with farming and agriculture.  A grand selection of carriages, gigs, carts, plows, all sorts of horse drawn implements.  Even a few early cars which would have been the envy of all in the area at the time.   Shearing, milking, and blacksmith tools, and a great array of John Deere tractors.  As well, there were several displays aimed at the female visitors too.  Such as this huge display of dolls.

Dolls on display

As well as the quilt displayed with the dolls, I spotted another one draped over a horse, black, white and red.  This appeared to be made to celebrate Anzac Day, as it was festooned with red crocheted poppies.

Quilt or horse blanket?

Another intriguing display was the  ‘Kerouse’ hawkers van that plied Manawatū district roads for about 60 years, selling everything from a needle to an anchor, has a special place in the history of the Coach House Museum.  The van was built in Wellington in 1900, and was used by Peter Kerouse, a Syrian, until around 1957.  He travelled the districts’ roads selling anything and everything. Peter has lived on, as one of the district’s colourful characters, and was also known on the East Coast.

Hawker’s Van

Another visit was arranged for us during our stay in Feilding, this time to the beautiful Bloomsberry Cottage, built in 1877, just three years after the town of Feilding was founded.  This has been a labour of love for the current owners, painting, renovating, and transforming the house and huge garden.

Bloomsberry Cottage

The lady of the house gave us a tour through her home, downstairs first then up the beautifully carved kauri staircase.  Kauri trees do not grow this far south, so all the timber was  transported from Northland by boat then overland from Foxton by bullock cart.

Beautiful kauri staircase

Views of the garden

We had a very pleasant weekend indeed catching up with our caravan friends.  And family too, who live locally.  Older grand-daughter Emma and her boyfriend came for a caravan visit, as did our son-in-law Robert.  And we had lunch in a local café with younger grand-daughter Megan and her boyfriend My daughter Nicky was having a girls weekend away.  There were 4zees and morning teas as usual with our caravan friends, nice sunny weather and plenty of time to catch up with each other’s news since the previous rally.  All good fun indeed!

Our caravan with vintage machinery displayed outside