A Belated Merry Christmas ✨

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Central Otago
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Home in Alexandra till April.
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Bulmer Landing
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Sue at Lookout – Clyde Dam

Christmas has been and gone and January is now over.  I have been remiss in my blogg writing and keeping up to date with our travels, but life just seems to go on.

It’s so hard to believe that we have been on the road for 12 months. We celebrated this milestone on 28th January 2020 with a lovely bottle of German Bubbles and some fellow campers. Roll on the next 12 months!!!

Lets go from where I left off some months back and talk about our adventures in Opotiki……………… Wayne started work on the Kiwifruit Orchards working on the new plants along with thinning and some water system maintenance over our 3 weeks in Opotiki. Let’s say he is to tall for kiwifruit!

We stayed at the NZMCA park in the heart of Opotiki township. Close to all amenities, along with the 2 km walk/ride to the beach.  Good to have the town close as I had no vehicle over this time due to Wayne working outside of the  township.  Opotiki is a tired, small town, trying to survive in this world. Building were old and needed attention, but on the whole our experience there was good, with friendly locals, good coffee and a big thanks to Mark & Karen (Wayne’s Employers) who invited us for dinner twice and joined us out for dinner on our last weekend. They also played babysitters to our kayaks!! Mark is a fellow member of the Acromegaly society, so it was good for Wayne  to have someone to talk to who understands his illness. We did a day trip to Whakatane and loved the area. Certainly would like to see more of this area in our next trip North.  We also did a day trip up the East Coast to Waihoau Bay. Rather a remote part of NZ, but some lovely coastline. We also had a day down at Tarawera Falls and. Lake Tarawera via Kawerau. Very hot day and a lovely dip in the lake to cool off. Left Opotiki end of October.

We had 5 days in Feilding celebrating Wayne’s Mum’s 80th Birthday. We left our caravan at Robin & Faye Moore’s house in Kinlock. Picked up the caravan early December and headed up to Horahora Reserve in Waikato for a couple of nights and also stayed at Bulmer Landing by the lake for a further 2 nights. Good chance to relax and do some kayaking. We then headed to Pukekawa to Andrew & Sarah’s for Wayne to help out with the building of the cottage. They needed it ready by Xmas. Wayne dug drains, put in the pink batts and was general “all rounder” for 4 days.

We headed off to Waihi Beach for 4 days, staying at the NZMCA camp there. We loved Waihi Beach and is certainly one place we would like to visit again. Biking and lots of beach walks.  Wayne did some Kayaking. Headed down to Tauranga staying 6 nights at a CAP (Rona Murdoch – private property) and did some catching up with the Ross Families, Graham & Jenny  and Rob & Christina. Also managed to see Elspeth Beattie for coffee one day. Thanks Elspeth for giving up your time while in Tauranga. We also purchased a coffee machine while there and love it!!!

Headed back to Pukekawa for Xmas 21 Dec – 27 Dec. It was lovely to have Jeremy, Belinda and girls with us and have all our grandchildren together. Very special times. A wonderful Xmas and thanks Andrew & Sarah for hosting us all. A big thanks to Sarah for the  wonderful suggestion of visiting the Christmas Lights at Karaka. A magical experience.

Down to Feilding to have a late Xmas with Wayne’s family and then on the Ferry to Picton on 30th December. Stayed with our lovely neighbours Kevin & Lynette for a week, this allowed us to get our Doctors visits done and any other jobs while in Blenheim before heading south. Thanks to the Morrison’s yet again for always being there for us.

Made our way south on 7th January for Leithfield beach to catch up with Jacky (camped out in their driveway). Then onto Weedons MCA park for a night to visit Sue & Dave in Chch and have a lovely evening meal (Turkey Pie provided by Sue  as requested by me…thanks Sue). We headed onto Alexandra the next day, stopping off at Timaru for coffee with Ian Ellis and a catch up. Arrived in Alexandra late afternoon after a very long drive.

Our lovely hosts, Annette and Robert had reserved off an area for us, so along with the welcoming committee of 8 campers, we were back in our Central Otago home for another 4 months. Wayne is back into the swing of his job with Trail Journeys (4 days on & 2 days off) and I am settling into life here with work, biking (Wednesday mornings “Bumz on bikes” & Sunday mornings), Tai Chi (new interest for me 2 days a week) and this week I will start swimming at the local pool again. I go out with Wayne (if there is room) in the van/bus when he is doing bag shifting and people transfers around the area as far as Middlemarch. We have done a couple of 6.30am starts to Queenstown to collect people also. Weather has been really hot and the awning seems to get over heated. Nearly 40 degrees this week in the awning. and 35 in the caravan.  Wayne has his first tour to do this week. 5 days with 5 clients on the Rail Trail. He will be away 2 nights of the 5, so I am home alone. He can update next time on his adventures. (Rained for 1st 2 days of the tour)

Caught up with Carol & Barry before they headed home from Queenstown on the 20th Jan. Thanks for coming over to Cromwell for lunch and a catch up. Also got to have coffee with Aunty Rose in Cromwell. We hope you had a safe trip back to Christchurch Rose.

We have visited some historic areas like the gold sluices in Bannockburn, off road tracks over the old man range, swims in the local lakes.

Wayne did a mountain bike down the ranges…..pictures before they headed down. Nice lunch at the Old Post Office Cafe in clyde as a reward for the scary & hair raising ride. A few beers were consumed!!!!!! The girls & fellow campers who drove the vehicle back down made up a large lunch party of 9.

 

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Wayne, Robert & Ray. Top of Old Man Range. Mountain Bike Down!
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The boys – On Their Way

We did a 4wd adventure with a couple (Ray & Marylyn Cowles) from the camp here. Travelled in two vehicles inland to lake Onslow & onwards to look for the Serpintine church out in the middle of know where.  Let’s just say that Wayne found a track that ended up not being the one we should be on & after some hair raising manouvers ( closed eyes from me) we returned back onto the main road, & still did not see the church. Alas, we will have to go back again to find it. The two men are eager, but not sure about us ladies!!!!! We now know the Ranger can do just about anything!!!!!!! It has finally had a clean after its ordeal.

Well it’s sign off time and I will report back in a month or two for the update on our adventures here in Alex.

Love to all till next time

The Travelling Gypsies