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16
Our Travels Begin for Real
10-Dec-05

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As planned we woke up early, had breakfast and got ready to leave. The sun was shining and it also looked as if we could have showers. We headed for Hamilton and decided to stop and do a bit of shopping. We still needed to get big storage bins to put things away better. Hamilton is a bigger modern city with all the "modcons", supermarkets and big shopping malls.

To make parking easier we needed to find a double parking spot. Turbo Snail is much too long to fit into an ordinary parking spot. It is for this reason that we aim for the big supermarkets as they usually have 2 parking spaces together, allowing you to drive in to the first one and through to the next space. When you leave you can simply drive off without having to reverse the motorhome. Having found such a spot we could start shopping. When we came out of the store, it rained really heavily and we had to wait for a bit. I was pleased with our shopping and besides the storage boxes I had also found an African Violet in a china teapot, which now looks very pretty on our dining room table. We also have a Herb garden, in a window box, which travels around with us and, when we are stationary, graces the entrance steps to Turbo Snail.


Raglan


Raglan
Old Tractor Tyres used as
Sea Defences

 Having stored everything away we travelled on to Raglan. Raglan is famous for its surfing beaches and has a pretty town centre with arty shops, restaurants and cafes. We stopped to have a look around and visited a fabulous photographic exhibition. Lovely photos, some in lovely wooden frames. I bought some of the photos in the form of greeting cards and we then found out from the tourist information where the Holiday Park was. Armed with all the information we went and found the place and chose our site. The holiday park is sitting on a little half island and a foot bridge allows you walking access back to Raglan.

As we drove to our site two men walked up to us and introduced themselves as Pete and Paddy. Apparently they had spotted our Turbo Snail in town earlier and were dying to get a look inside. As we had just been shopping for storage boxes in Hamilton, the motorhome was a bit in disarray. Anyway they came in and had a look. It turns out that Pete and his wife Gill have just spent their first night in their motorhome, which is just like Judy and Murray’s but smaller. Paddy and his wife Sonya are seasoned traveller and their home is a little bus. On the inside it looks not unlike a yacht. Wooden walls and cupboards beautifully crafted and several years old I should say.

It was also Sonya’s birthday yesterday and so we were invited to join them for happy hour. Well we did eventually do that but not until we had a bit of a tidy up and re-organised our belongings. The happy hour was great fun and it turns out that Gill and Pete have been running a hardware business and as of this weekend had retired and started travelling just like us. Paddy is also retired but loves building kitchens so he works when he feels like it. His special work at the moment is doing up an old bus and converting it so that he and Sonya can also go travelling in style around New Zealand.

We were invited to join in their barbecue and Fergus added our chicken bits, made some rice and steamed asparagus. I made a salad to add to things and we had great fun and went to bed very late indeed.
Today Sunday we had a lovely walk into town over the bridge and had curly chips and an orange juice for lunch. Then in the afternoon we walked along the beach to the far end on the main coast, this being as far as you can go before the rocks cut off one. It took 70 minutes each way and we both feel better for a good walk. I love walking along the edge of the water and letting the sea lap over my walking feet. Again a lovely walk on a very different beach.

Sunday evening was a bit special too. When we came back from our walk earlier we noticed that the preparations for a festival were going on. Lots of people arrived with blankets and picnic baskets and settled down on the ground for what looked to be a rock concert. It also gave me the feeling that this was a village affair and not necessarily for the tourists or us. But for and about the Raglan people. Raglan had it’s community Christmas party. All the businesses supplied all the essentials like lighting and building a stage and sound system. One of the local shops gave away grilled sausages in buttered bread and instead of payment one put some money into a donation box. The various after-school clubs showed off their skills and then in the early evening they had the nativity school play performed and sung by the children. We listened to all this from a distance and then towards the end we went and had a look. They sang all the well-known Christmas carols but to a jazzy reggae band. By the time we got there it was almost over and they announced that they would now sing the New Zealand national anthem. I waited with baited breath to see what it was! Would it be the same as the English one or that wonderful Maori song that makes me cry every time I hear it. It was the "God Defend New Zealand" anthem and as all the voices all rose everyone sang in Maori. The words were projected onto a big public screen so everyone could join in. Again I had the same reaction of having to cry! I do not know why, but it moves me every time. The next three verses were sung in English and all I can say is that it is a very nice anthem indeed, making all equal, accepting one another's different cultures all striding for the same thing to understand one another and live together in peace. Then it was over and everyone started to pack up and go home but not before a lot of seasonal greetings and saying goodbye to friends. We came away happy and dropped in on our new friends who had also been to the festival. So over coffee tea and cake we relived our experiences.


Beach Houses at Raglan


Swimmers at Raglan

Ruapuke		 The next day was Monday and Sonya and Paddy had to return to Auckland and Gill and Pete decided to move on. We would have liked to stay a bit longer but the camp electricity was going to be cut off until Friday so we decided to also pack up and leave. Having shared this information with Gill and Pete, we decided to regroup at the next site called Ruapuke. We did a bit of shopping in Raglan before we left and then enjoyed the lovely drive to the next site. Most of the trip was metal road, which is slow to drive on and normally very dusty. We passed Gill and Pete a couple of times as we were also doing some sight seeing on the journey. We got to the new site first and the notice at the gate informed us that we were staying here at our own risk. It said it again further down and when we drove into the site Aaron greeted us. He informed us that they did have a power point and we should take a left turn and as we follow the path round we would find the power site on the right. We did all that and noticed all the lovely planting all around. Wonderful old trees and lovely flower boarders.
We set ourselves up and shortly after Gill and Pete arrived too. We had a spot of lunch and then we walked up over the hill to go and find the coast. Oh what a lovely surprise. As we walked up the hill it had a bit a Cuckmere Haven feeling. There were no trees just short cut gassy soft hills, just like Cuckmere Haven and you could see the sea and round the next bend you could not and then as we got to the top the whole enormous beach lay sparkling in front of us. We walked and talked and took photos. We had a spectacular walk, which took about 3 hours. On our return we showered, cooked dinner and sat outside sharing a drink and eating. Gill and Pete have a grill attached to their motorhome that simply folds out and we get invited to cook our meat on it too. It was a lovely evening with the sun slowly going down and the stars appearing slowly, faintly to start with and then quite strong. They look to me like spy holes into heaven. The moon too made a shy appearance creating a very nice atmosphere.


Ruapuke


Surfer at Ruapuke

 Gill and Pete drove on the next day and we stayed where we were as we wanted to catch up on all sorts of things. It was a really hot day and I was glad we did not walk around in it. In the evening we got joined by Ben and Aaron and they in turn told me their entire life story. I seem to have this effect on some people and they tell me about the hardest bits of their lives. I feel privileged when this happens and I think that perhaps I make a good listener. Both were shy to start with and by the end of our second day with them they had opened up to me and shared some very sad stories.
Next day it was time to move on. We had been out of telephone and email contact and we needed to go somewhere where we could reconnect. This we did and we also joined our new motorhome friends Gill and Pete. Again we landed on a very nice site, in Kawhia (pronounced "Car Fear"). This time Gill and Pete were here first and had reserved a space for us. As we drove in the boss met us and he had already spotted us earlier in town and reported back to Gill and Pete about spotting our wonderful wagon. This meant that Gill and Pete had worked out that we would arrive shortly.

The main street in Kawhia ------> 

After we parked up and got installed we walked back to town with Gill and Pete and had a spot of lunch. The local fish and chips shop/restaurant did the job nicely with local fish. Then after lunch we hired two quad bikes and went storming up the harbour beach to the sea and the underwater hot springs. This was enormous fun and very bumpy in places. Fergus enjoyed it tremendously and the experience brought the boy racer out in him. Pete took things a bit more slowly but he enjoyed a bit of competing too. Gill and I sat behind our men and enjoyed speeding along the beach. We eventually parked up the quad bikes and took some photos of us sitting on them and pretending to speed along.

Pete is a very organised person and had brought his shovel along. Off we went to the edge of the sea and stated to dig a big hole in the sand. As we did so the warm or hot water started to come up from the ground and we could wallow in the warm pools and look at the sea from ground level. A brilliant experience and we all had a fantastic time. Then we run into the sea and cooled off a bit. Pete and Fergus enjoyed some simple body surfing while us girls hung back in our pool chatting. All good things have to come to an end and we returned on our bikes to the campsite. Then the what has become usual ritual of showers, drinks, and cooking the dinner got on the way and, before we knew what the time was, another lovely day had come to an end.

 <------Fergus, Esther & Pete in a hot pool, note the black iron sand.
Today it is Thursday and we took it a bit easier. We still went for a walk and had lunch in town and then on our way back we saw unexpectedly a school of killer whales. What a sight and I could not believe my eyes to start with. The boys went of home to collect the binoculars while Gill and I sat down keeping an eye out for the whales. It was lovely to see them and I wished we were closer to them. But then looking through the binoculars gave a pretty good idea of their size and it was so exciting to see them swim into the estuary. After a while they made about turn and swam back out to sea again. Such a lovely experience and one I hope to have again in the future.

Fergus & Esther on a Quad Bike

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