Dannevirke, Herbertville, Waipawa & Hastings

The last week we have become rather hermit-like mainly because my cough still becomes exacerbated by the cold outside air and brisk winds so this is mainly about the campgrounds we have stayed in as we travel back to the Mount, and the friends we have caught up with.

Morning scene at the holiday park 

Dannevirke Holiday Park was our first  stop after our 2 nights in Eketahuna, pausing in Pahiatua on the way to do some printing and scanning and have some lunch. I also tried to dry the washing I had done at the Eketahuna camp at the not-so-nice Pahiatua Club Hotel Wash-house. However after $4 worth of so-called drying it was still very wet and would have taken at least another $8 to make any difference which there was no way I was going to do! I decided to leave it until we got to Dannevirke- a good choice as the $4 dry there was perfect. The campground was well laid out, being circular with hard stands around the outside and grass in the middle for tenters, not that there are any at this time of the year. Older buildings but the shower was good.

The next day we decided to take the road to the coast, thinking that we would stay the night at the Herbertville Campground. The road, although sealed, was hilly and windy with a rough, bumpy surface so Len was pleased to get there after having to concentrate on avoiding holes the whole way. We had lunch overlooking the beach but as we couldn't see any good fishing spots we decided to head onto Waipukurau and Waipawa rather than stay the night at Herbertville.

Anyone for tennis?!

The longest place name in the world!

The road in to Waipukurau was wider and better than the road out from Pahiatua,  a good thing even though there's not much traffic on these roads. We popped our noses into Porangahau on the way through and intended to stay at the camp in Waipukurau but it wasn't showing up on our NZMCA app so, thinking it had maybe closed, we continued on to Waipawa. However we did end up passing the Waipuk campground on the way through, too late to enter it! The Rivers Edge Holiday Park in Waipawa which has a lot of long-term caravans parked, isn't exactly on the river's edge but it's not far away. A quiet camp with a friendly owner, good lounge, not that we used it, lots of books to swap and a good shower.

We did a circular walk through the little town before it got dark and the next day drove to a spot on the river, a bit further east, where it looked like the fishing might be good but it was a bit too shallow so it was back on the road to Havelock North where we had a coffee and a nice catchup with my old school friend, Janet, and Murray before going to our nights stop at the Top 10 campground in Hastings where we had arranged to catch up with Leon, another old schoolfriend of mine, for lunch the next day.

T in Central Hastings 

The lunch and wines at Jarks Restaurant were lovely and accompanied by 2.5 hours non-stop chatting as there were a lot of years to catch up on! Leith unfortunately had a prior lunch engagement so couldn't join us. After lunch we decided to brave the night without power, which means no heater, and stayed at the NZMCA Park between Napier and Hastings. And we coped pretty well!

The next day, Saturday, we bought some pears and mandarins from the roadside as we left Hawkes Bay on our way to Taupo where we were meeting up with my son, Colin, and 3 granddaughters.