Away From Home NZ

Windy Wellington

February 12, 2017February 12, 2017 by awayfromhomenz

A leisurely trip down country today after walking the dogs around Lake Taupo for around an hour and a half.

The weather was amazing at Taupo; but there were sand storms on the desert road and low cloud and blustery winds in Wellington. It is cold and grey and we miss Flaxmill Bay.

On the bright side the scenery around the Rangitikei River is astounding and the mountains, even though there wasn’t much snow, looked amazing.

We had decided last night that we would stay in the Kaitoke Regional Park but the parking there is all on grass and with rain due over night we decided it wasn’t worth it. So we are camped in the carpark of the Petone Workingman’s Club for the night and on to catch the ferry in the morning. I am really looking forward to the sailing with 40 knot winds in the forecast and some big seas.

Day one and all is well….

February 11, 2017February 11, 2017 by awayfromhomenz

Today is the first day of our latest adventure – an 8 week journey around the South Island of NZ. We have been planning this for months and set ourselves the departure date and time of 10am this morning. Needless to say we were late (again)!

The day started with a dog walk, a swim for dogs and humans in beautiful Flaxmill Bay followed by the last minute packing and preparations.

We had hoped for a peaceful trip, thinking that the dogs would be tired and relaxed after their exercise. However, that was not to be – Hunter clearly felt sick so he was determined to ride up front and we had several stops to try and settle him.

Our first stop of the trip was at Cooks Landing between Turua and Netherton on the banks of the Thames River. It was here that Captain Cook and his 22 men rowed in 2 boats, away from the moored Endeavour, to search for likely sources of timber for masts and spars. There is a large anchor monument at the site today. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we decided to overnight at the NZMCA park in Taupo.

Our plan is to have breakfast beside the lake in the morning and take the dogs (and ourselves) for another good walk before making our way down to the Wellington area.

24 sleeps to go

January 17, 2017January 18, 2017 by awayfromhomenz

Tomorrow Bruce celebrates working for 47 years for the same company and in all that time he has never had a holiday as long as the one we are planning to take in 24 more sleeps. The build up to this holiday has been rapidly escalating, and the excitement levels are rising more with each day that passes. Isn’t it great to have something so wonderful to look forward to?

Now we have our route planned it is easy to see that the 8 weeks that seems like such a long time is not going to be long enough for all the places we want to see and experience.

Contemplating the trip

January 17, 2017February 11, 2017 by awayfromhomenz

Only 24 more sleeps until we leave home to start our next big adventure. Bruce is eagerly anticipating the longest continuous holiday he has had since he began work 47 years ago tomorrow. The route is planned (as much as we want it to be) and we can already see that the 8 weeks we plan to be away from home will not be long enough to accomodate all we want to see and do.

The preparations for the trip have been feverish, with Bruce re-designing and re-building his boot space in the motorhome. Judy has been feverishly sewing a wardrobe hanger and a jewellery hanger, with a panel in the planning stages to prevent Oscar and Hunter from accessing the cab while we are en route. Bruce is planning to build a contraption to hold his computer monitor in his wardrobe in the next week.