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Ex Lady Sailors at the Reunion

When we flew out from Auckland last Thursday for Melbourne we were both a little unsure if we would enjoy the ‘Long Time No Sea’ reunion (an ex Navy thing).  While we both knew people who were going, I guess it was the unknown that was our concern.  Our feedback?  The weekend was brilliant. We both met people at the Reunion that we had not seen for some 20 or so years and in most cases we took up conversations as though we met up every week.

The event was held at the Amora Riverwalk Hotel, Melbourne  – a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute tram ride to the city centre. The accommodation was excellent and the venue was totally suitable for the Reunion.  The Reunion had both formal and informal components and was run superbly. Our thanks to George, Kel  and the organising committee for a great weekend.

If you are New Zealand Navy or ex Navy and you have never been to a ‘Long Time No Sea’ Reunion I urge you to consider attending the next one – you will have a great time.  While it is primarily an ex pat event, the organisers made the New Zealand attendees feel very welcome.  We will still have the motorhome in Australia in 2015 so we will be definite attendees.

I believe the next Reunion is to be held in Adelaide in 2015. I am not sure whether the dates have been finalised.

L to R Rod, Dearne, Louise, Brian

While we were in Melbourne we caught up with friends we  ‘cultivated’ while we were on our river cruise in Europe last year.  On the trip there were four couples who developed a great travelling relationship and we ended up doing most things together.  I think it started with us all being the first to ‘happy hour’ each night!! Brian and Louise came to our hotel and we spent an hour together catching up on the last 12 months.  It was great seeing you guys again and hopefully we will end up on another cruise together in the future.

We are now heading up to Canberra to spend a couple of days with Chuck and Ali – Rod’s brother and sister in law.  While we are there we will be trying to finalise the shipping of the motorhome with Australian customs. We now have a shipping date of 14 June.

We will update the blog in a couple of days.

Dearne’s Toy

As BeachHop weekend comes to a close we can only sit back and wonder how we survived the five days. The weather was warm and brilliantly fine each day and we heard that the weekend was attended by some 80,000 people.

For Rod and I our weekend started last Tuesday with rock and roll night. We then assisted the festival organisers with the setting up of trade shows and traffic control on Wednesday and Friday. The remainder of the weekend was ours to play. Our house guests arrived on the Thursday and on Friday afternoon to get the weekend started for them we had them in town taking part in rock and roll lessons.

There were eight or so venues around the town with each venue having its own band and bar facility so overcrowding was never really an issue. The classic cars, hot rods and motorcycles were fantastic.  There were several vehicle parades over the five days so everyone had ample opportunity to get up close to their favourite entry.

We tried to ascertain how much money we thought was tied up in the vehicles cruising around town.  We made a conservative guess of $40M to $50M but I think we were probably way off the mark. It would have been more than that. I had to take Rod’s Visa card off him over the weekend just to ensure no unapproved purchases were made!!

L to R rear: Dearne, Sharon, Barry
L to R front: Len, Craig

However in saying that I would be more than happy if he decided to sell the Harley and get onto four wheels. I always get a little nervous when he’s been gone too long.

Our visitors all left at various time today and we are now sitting back and enjoying the last of the weekend. Thanks guys to coming to our town and supporting the main event for the year.  Without visitors the ‘Hop’ would not happen.

We are away to Melbourne on Thursday to attend the ‘Long Time No Sea’ Navy Reunion over Easter.  There are quite a few of us going over from New Zealand and we are both looking forward to catching up with everyone over there.  I will let you know how it goes.

For more photographs of the weekend, click HERE

We had only been home a week and the feet started itching again. We are finding it hard to stop exploring when we are enjoying it so much.

Raglan Harbour

We decided to head away to Raglan for the weekend. Situated on the West Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, Raglan is just a 45-minute drive west of Hamilton or about three hours from Whangamata.  Raglan is fast becoming a top holiday destination both for New Zealanders and international visitors.Raglan is a surfing mecca for wave riders, with three world-class point breaks. Manu Bay is said to offer the longest left hand rides on the planet and featured in Bruce Brown’s 1964 classic surf film The Endless Summer. Further along the coastline sit the breaks of Whale Bay and Indicators. For the less experienced head to Ngaranui Beach. I was hoping to get a bit of long line fishing in here over the weekend but unfortunately the wind worked against me.

Raglan Hotel

Raglan is also the home to a large number of talented and creative artists – right up Dearne’s tree – original art, photography, pottery, traditional weaving, stone carving and jewellery to pass away a pleasant afternoon. We wandered into town this morning for a coffee then I left her to it for the day.If the weather forecasters have got it correct, we are in for rain tomorrow. Based on their advice we are all backed up tonight ready for the dumping should it arrive!!!!

We intend getting away early in the morning and head back home for BeachHop week. Dearne and I have a bigger involvement this year. We have ‘rock and roll’ night on Tuesday night at the local club- we only know six r’and r’ steps so we will do them to death over the weekend. On Wednesday we are manning the Sony (a Beach Hop sponsor) stand in Waihi, Thursday most of our house guests arrive for the weekend and Friday we are manning the Sony stand again in Onemana. When we are finished at Onemana its kick back and enjoy the weekend’s entertainment. People ask me how I fill my day in ‘retirement’ – my response always – “by enjoying myself”.

We will update the blog with a few shots after Beach Hop.

Our journey to the sunny Far North is now completed and we are back at home in Whangamata. The last few days of our trip have been quite busy one way or another. We spent the Wednesday and Thursday nights parked up at the Takapuna Motorcamp. We were both quite busy during each of the days and we ‘entertained’ on both evenings. It was great catching up with friends and family over the two days.

On Friday we headed off down to Hamilton to visit our Whangamata neighbour who is currently in hospital after taking a tumble down their internal stairs. A couple of leg fractures and a few skin grafts later the incident has forced a whole change of lifestyle on the couple.  They have to sell their home and move to a single level property if they wish to remain independent.

From left: Dale, Caleb, Dearne

While we were in Hamilton we uplifted grandson #4 (Caleb) and have him with us for the next few days. We decided to spend last night at the hot pools at Omokoroa in the Bay of Plenty. It makes babysitting just that wee bit easier.  Dale Leggett (a friend who served in the Navy with us), joined us for 5 o’clockers so overall we had a very pleasant evening.

We left Omokoroa at about 10am this morning and arrived back home mid afternoon today (Saturday).

Over all we have had a brilliant seven weeks on the road. The Far North has some stunning country and bar none, we found all the people we met on our journey to be most helpful, friendly and in many cases, most generous (except for that nutter at Kerikeri – Gibby’s Place). If you ever get the opportunity to travel to the Far North, do not put it off – it’s a great trip.

So where to from here?  We are heading to Raglan next weekend to do a bit of West Coast fishing then back home on Sunday.  The following weekend we will have a full house for the 2013 Beach Hop. On Easter Weekend we are away to Melbourne to the Navy Reunion. Busy, busy!!

We will keep the blog updated as we travel around.

From left: Christian, Hunter, Dearne, Jeshua, Rod

We made a successful return to Whananaki yesterday (Plan B) and had a great night with the whanau. The grandkids were super glad to see us especially knowing we were all staying together overnight.  The kids from left to right are Christian (grandson #5), Hunter (grandson #2) and Jeshua (grandson #1).

Those who know Whananaki will know that the estuary itself is quite tidal and the tide was out yesterday afternoon when we arrived.  The kids were a bit disappointed with the ‘no water’ situation however we really lucked in as the place where we were staying had a great pool complex. It kept the kids amused for much of the remainder of the day (and this morning).

We headed away from Whananaki at 10am this morning and are back on Plan A. We made a small detour on the way down through to Waipu Cove to visit Robert and Kathy Keen. Both Robert and Kathy worked with Rod in his EAP Services days. It was great catching up with them at their beautiful holiday home.

We are now settled in at Martins Bay and plan to be here until Tuesday.

So far this trip we have never had a travel plan as we have just stopped when we felt like it. However on our journey home we have one or two dates and times that we need to stick to consequently we have a Plan A.

The first stop in Plan A was supposed to be last night at Te Arai Point – Mangawhai Forest Camp. What a nightmare journey!  The 12km road to the camp from the main road was gravel, rock hard, corrugated and to make it worse, dust for Africa.  I doubt that the road had seen any road works since the first canoe’s arrival. When we arrived in at the camp it looked more like a dump site than a camp. After a quick look around the ‘boss’ made an immediate decision that we were ‘out of there’ and we then had to suffer ‘that road’ again on the return journey to the main road. The van, driver, passenger and its contents survived journey albeit the van’s exterior colour was now a dirty brown, the van contents were all over the floor and the salad was now premixed in the refrigerator.

By this time it was getting late in the day and the closest stopover was about 7km away at Mangawhai. We were lucky that our ‘lodgings’ in Mangawhai are on bore water so we were able to give the van a good hosing down and clean inside. We have decided to stay here for two nights and spend a bit of time biking around.

As part of our Plan A, we were going to stay at Matakana for a two nights but we received a call yesterday from daughter #2 saying that they are travelling north to Whananaki to look at a section on Saturday.  Consequently we have decided to leave here early tomorrow morning, spend an hour or so at Matakana markets then head back up to north to Whananaki to meet up with Renee, Michelle and the grandkids for a night. It should be good for one or two Pino Gris and a few R & C’s.

We will then be back to our original Plan A and head to Martins Bay on Sunday or Monday.  In our new lifestyle, flexibility is the key.

We are now into the last couple of weeks of our Northland adventure.  Our plan is to be back in Whangamata sometime during the week of 11 March although we are giving thought to a visit to Raglan on the following weekend (15 March) to do another bit of West Coast fishing. We both agree that by the time we get home we will have had a brilliant two months on the road.

We are currently settled in at a Department of Conservation site (Uretiti Recreation Reserve) at Bream Bay. It’s one of the better DOC sites with plenty of private parking, sealed roads, good facilities and only 10km north of Waipu.

Our plan from here is to stay at Te Aria Point – Managawai Forest Camp on Thursday night, Matakana on Friday and Saturday night (the Saturday market is the drawcard there), Martins Bay on Sunday and Monday night, Long Bay Tuesday night then Takapuna Wednesday and Thursday night. We are not quite sure ‘where to from there’ – maybe to have a look at Port Waikato area. The above programme is subject to change of course.

We are looking forward to Beach Hop Weekend in Whangamata (21^st to 24 March) and catching up with our friends who make the pilgrimage to stay with us on that weekend.

With the last few days being very social, the blog has not been getting the attention it deserves

From left: Auntie Liz, Uncle Des, Rod, Cousin Grant

We arrived back in Kerikeri last Thursday evening and were able to park up at Rod’s aunty and uncles place just out of Kerikeri’s main centre. They were brilliant hosts and Rod had a great time catching up. I don’t think he had seen them for about 12 years. We were joined for dinner by Rod’s cousin Grant who he hadn’t seen for about forty odd years.  We made a point of having another quick catch up on Sunday before we started south and making a promise to each other to keep in touch. I will make sure Rod does.

Steve and Claire joined us in their motorhome on Friday for the weekend with the main purpose being to attend the Orchard to Ocean Wine and Food Festival in Kerikeri.  The weather was perfect and the festival  better. It was a great event – heaps of room to sit around (chairs provided), mostly local wines/beer and food and queuing was not an issue. There were no queues. Sometimes these smaller town events have it all over the bigger city events. They seem to be more family orientated rather than a ‘drinking session’.

If there was a downer on the weekend it would have to be the drama we had with our initial accommodation on the Friday. The four of us had booked into the site called “Gibbo’s Place” – don’t ever forget that name. When the booking was made it was for four adults, two children and Claire and Steve’s two dogs. However, between the time we made the booking and the time we showed up (about two weeks), the site had changed ownership and now did not allow dogs. Instead of the new owner explaining to us in a civilised manner of the new conditions, which we would have accepted gracefully, he dropped the ball and behaved like a demented lunatic. If he has ever completed a Tourism and Host Responsibility Course, my bet is that he failed miserably.  We were lucky enough to find another site where the hostess was wonderful. Many thanks for your help Veronica and the true Kerikeri hospitality.

We left Kerikeri yesterday morning and headed to Wananaki for the night. It was the first time this trip that we were charged to stay at a Department of Conservation (DOC) site, even having a current DOC pass.  No complaints – the total cost was eighteen dollars and they gave us a 20 percent discount because of our NZ Motorhome Association membership.

We have had a relaxing day today leaving Wananaki at about 11am this morning and cruising down the east coast through Sandy Bay, Woolley’s Bay, Matapouri. Tutukaka, Ngunguru and are now settled in at Parua Bay for the night. A nice Pinot Gris or two with our dinner tonight will complete the day.

We will probably stay around the Whangarei area tomorrow and Wednesday as we plan to have a bit of a look around. We need to purchase two more camping chairs as the $9.95 models from the Warehouse have not lasted the distance.

Keep well everyone.

Our journey continues.  On leaving Waitangi we decided to drive around to Russell. Yes I know we could have taken the ferry but we would have missed some of the Bay of Islands best.  When we arrived at Kawakawa we could then have taken the ‘tourist route’ through the Russell Forest but found out just in time that most of the road was corrugated gravel so we gave it a miss.

It was getting late in the day and we still did not have a place to stop over (freedom camping is a bit of a ‘no no’ up here) so we drove directly to Russell. We were lucky and found a spot at the Russell Holiday Park.

Once sorted, we walked into town for a late lunch. We ended up having lunch on the foreshore at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, the first licenced hotel in New Zealand in 1827. We really appreciated the meal as it was our first meal ‘out’ since leaving home in mid January.  We even got ‘flashed’ up a bit. It’s funny how you don’t miss that sort of thing when it’s not around you all the time.

We left Russell this morning not being quite sure where we were heading but knowing we wanted to stay in the area until Thursday when we return to Kerikeri . We have ended up at a little Maori settlement at Bland Bay which is about 45 minutes south of Russell and have parked up about 20 steps from the water. I will give the fishing another attempt tonight but would have to say the east coast fishing has not been too productive.

As far as Dearne is concerned it’s just the right place that she can advance her skills in her new hobby of flax weaving.  Thank goodness it wasn’t pottery – not sure where I could put the wheel and kiln in the motorhome.

We are here until Thursday then heading back to Kerikeri for the Wine and Food Festival over the weekend.

We departed Tauranga Bay yesterday morning with our fridge and freezer much healthier in terms of fish stock. The Navy Diving team were super hosts and generous to the core.  Many thanks for your hospitality guys – we both enjoyed meeting with you all.

As usual we did not have a clear plan on leaving Tauranga Bay apart from the need to stock up on a few groceries. In the end we decided to head directly for Kerikeri for an additional couple of reasons. I have an uncle and aunt living there who I wanted to catch up with and Dearne wanted to book into a beauty shop to get a few ‘bits and bobs’ sorted when we get back into Kerikeri next weekend. We managed to get all the tasks completed.  It was great catching up with Des and Liz again. We are heading back to their place and staying overnight on Thursday so it will be a great family get together.

For the Navy (and ex Navy) people following the blog, I was in Countdown in Kerikeri  yesterday topping up the wine cabinet and ran across Dennis Potter , ex Chef and Diver. Dennis manages the liquor section of Countdown.  Good to see him after all these years.

On leaving Kerikeri we decided to head for WAITANGI and PAIHIA for a few days. The weather again has been stunning and of course it is beautiful up here.  For those of you who know me well will not be surprised that I made my ‘first ever’ visit to the Waitangi meeting ground and meeting house today.  I managed to avoid any participation in our ‘Unity Day’ whilst serving. My personal philosophy of ‘you should learn from the past, not live it’ still stands however I must admit I was impressed with the effort that must go in to making the place a world class stage.

Our plan is to stay here until tomorrow (Monday) then head around to Russell and the Cape Brett area until Thursday. All is going very well.  We have had no problems with the motorhome and we are both in good health. See y’all.