Marton, Fielding, Himatangi Beach, Foxton Beach, Levin

Thursday 25th October

The gale force winds are starting to get to us - they seem to have been going on for weeks! Today when we stopped at Foxton Beach so I could reminisce about my annual childhood holidays spent there we were met with horizontal winds blowing trailer loads of sand off the beach - could hardly stand up and the bus now has sand on all the level surfaces inside. At least the housework doesn't actually take long!

Did a big walk from the beach, along the river and down lots of streets, with and against the wind, before having a coffee in the remodelled cafe which used to be the beach store selling everything 55+ years ago.
We then had a quick walk through Foxton town before braving the gusts on the road again and heading to Levin where we are now parked up at the Golf Course which is a few km out of town. Plan to play golf here tomorrow if the weather is true to  the forecast.
Last night we stayed at Himatangi Beach on the road verge of a "POP" as there was no-one home but we did speak to the neighbour who came to feed the cat.
We watched the whitebaiters who were in the sea at the mouth of the small river for a while (again it was unpleasant on the beach with the wind howling) but they weren't having much luck.

We had spent Sunday and Monday nights parked at the back of the Bridge Club next door to my brother Peters and had enjoyed catching up and playing a few games of scrabble. Tuesday we drove through to Fielding, played golf on the course there (one of the better days) and then parked up for the night at Timona Park where there is free camping although we were the only motorhome there.
It was the coldest night we have yet experienced with the outside temperature going down to 0.8 and the inside temp down to 3.8. We have a temperature gauge that tells us this!  No heater but we survived with lots of layers!

We were amused by the way people were exercising their dogs in Fielding. It seems you don't take your dog for a walk there. Instead you go to Timona Park and drive through it with the dog(s) running madly beside or in front until they are worn out. So much for a dog keeping you fit!
We travelled to Himatangi Beach via Palmerston North so we could fill up our little gas bottle (quite hard to find places to do this) and have a bit of a wander through the shops. As space is limited the only purchases we usually make is in the food line.
Now it's time to watch NZ play England at netball - lets hope the centre court works better than it did against Aussie!