Kerikeri for a break

 

This morning after a leisurely breakfast I headed south along SH 10 from the Mangonui Fire Station where I had spent the night.

I had no idea where I wanted to go except I was slowly heading back towards Whangarei and then to Auckland where I have to be for Monday January 20th.

So I meandered around peeking into places that I hadn’t been before like Hihi, which is a pleasant little village, where I stopped for a quick break and then moved on through to Taupo Bay.

On the way who should I see coming towards me but “Bula Tau” so we flashed our lights waved and laughed as they headed out and I headed in!

It was a lovely trip in quite slow as there was a 50km speed restriction due to resealing for most of the 12km. The vista at the end of the road was wonderful.

I parked up facing the beach and decided to go for a paddle and fish.

Had a lovely paddle but again no luck with the fishing, lost a couple of softbaits to what I found out later were leatherjackets! I had forgotten how nasty they were. You need a tiny hook to get them!

Anyway on my return I was met by a young couple who were intently eyeing the back of ‘The Fredrock Cafe’. I just mentioned as I came up to the bus dragging the kayak that the overhand allowed for a walk around bed. Oh came the reply is this yours, we are keen to have a look.

So it was a guided tour for a young mum and dad and the kids. They were fascinated as they were keen to have a go at motor-homing.

After quite a chat another couple wandered up, saying that they had seen me turning around at the reserve at Hihi earlier that morning and again were interesting in buying a motorhome, so another tour of the bus took place.

I am becoming the consummate sales rep for motor-homing!

So then I washed down the kayak (after being told as I unreeled the hose from the front of the bus that I was now showing off!) and then gave a demo of the kayak loader for the original couple. He actually grabbed a handle and helped and it was so easy with two.

So after thanks and an offer to stay on the lawn of their batch at Tauranga Bay if I was interested, I headed back out to SH 10.

At this point I was starting to feel hungry and realised that it was 2.30pm and so I realised that I was not that far from Kerikeri, so I rang my Aunty Margaret and Uncle Geoff (my father’s youngest brother) and asked if I could come visit, so dialled the address into the GPS and headed off.

On arrival we sat and chatted and they invited me to stay for a couple of days so I manoeuvred the bus around the back of the house. Unfortunately the maple tree was closer than I thought, so now have a bit of a scratch along the side of the bus! Oh well, a cut and polish should remove it.

So I will be here, doing washing, cleaning the dust out and generally catching up on bits and pieces here for a couple of days.

What is great is that my Uncle Geoff hasn’t changed one bit. Still as nutty as a fruit cake, full of silly useless information and fun stuff.

I will see how long I last here!

Thanks to Jenny and Robin from Romany Rambler for the suggestion of using Livewriter. I am trying it for this post and will see how it goes.

It is good to see that at least one other person that is not family is reading my blog!

Catch you all (all three of you) tomorrow!