Taranaki Travels

Tuesday 16th October

This blog is great for making me work out what day it is!
It's now Tuesday night and we are parked up at the Castlecliff Golf Club (Wanganui Beach) for the night - $10 fee which includes power connection and access to the toilets and showers. The wind is still gale force and we endeavoured to play golf in it at the Tawhero 9 hole course in Wanganui (did it twice to get the 18 holes in). Len thought the GPS was guiding us to THE Wanganui golf course but we could tell when we got there that it wasn't. Quite a rough course and we were very overdressed with our collars and golf shoes. Gumboots would have been fine! However everyone there was very friendly and wanted us to come back and play with them next week so we had to explain that we wouldn't be here. The wind was so unpleasant to play in but when a nice day comes I should be able to have an awesome game! Len takes it all in his stride and nothing really affects his game.
This morning we took the bus around to an Electronics repairer as we have only had a picture with no sound on the TV for the past 4-5 days (that means lots of scrabble!). It seems we need a new decoder which will arrive tomorrow. We also had to shop for a new 12 volt vacuum as the one we had was creating sparks.
Last night we stayed in the RSA carpark which is right in town. There was no charge at all and we could connect up to power. May find us going back there tomorrow night before we head to see all my brothers in Marton.
Sunday night we "camped" on the Waiinu Beach out of Waitotora. Just a $5 charge to stay there - toilets and dump station but no power which is fine as we don't really need it.
Again we have this dreadful wind coming at us all the time from the sea but we did manage a beach walk down the coast for an hour or so.
The South Taranaki Club in Hawera was our home for Saturday night - free to park there with a cheap meal in the club and a live band (young guys but playing old-time music so couldn't persuade Len to get up and start the dancing off!)
I think this blog is getting quite boring - hopefully there will be more spice in the next one!

Saturday 13th October
Played golf on the picturesque Stratford course and had plenty of time to admire the majestic view of the Mountain as we were behind a tournament involving 112 firemen which made the round  v e r y  s  l  o  w - 5.5 hours instead of the 3 hours that we can do when a course is quiet.

16th tee after 5 hrs!

Parked up for the night at Connell Reserve, a free area, just out of Eltham. There were no other motorhomes parked there but we felt reasonably safe and had a beautiful view of the Mountain again. Was a very cold night though and we needed all our available bedding.
We walked through Eltham in the morning and visited the Cheese factory shop where we got some bargain cheeses especially the Kikorangi Blue - yum.

My hair needed a good wash!

Then we drove through Kaponga up to the Dawson Falls and Wilkies Pools tracks at the base of Egmont. Really loved being out walking again in the bush rather than on a golf course and the lichens/mosses growing on the trees and ground in the colder temperatures were very pretty. It was such a surprise to see so many Motorhomes parked up there - they were all on a rally for a week and the organisers, Merv and Bernie, live at the Bethlehem Country Club! (in Tauranga)
We seem to have been following them around since as they were also at the Hollard Gardens which we visited after the walks and today they are at the amazing Tawhiti Museum out of Hawera. It is known as the best private collector museums in NZ and the work and many hundreds of lifelike models depicting the inter-tribal and European-Maori wars is truly amazing. Well worth a visit for those who even aren't really into Museums.
Last night we changed our minds about staying at a golf club a few miles out of Hawera and instead went to a POP ( Park over Property - these are usually NZMCA members who allow other members to stay for a very small fee on their grounds) just down the road. They have a huge, stunning garden which is sometimes open to the public, wouldn't accept any payment and insisted we take a bag of lemons when we left.
We were so pleased to be there as last night a "weather bomb" began and we had a pretty rocky night even though we were sheltered by sheds and trees. The car park that we might have stayed in at the golf course was very exposed so wouldn't have been a great option.
Not sure where we will stay tonight - the wind is gusting really strongly still - but we will head into Hawera now and play it from there. Need to fill up with water somewhere. It's quite amazing to not be bound by any timetable and be so free and everyone we meet is so helpful.