What's on the Table

 This tablecloth dates back to 2012 when we traveled to the South Island with three other caravans for a three month trip.  I took along some pre sewn  rail fence blocks made up of strips of New Zealand inspired fabrics alternating with pale grey and my Micron ink pen. 

Table cloth documenting our mammoth South Island trip

 Our old cat Muffy was 16 years old back then and we had always placed her in a cattery when we traveled.  But I worried that at her age she might die while we were away, so we took her on  her very first caravan trip, and what a long one it was.  Although she was very unsettled during the ferry trip, she settled down surprising well.  Within a week of being on the road she was reasonably comfortable with the big change in her life.

And here we all were, full of excitement,  traveling down on the Inter Islander Ferry with our friends. Sadly, Robin and Geoff C are no longer with us.

Robin, Jenny, Dot, Pauline, Eileen, Geoff T, Derek, Geoff C, way back in 2012

And what a time we had,  Each  night I would get my Micro pen out and write down, where we stayed, the places we explored, and special sights we had seen.  The writing has faded now over all these years, but the memories are still there.

Writing on the blocks each night

We drove down the east coast,  stopping at all sorts of interesting places and reached Invercargill.  This was quite memorable for our old cat Muffy, as she found some cat nip growing where we were parking up overnight and rolled on the warm concrete in ecstasy!

I think Muffy overdosed on cat nip

We traveled back through Central Otago, and over to the West Coast, back over to Picton, and finally taking the ferry back to Wellington. The scenery of the South Island of New Zealand can only be described in superlatives, such as majestic, stunning, and sensational. With vistas of mountains, rugged peaks, glaciers, rain forests, fiords, rivers, lakes, hot mineral springs, wild coastlines, streams and estuaries, and rolling farmland, each day brought us more wonderful views to marvel over. Each of these wonderful places was faithfully recorded on the rail fence blocks, and the memories will live on each time I use my  table cloth, completed in June 2012.  Eileen had donated me the colourful kiwi fabric which I used for the backing, border and binding.  I think her original intention was to use this fabric to make something for her grandchildren, which never happened.

Completed in June 2012

Our Toyota Land Cruiser towed the caravan 3973km around the South Island, and then we drove a staggering 3413km without the caravan on the back,  tiki touring around.  A grand total of 7386kms for the trip, and we used 1417 litres of diesel.  And all this travelling cost us $2292.17 and our fuel consumption averaged out at approx 18 litres per 100 kilometres.  Goodness knows what the cost of the fuel would be these days, 14 years later.

Hawkes Bay is always sunny

 The Hawkes Bay is generally sunny and warm, and although we had a couple of chilly nights, the days were glorious.  We spent a couple of days at Napier NZMCA Park and our neighbours were intrigued that we travel with a cat and came over to say hello to Gemma.  

At Napier NZMCA Park

These NZMCA parks always have a book swap and I found this helpful book there, Crafty Girls Road Trip.  Although 10 years old, there is still plenty of information that will be relevant.  I'll keep the book in the caravan for when we are tripping around visiting new places.

A great find in the book swap

And what is a visit to this area without a trip to the famous Silky Oak complex where they make delicious hand made chocolates.

My biggest dilemma was whether to order a delightfully decadent hot chocolate or an iced chocolate?  As it was a warm morning the iced chocolates won.  They were delicious!  And I'll have you know that no other chocolate items were purchased!

Two delicious iced chocolates

We caught up with my niece Lisa (my late sister Kathleen's daughter) and her family one evening for dinner.  The venue was Rosie O'Grady's,  a restaurant chain.  I had delicious roast pork while Robin enjoyed a large lamb shank.  My great nephew  Adam always wants a big hug, as I remind him of his beloved Nana.  

Jenny, Kate, Adam, Lisa, Robin

I've been knitting a cotton dishcloth for the caravan in pretty burgundy and pink shades.  Half way there, so it shouldn't take too long to finish now.

Knitting a dish cloth

And what's a holiday trip without a visit to the laundromat.  We always go to Liquid Laundromat, plenty of those throughout the country, and we can use our pre-loaded card at any of them.

My birthday socks finished, and gift

 I have finally finished this pair of socks for me.  This 4ply sock wool is branded Happy Feet, no colour named, just a number, and I received it as a birthday gift last year from Sew Wot friend Mary.    As most of you know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time, and packed the finished socks in my knitting bag on our recent caravan trip planning to get side seam stitched up.  That never happened, and I finally completed this task once we returned back home.  It's about time I finished them.

Although it is now Spring, we are having awful weather and no doubt I will be wearing socks for a little bit longer.  I'm really looking forward to the weather co-operating more and being able to wear lighter Summer clothes again.  The last couple of days of our trip home were cold and bleak.  Just look at this weather out of the caravan window!

Brr, it's chilly out there

Low clouds followed us as we drove along the Desert Road, and the traffic was quite heavy as it was the last day of a long holiday weekend.  There is no actual sandy desert as such, and the scenery changes dramatically, from sub alpine trees, to miles of tussock covered land which is used for military training, and then changes again to rolling farmland at the southern end. The rain and low clouds followed us, obscuring my view of Mt Ruapehu.

It was time to stop and catch our breath at Waiouru.  Robin attended to the fuel requirements while I went over to the coffee cart.  I had an interesting chat with the owner and another customer inside when I mentioned we were on our way home to Levin.  Both of these ladies had lived there in the past. 

Time for a coffee

The weather had cleared and it was sunny again by the time we reached the last stop on our trip, Marton.  Gemma was keen to get outside and smell the flowers, but that didn't last long.  Before too long, down came the rain and wind again, and we spent the last night of our trip tucked up cozily inside the caravan.

We returned home safely the next day, unpacked, and put the first load of washing on.  My friend Dot called around with birthday gift, isn't it lovely!

Thanks, Dot

Still traveling

I'm obviously much to busy to do too much knitting while we are on our road trip.  The only thing I've worked on is my pair of pink socks, mostly knitted while traveling in the car.  This pretty yarn was a gift from my daughter Nicky last Christmas, so I'd like to get them finished soon.  They are coming along, I think I'm just about up to the heels by now.   In case you don't know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time.

My pink socks

Not only have I packed my pink socks to work on this trip, I've also got two pairs of socks which need the side seam stitched up - no, not done yet.  Plus my blue cardigan which needs working one, not looked at either.  Guess I've been too busy getting out and about.

One of the interesting places we have been to while staying at Ohaupo while our caravan was getting its annual service was to check out the Peat Lakes, we had never been there before.

Ngaroto is the largest of the many peat lakes found between Hamilton and Te Awamutu.  These lakes were formed about 19,000 years ago when sand and gravel carried in the Waikato and Waipa river blocked up small valleys.  Water loving plants thrived and thick layers of peat eventually built up within the lake and around the margins.  There is a walkway around the lake, including stretches of boardwalk together with dirt and grass pathways, about a 6km flat walk.  Self contained camping is allowed at the lake side, and there were several motor homes staying the day we arrived.  

Lake Ngaroto

The next day we traveled out to The Mount (Mount Maunganui) while we were waiting for our caravan awning to be restitched,  so drove there and found a parking spot overlooking the beach.  What a busy bunch the locals were.  There were people climbing up the pathway on the Mount, tiny dots in the distance.  We watched as a never ending stream of people walked, jogged, ran and cycled along the pathway adjacent to the beach.  Fit youngsters  effortlessly ran by, older couples walked together, young Mums wheeled their babes in pushchairs, it was great to see many people out and about enjoying the morning.  Unfortunately when I got out of the car to take a photo I slipped and fell, and found myself on my back between the gutter and the adjacent car.  An unexpected fall is always quite frightening, and as I said to Robin as I clambered back up, it could have been so much worse.  I could have broken my ankle, or banged my head on the car, luckily all that was damaged was my pride.

  Mt Maunganui and beach

Another interesting find was the "Tree of Knowledge" at our next overnight stop, Welcome Bay, in Tauranga.  Perhaps I should have gone and hugged the tree, and asked it to impart some knowledge!

The Tree of Knowledge 

There is a large meeting room with books to swap, and several boxes of kiwi fruit had been donated for the members.  "Help yourselves", we were told, so we did.  What a bonus for the campers.

Help yourself to the kiwifruit

And just because we are on holiday, doesn't mean that the laundry doesn't get done.  There is always a trip or two to find a local laundromat while we travel.

Laundry time again

Gemma is stoic with car travel, she just puts up with it, but once out of the car and into the caravan she is completely relaxed.  Then she jumps up on the bed and spends time grooming herself, her way of calming down, I think.  She is always interested going outside on her lead to check things out.  And once she has finished sniffing the grass, she often likes to sit in the doorway.

I wonder what she is looking at, birds perhaps?

Caravan Trip and Another Birthday

 Last weekend we were getting ready to leave for a caravan rally.  Gemma decided to make life difficult for us, with all the hustle and bustle of packing the caravan going on.  "Why not give my people a hard time and hide for a while", she thought.  We were all ready to go and searched here, searched there, to no avail, then searched again.  Robin finally found her curled up and keeping low in a place I had already checked twice!  I don't know why she acts like this, after all she goes away in the caravan once a month at least so should be well used to the routine by now.  Finally she was secured in the car and we got on our way.

She can be rather naughty at times!

We were heading off to the Pohangina Domain, formerly the village school.  As we had a lunch date with my daughter, we were the first to arrive, put our van on site, and left before anyone else arrived.  The old school grounds are surrounded by lovely mature trees, and there are plenty of native birds everywhere.  And because it is a rural area, lambs were bleating, cattle were mooing, and the roosters were crowing!  The name Pohangina translates to "ulcerated night", suggesting that the valley had been a place of bloodshed between the local Rangitane people and their enemies.

It was a short 15 minute drive to The Herb Farm where we were meeting for lunch.  Nicky used to work here for several years in the laboratory, mixing up potions and creams. 

 We had a lovely lunch and then she had a couple of gifts for us.  One for Robin, for his birthday several weeks ago, and another for me.  I'm keeping mine to open on the actual day.  I had something for her too, several balls of crochet cotton which were looking for a new home at my last quilt club meeting, plus some extra  reels of thread I had.

The weather for our caravan weekend away was glorious, fine and sunny, such beautiful Spring weather.  The sunhats got their first outing of the season.  We took a trip to check out Totara Reserve, a rather nice camping spot.  Not yet open for the season, we left our cars at the locked gate and walked in.  

Enjoying the peaceful surroundings

On Sunday morning our caravan group packed up and headed away, most going home, but we were heading north, to Hamilton.  We stopped the night at Ohakune.  I know that towns in Australia are famous for the Big Pineapple or the Big Prawn, but here in New Zealand Ohakune is world famous for the Big Carrot!  Plenty of carrots are grown here, as well as potatoes and swedes.   In case you are wondering, the name Ohakune means "an opening to a new world" and refers to the descent from nearby Mount Ruapehu into the valley and swamps of the area.

The Big Carrot of Ohakune

We drove past Mt Ruapehu as we continued on our journey, it's always such a lovely sight to see.

Mt Ruapehu

The plan was to stay for two nights at Otorohanga, the name means "food for a journey".  There is a legend which tells of a Maori chief passing by, who chanted incantations that stretched out his meagre supply of food to last the full journey.  Otorohanga has a Kiwi House where visitors can go and see our elusive nocturnal national bird.  How about this colourful statue on the side of the road?

We arrived in Otorohanga

We decided to go out for a celebratory birthday dinner at the Otorohanga Club while we were here, a day early, as our next stop is in a very small settlement indeed and may not have somewhere to celebrate my birthday.  That wouldn't do at all, would it!  We both enjoyed roast pork and veggies, and bubbly for me, and a beer for him.

Our meals were delicious

After breakfast the next day (my actual birthday) I had cards and gifts to open, how exciting.  Such  a lovely time opening parcels and exclaiming over the contents.  First up was the parcel from my daughter Nicky.  She had buttonhole stitched around three new flannels (face clothes) and had included a bag of Russian Fudge.  

From my daughter Nicky

I had two exciting parcels from Sew Wot friends too.  Heather had wrapped up a pretty candle, a crochet dishcloth, a packet of pretty paper serviettes, and just look at that cute little pink pig!  

Thank you Heather

And lastly, the most lovely knitting bag from Mary.  At our last Sew Wots morning I had admired the knitting bag which Mary had made for Jude, and now she has stitched one for me as well.  This  bag is made with pussy cat fabric and the words say:

The Quilter's Cat.

Between layers of fabric stashes snuggles the Quilter's Cat

Sleeping by day, prowling by night

Shedding hair for all to wear

The Quilter and her Cat

A picture of contentment at that

Knitting bag from Mary

I had a lovely birthday with plenty of messages, and a phone call from my son.  "You are getting old, Mum", he commented.  "I'll be even older next year with my BIG birthday", I replied.  Where have all those years gone?

More Safari Travels

 Akitio on the coast was our next stop  This is a sheep and beef farming district and the small town has a school, volunteer fire brigade, a motor camp and a freedom camping area by the beach, and not much  else.

We found ourselves a site with  plenty of room here for our group.  Water, rubbish bins and a toilet block was available, but unfortunately the weather was not kind to us at all.  The beach was covered in driftwood and bigger logs, no doubt washed ashore after a storm.  

Akitio Beach

It was just one night here, so we packed up and set off again, to arrive at Te Paerahi Beach, Porangahau.   Along the way we stopped at the site of "The longest Placename in New Zealand".  There is a nice large area to pull off the road and check out the sign, which was very long indeed.

The name translates to "The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his nose flute to his loved one".  The story goes that Tamatea was so grieved over the loss of his brother that he stayed at the battle site for some days.  Each morning he would sit on the hill and play a lament on his flute.

That's a very long sign

Te Paerahi Beach was another freedom camping area, not one we had stayed at before.  A toilet block was available, plus a drinking fountain, but no tap water available to top up the vans.  There were other vans staying there too, but still plenty of room for our seven vans.  The wide sandy beach was beautiful, and most of us strolled along it during our stay here.  There were no piles of driftwood cluttering up this beach, unlike the previous one we stayed at.

Te Paerahi was a lovely sandy beach

Gemma enjoyed relaxing on the caravan bed as a sliver of sunshine came through the window.  Cats always find the best spots for themselves, don't they.

Gemma's happy in the sunshine

The last stop on our safari was two nights at Takapau camp.  It was nice to be on  power again, as we were still experiencing cool weather.  We ate together in the hall on Saturday night, enjoying our local fish and chips.  Then everyone was invited to share an embarrassing story.  I started the ball rolling when I related my tale of woe as a young Mum driving a car with L (learner) plates, remember those, plus two kids and two dogs.  I was traveling up the Wairarapa side of the Remutaka  Hill when all the traffic came to a standstill.  When the cars started off again I found it impossible to do the dreaded hill start and kept sliding back, getting closer and closer to the car behind me.  Finally, the driver came to me and offered to start my car and drove it to a flat pull off area.  I was mortified, and stayed put till all the traffic had passed by, before slowly driving home to Lower Hutt.  Other embarrassing tales followed, most of them long forgotten and buried in the subconscious, as it turned out.

Sunday was a free day with people out visiting friends and family, or in our case, a little shopping and attending to the laundry.   These are always busy places and many locals come to use the machines.  I took my knitting along while I waited and did some rows on my pink socks.

Sock knitting in the laundromat

The grand finale was dinner that evening at Sawyers Arms in nearby Tikokino.  Once again, many muddy gumboots were left at the door.  The pub was quite full with patrons  and our group was seated in the dining room on a long table, which suited us fine.  Menus were studied, our choices were made, and generously heaped plates  arrived at the table.

It was a lovely evening, thanks were made and we were presented with a pretty card, signed by all the attendees on the safari.

Thank you card 

Everyone departed on Monday morning, and the gusty wind made towing a little difficult.  We stopped at NZ Natural Clothing shop at Norsewood  to make a couple of purchases, two nice warm plaid shirts for Robin, and a big kg of cream wool for me, for a future project.  As a thank you for our purchases I got a pair of cozy socks, printed with caravans.

My purchases

A little further on we stopped for lunch.  We had planned ahead and made some bacon sandwhiches before we broke camp to eat on our way, and they were very tasty indeed.   Then we drove up and over the Pahiatua Track, and we were on the home stretch.  As much as I always enjoy our trips away, it's always good to get back home, safe and sound again.