Out and About

We are away on another caravan trip, this time for three weeks, from Urenui in New Plymouth down to Waikanae with the ICA (International Caravan Assoc) group.  I’ve found time to do some handwork, stitching a little more on the tea towels I’m making for my grand-daughters.  I’ve got this far on the pink one, and still have the boy fish slice to stitch.

Tea towel stitchery

I’ve got my knitting bag with me, and thought it would be a good opportunity to start stitching up a pair of burgundy socks I completed a while ago.  This task is not quite finished, but I’m getting there.  And if these socks look familiar, it’s probably because I’ve showed the current pair I’m knitting, in the same wool.  I’d always intended to knit two pairs, one for me and one to gift.

Burgundy Socks

There's been plenty of interesting things to see while we’ve been travelling.  While in New Plymouth we drove down to see the lovely Te Rewa Rewa bridge, shaped like the ribs of a whale.  Arriving there we came to a glorious photo of Mt Taranaki framed by the bridge with the words “We’re giving the bridge a face lift but don't want you to miss a pic.  Take a photo of yourself with this backdrop until the real one reopens”.  So we did.  Was the bridge closed, we wondered, as we walked around the path.  No, it wasn’t but there were signs where work had been started on repainting the structure.  Streams of bikers whizzed past, and walkers ambled over the bridge, while we waited a turn to get a picture.  The mountain is there, but very hard to see on a cloudy day and without a snowy top, so this is a much better view.

Such n unusual bridge structure

Stopping at the local butcher down town we were amused to see the door handle going into the shop.  A meat cleaver, no less!  We certainly hadn't seen a door handle like this before. Here we purchased some sausages and black pudding.  The black pudding ended up as part of our BBQed Sunday breakfast.

Cleaver handle and BBQ breakfast

On our final morning in New Plymouth one of our group mentioned that there was a police dog training  close to where we were camping.  So I walked up and asked if I could take a photo of the dog.  Guess an old lady on a walking stick didn’t look too threatening to those big strong policemen and the dog.  No problem at all, the handler walked his dog over closer to the fence and instructed him to get down, so I could take a quick photo.  He certainly was a fine looking animal and posed nicely for me.

Handsome police dog

Then we were on our way, following Surf Highway 45.  This is quite an interesting road, passing several small beach towns on the way.  Oakura Beach holds special memories for Robin, as he spent quite some time at this surf beach in his younger years doing Surf Life Saving training.  We stopped for lunch at Cape Egmont Boating Club, pulling into a large grassy area.  The boat club has a replica lighthouse attached, which also serves as a museum, not open when we were there as it it run by volunteers on an occasional basis.

Replica Lighthouse at Cape Egmont

After a relaxing lunch we continued on our way around the coast to Opunake, passing hundreds of small rounded hills in the paddocks, as far as the eye could see..  These were created by ancient lahars flowing from Mount Taranaki.  A lahar is a rapidly flowing mixture of rock debris and water (other than normal streamflow) originating from a volcano.  New Zealand is dotted with volcanoes, and the experts say no volcano can ever be declared extinct.

Ancient lahar mounds

We are currently staying at the Opunake Beach Holiday Park for several days, and on arrival I made a beeline to the laundry.  You know me, doing the laundry is a necessary part of my life, on holiday or not.  The camp clothesline was behind the laundry and in the shade, so Robin erected my dinky little traveling clothesline for me.

Happiness is clean washing

Gemma seems to enjoy the caravan life.  She was determined to get into my tiny caravan wardrobe, it didn't matter that shoes and my bag were on the wardrobe floor.  She was getting in there, by hook or by crook!  I can’t imagine it was very comfy lying there, but she got her way.

Hunkered down in the wardrobe

I may not get a lot of stitching done while we are traveling, but there are sure to be adventures on the way.  Until next time….

Family Christmas

Our Christmas was spent in rural Kiwitea, just north of Feilding, at my daughter and her family’s smallholding.  We were staying in our caravan, tucked around behind the house.  Just through the trees was the chicken run, and we could hear the chooks cluck clucking away.   I went with Nicky into the chook run to feed them some scraps and see how they were getting on.

Daughter Nicky with one of her hens

Grand-daughter Emma welcomed us with a pre-Christmas gift, home baked Christmas fruit mince pies and shortbread, such a lovely surprise.

Pre-Christmas gift from Emma

Emma loves Christmas so knocked on the caravan door door  bright and early on Christmas morning.  This family always have a Christmas tradition of hot croissants with ham and cheese for breakfast,  delicious indeed, so much so that we have borrowed their tradition when we have Christmas on our own.  Then came the presents, and what a stack there were.

Presents galore

I’m pleased to say that the hand knitted secret socks were well received.  Grand-daughter Megan had asked it I could knit her a pair “sometime” so I thought it would be nice to also knit some for Emma and my daughter Nicky as well.  Emma got the purple ones, Megan got the yellow, pink and blue ones, and daughter Nicky got the navy ones, all knitted with   Zauberball 4ply sock yarn.

Socks for the girls for Christmas

And this is what was waiting for us under the tree

Christmas lunch was a feast of BBQ chicken, glazed ham, salads, yummy desserts and a glass or two of bubbly, eaten picnic style outside under the shade of the gazebo.  We were fit to bursting and I must admit to a nana nap in the afternoon. 

Megan glazed the ham

The family dog Noodle kept us entertained as he demolished his Christmas piggy toy.  He gets one every year and when he heard the squeak inside his wrapped parcel, he could hardly contain himself.  There wasn't much left of piggy by the end of the day.

Noodle and his Christmas pig

Poor Gemma was traumatized by the household cats.  The older cat PK (Psycho Killer) had gone missing for several months and only just returned home.  Meanwhile, the family had just acquired a young kitten, so both of the felines were rather put out with each other.  And then, we arrived with Gemma in the caravan, so there was a bit of hissing going on and Gemma couldn’t cope with this at all. We decided that it would be better for Gemma, and our peace of mind, if we kept Gemma in the caravan, away from the other two cats.

PK is waiting outside the caravan door

The weather has been lovely and warm, and I’ve sent some time under the gazebo doing a little stitching.  This is going to be a set of placemats for the caravan.

Stitching time

We have had a lovely time here in Kiwitea, the girl’s boyfriends have been staying so we got to knw them a bit better.  And several neighbors have popped in, and stayed for a meal.  One of them was relating how she had two sows almost ready to farrow, this was a first for her so it was rather exciting.  Such is life in the country.

Visiting Family and Pets

Over the weekend we stayed with our caravan club buddies at Mt Lees Reserve, a beautiful place surrounded by native forest.  But we did wonder where this elusive mountain was.  Mt Lees has an elevation of only 95 metres, barely noticeable as you drive around, and I couldn’t really find any info on why the area was named Mt Lees. The reserve was created by Ormond Wilson, who inherited 320 hectares of what was part of Ngaio Station.   The homestead was built first, then he set to and planted a huge number of trees.  In 1972 he gifted the land to the Crown.  There are walkways through the extensive bush, self contained camping is permitted, toilets and water are available.  Eight vans from our caravan club enjoyed a weekend here in the lovely setting.  In the Spring the grassy paddock where we were camping is a mass of beautiful daffodils.

Weekend camping at Mt Lees Reserve

We had lunch out  on Saturday with my daughter Nicky.  She hasn’t been at all well lately, so I was pleased that she is now looking so much better than she did before.

Nicky and me at lunch

Then we drove back to Nicky’s home to catch up with grand-daughter Emma and see the new kitten.  They call the kitten PK (Physco Killer) as it was from a feral litter and still has some wild instincts, it seems.  The kitten spent some time trying to kill her cuddly toy dog, and doing quite a good job, biting the poor doggy's face with all her might, and lashing out with her back paws.  Seems the hunting instincts are well ingrained.

Emma and PK

The family dog Noodle was a little apprehensive of us visitors and spent some time hiding under the table.  When we first arrived he barked and growled, being his protective best, and finally settled down

Noodle the dog

Then we had to go and meet the chickens.  They have a nice big fenced area to live in, with plenty of bushes and grass  to scratch under, and a chook shed where they hopefully lay their eggs.

Here, chook, chook

Back inside the house I spotted a stitchery cushion I had made Nicky for an earlier birthday.  She is very fond of growing herbs and veggies so I thought the pattern was just right for her.

Birthday cushion

It was so nice to get to spend the afternoon with Nicky, and catch up on all the family news.  On the way back to camp we spotted some purple wrapped hay/silage bales, so had to stop the car and get a photo.  Around New Zealand, hay bales in pink, blue and purple are increasingly common thanks to different initiatives designed to raise money for charities. The coloured wraps cost farmers about 10 per cent more than the standard mint green ones.  The pink silage bale wraps support Sweet Louise, a  breast cancer charity while the blue ones raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. And the  purple wrap is part of a worldwide project launched to support children's charities, which includes Starship Hospital.  Such a great idea, and some of  these were adorned with smiley faces too.

Supporting Starship Hospital

Road Trip Continues

After wondering if the Easter Bunny would find us while we were away from home and ensconced in Mt Maunganui, there she was with a basket of chocolate eggs.  We enjoyed a pancake breakfast on Easter Sunday, cooked by fellow campers over BBQs.  Pancakes, bacon, banana, drizzled with maple syrup, it was delicious indeed.

Easter Bunny at Mt Maunganui

We won a raffle prize too

The local Dog Agility Club brought their clever canines along to entertain us is the afternoon.  We all took our folding chairs up to the end of the playing field to sit in the sunshine and see what the dogs could do.  My goodness, those dogs are fast, and not easy to photograph as they are put through their paces.  Except for a trio of toy poodles, who daintily went up and over the jumps, through the tunnels and weaving poles – they did things very well but wouldn’t have won points on the time trials.  The border collies in particular put their heart and soul into the exhibition.

I wandered up to the other end of the park and got some snaps of the dogs who were waiting their turn.  They were all such well trained dogs.

After the exhibition was over, the owners brought their dogs along for a meet and greet with the campers.  I got to cuddle one of those pretty little poodles.  Wonder what Gemma thought when I returned to the van smelling a bit doggy?

Looks like she wasn’t even interested.  Once again she was getting up close and close and personal to my laptop.  Snoozing on top of it on the bed. 

We are starting to head home now,just taking our time and stopping here and there.   Hora Hora Domain, looking out over Lake Karapiro, was a pretty stop for lunch.  This is a very popular freedom camping area, although we didn’t stay overnight, but moved on to our next destination.

R&R at Lake Karapiro

We overnighted in Hamilton was to get a leak checked in the caravan.  Luckily we could stay at the Leisureline factory overnight, so the servicemen can take charge of our van at 7.00am the next morning. So we took ourselves off for breakfast.  This was certainly  delicious and beautifully presented too.  Salmon and avocado for her, and pancakes for him, followed by a delicious coffee.  Sure beats our usual cereal and toast!

Yummy breakfasts

The caravan was ready for collection  mid morning so we hooked up and went on our, stopping off at Taupo Airport NZMCA Park for the next two nights.  This is always a busy place to stay, vans arrive and depart,  helicopters come and go, planes arrive and take off at the adjacent airport, and sky divers jump out of planes to land nearby.   And then I needed another laundry trip.  This laundry was much more modern than the previous one I visited, with plenty of large washers and driers.

Laundry time again

It had been a while since we had witnessed the Aratiatia Rapids at Taupo – in fact, Robin and I visited here all those years ago on our honeymoon.  Several times each day, spill gates from a dam are opened at the top of the rapids and the narrow gorge fills with water surging past at up to 90,000 litres per second.  At Aratiatia the Waikato River falls naturally through 28 metres in the space of one kilometre. This natural drop has been harnessed for environmentally-sustainable hydroelectric power - headwaters are diverted through a tunnel to the power station.  We stood on the bridge by the power station, the siren sounded several times and the water flow increased dramatically.

Normal flow

With the spill gates opened

Once the spill gates were closed, and the water slowly dropped to normal, we heard voices from the main look out site, and witnessed a canoeist into the water!    And here he comes.

He paddled down under our bridge, climbed out of the river and up the bank, pulling his boat behind him, then settled down to await his friends to collect him.  Oh dear, highly illegal and so dangerous.

Just a couple more days on our road trip, and then we will be back home.  I wonder if my sewing machine is tired of sitting idle?

Sunny Days at Feilding

We are currently enjoying a caravan rally at Feilding, at Manchester Street School.  With the family living fairly close by, we have had visits from daughter Nicky on her way home from work, and both grand-daughters came calling too.  Megan came on Saturday morning with the family dog Noodle in tow, to take him on a “doggy playdate”.

Megan and Noodle

We had called in to see Emma at McDonalds on Saturday morning where she having a break at just the right time so could sit down for a wee chat.  Robin enjoyed a chocolate milkshake and I had a large latte, specially made and delivered to the table by Emma.  She is a little camera shy (unless she is riding a horse) so we asked her to take a photo of us instead.

Grandparents at McDonalds

Emma also called around to see us on Sunday morning, before heading out to have brunch with friends.  It was lovely to see them both over their busy weekends.  Emma reminded us that she attended this school as a youngster before the family moved further north to Kiwitea.  The school has lovely gardens, big shady trees and a huge play ground full of equipment to climb and swing from.  I was really interested in the colourful sign but couldn’t find the giant’s castle or the chocolate factory anywhere!

At Manchester Street School

And we found two aviaries of colourful happy birds, chirping and squawking as they fluttered around.

Pretty budgies at school

I’ve done a little stitching this weekend, working away on my next Christmas ABC block.  This is my “slow stitching” project so I don’t really mind how long it takes, I’m enjoying the process.

Just a little stitching so far