Finally we are on the road again

What a turbulent few weeks we have had.

The motorhome  has been in motorhome hospital since Thursday the 7th February. First of all the motorhome had to have it’s water tightness check at Zion Motorhomes,  which it passed with flying colours. The down side of that was that Judy had free reign of the showroom, while she was waiting, with all the motorhomes open for inspection, and no-one else around. I could not help myself nosing around and unfortunately fell in love with a Frankia motorhome. When Bruce came to meet me I dragged him through it as well. Once we got home that night there was a fair bit of discussion about it and whether we could really justify the upgrade. Commonsense won through so the Frankia stayed on the showroom floor.

Next it was on to ACM, otherwise known as Motorhome Hospital. The problem had been a bouncy floor in the kitchen area. It turned out that the foam middle layer had broken. This had to be fixed and the whole motorhome had to be re-lino’ed. Auckland Coach and Motorhomes did an amazing job, and we were very pleased with the new lino we had chosen. Still, it was a little nail biting wondering if we would have it back to us in time for our up coming safari.

We finally picked it up early afternoon on Tuesday 19th, and Bruce immediately set to work re-installing the inverter, adjusted the table height, and then we had to clean thoroughly as everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Then it was rush, rush, rush to pack everything ready for our four weeks away. That included keeping up tp date with the processing of vegetables from the garden, and blackberries from the farm behind. We had hoped to head away on Thursday 21st February, but we were still packing and preparing at 5.30pm so we decided to send another night at home.

This trip is an exciting one for us as it is the first time we have been on a safari, and this one is a mystery safari – we know where the start is, and we know where the finish is, but we don’t know what is in between. The safari is being organised by Graham and Wendy Hawkes, who are a part of our NZMCA Hauraki Coromandel committee. There are 6 vans joining in.

Graham anad Wendy gave us the location of our start spot – a POP just outside of Opotiki, and we had to be there in time for happy hour. We left home just after 9am after taking the dogs for a walk and having a swim to cool off. We had the usual stops around Tairua for coffee (for us) and diesel (for the Motorhome) and then we covered a few kilometers, stopping for lunch in Pukehina.

Judy had last been in Pukehina when she was about 10 years old. Her grandmother had a section there and she took her to see it and have a swim the estuary. It is fair to say that Pukehina looks nothing like it did then.

We stopped next to a children’s playground that offered superb views of the coast, as well as entertainment from watching the children play. The dogs had a quick look at the beach but it wasn’t like home so we went back to the van for lunch.

 

After our break we hit the road again and headed back out on to the state highway and headed again for Opotiki.

Graham and Wendy had chosen a POP (Park Over Property – number 3007 in the NZMCA Book) stop just a couple of kms outside of Opotiki which is elevated and therefore offers panoramic views over the township and the coast. What an amazing property. Plenty of room for our 6 vans and with a toilet, shower and water provided we feel very spoiled.

We arrived in plenty of time for happy hour, but so did the forecasted rain so we all crammed inside Dennis and Lynn’s Trail-lite for drinks. It was a bit of a crush, and very noisy with everyone talking at once, but good fun.

Graham was as organised as usual with instruction sheets given out for the next day’s travel – destination Waihau Bay, with a list of some things to see along the way. He also handed out a quirky history sheet with lots of little stories such as:

In the 1500’s, baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the priviledge of the nice clean water, then all the sons and other men of the house, followed by the women, then the children. Babies came last of all, but by then the water so so filthy you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”.

We had a nice chicken dinner and managed to have a bit of a walk between rain showers, before heading to bed.