Lets go to South Wairarapa!

Last weekend we had a club rally near Martinborough.  Several of us decided to take a couple of days extra and take a look around.

A great POP behind the Fell Museum in Featherston.Not sure I like these roads too much.Cape Palliser Lighthouse, yes (some of us )climbed the 234 steps.Seals on the beach at Ngawi.We even did some freedom camping on the south coast.Time for an ice cream.Hanging over the edge with the sea eroding the cliffs.Scary cliff faces.What can you see?That’s the best we could get, they did how wonderful sunsets and we missed it.Club picnic on the beach at Lake Ferry.Lake Ferry looking out to the south.Christening the new BBQ.

We had a wonderful weekend and even got back to the old kite flying.  Haven’t done that for a long time. Another few weeks and we are rallying on a farm. Now that will be interesting.

3D Jigsaws at the Coach House Museum Feilding.

We were not going too far from home this Christmas so only spent a week away in Gypsy Rover nearby.  We plan to travel further afield in March.

A couple of days at the drop in Rally at Foxton before heading for Marton and Fielding in the new year.

Staying at the Coach House Museum we had to visit the “Toys of Yesteryear “Exhibition.  I had never seen 3D jigsaws and was absolutely fascinated with them.

The railway was the first to take Dereks eye.A lovely English Cottage.Tower Bridge in London.Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.Buckingham Palance in London.The Eiffel Tower in Paris.Bavarian Clock Tower.And of course Big Ben in London.

I will have to look out for some of my own.  The selection was For Sale if anyone has a spare room or two.

Happy New Year to you all

We wish all our readers a wonderful New Year, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas. 

Please forgive the lack of posts all due to a virus hacker on the computer.  I am very careful (or so I thought) with everything I open on the computer, I have even been known to yell to the other half “Don’t open it!”

Somehow or other my computer has been compromised by “Coldsearch.com” Beware of this virus,

I have done a lot of researching and trying to delete it but so far to no avail.  Hopefully I have managed to bypass it at the moment. This is a nasty browser hack which apparently gets worse with time.

Roll on the weekend and hopefully my computer wizz son will be able to make the necessary changes to the registry.

Normal service will resume shortly. (we hope).

Gotcha for once!

Surprise, surprise who’s 70 then?

Derek had ideas of quietly having a birthday and nobody knowing. I had other ideas and together with Sandra we had been scheming for weeks. Invitations were sent out via email with the venue at Sandra and Dons home.

On arrival Jenny caught the surprised look on Derek’s face.

Sandra had invited us for dinner and Derek thought nothing of the invitation although 6pm would have been later than usual.  I opted to travel on an alternative route with an excuse I wanted to check out a future rally venue.  I knew that if we travelled straight there Derek would see all the caravans on the front lawn and would smell a rat immediately. 

Sandra explaining how she first met Derek 21 years ago.

It took a while for it to sink in with friends from the Caravan club and Menzshed already there. I don’t think I have ever seen him so stuck for words.  But he soon settled down and we had a great evening.

Cutting the cake.

Out with the old!

New Zealand Reserve Bank is gradually issuing new banknotes. There are slight differences but more security issues built in.

Brookfield Scout Camp

We arrived around lunchtime to find two of our members already in attendance, the others arriving shortly after. We were located in what they call the paddock, close to toilets and showers.

Lined up on the paddock at Brookfield Scout Camp, Wainuiomata.All on their lonesome, well not quite, the others are just out of the picture.

Settling in we were watching the weather as to whether we needed to change our plans to visit Wellington tomorrow via the Dominion Post East West Ferry compliments of our Gold Cards. As all our members are now over the official retirement age we all have cards compliments of the Government for free travel concessions.(conditions do apply with restricted hours but not on weekends).

After the usual 4zz’s we had a get together in the hall after dinner for the usual catch-up and jokes before discussing our plans for the following day. We opted to give morning tea a miss and head straight for Days Bay Wharf at 10am in three vehicles to catch the 10.30am ferry crossing to Wellington. The day looked brilliant although the wind was forecast to rise later in the day.

Our Ferry Tickets.

Turning to pull alongside the wharf at Days Bay.

Here we are all set for embarkation.

A quick drop off at Matui (Sommes Island) and we were off.

One side of Wellington’s picturesque harbour to the other.

Alongside the Ferry Terminal in Wellington.

Breaking up into several groups we headed off to check out the Wellington waterfront. Some of us to the Maritime Museum in one of the old wharf buildings. We planned to return around 2.30pm to be back for the compulsory 4zz’s and hopefully to miss the stronger winds on the harbour. A great Lunch was had by all in various restaurants before meeting back at the ferry for our return. The harbour was decidedly more choppy this time around as we headed out towards the heads to Seatoun Wharf, although we never stopped, before heading straight back to Days Bay. A couple had opted for the later ferry so that they could take in Petone Wharf and Matui again on the way back.

Wellington Maritime Museum in the background behind the Fire Brigade display.

Eat your heart out Geoff!

Where else do you get beauties like this? But the Chocolate Éclair shop in Ohakune.  A shop that is only open to catch the snow trade in the winter, closed now until next year. We had to visit it on Friday going up to Tongariro and then on our way home on Monday before it closes for the season this week.

Must keep an eye on his driving now.

Of course I go everywhere too, I love this travelling lark.

This weekend we are at home catching up on chores after being away the last two weekends and before we head off again.

What a life this retirement is. Brookfield here we come.