Our First Motor Home Trip.

We have just done our first trip in our motor home. I have diaryed our progress over the ten days we were away.
We left Wellington at 8pm on Friday and arrived at 11.00pm in Picton we drove to the motor camp in Blenheim under the SH1 Bridge After a good first sleep in the comfortable beds we drove down to Ward Beach (see picture below) for our second nights stay. Motorhome was going really well.



This is at a POP [Park over Property --- exclusive for Motor caravan club members] site at Ward Beach it costs a donation to park in the site which is high above the beach and very sheltered from the wind. A small river comes out down by the rocks in the background. There were white baiters netting in the river and a number of divers out off the beach gathering crayfish, paua and kina. We walked down to the river mouth which is only about half a metre wide.

On day three we left about 11.30 and stopped off at one of the crayfish shops on the roadside before Kaikoura. Lunch was fresh crayfish and buns. Yummy.

Night Three was spent in Boat Harbour Camp just south of Kaikoura before the road turns inland. Nice camp and despite being just off the main road very quiet, sheltered and with good hot showers and excellent clothes washing facilities which we used as we weren’t sure when we would be able to do this further down the line.

There were a lot of seals right close to us as well the one in the photo has a badly gashed flipper!



On Day Four we drove further south into a howling gale which made driving very interesting. We visited a great site at Gore Bay – just look at the Cathedral Pipe Cliffs. They are absolutely magnificent and a scary drop from where we were standing.




Our bus is the first in the line. Other than Friday night when it blew so hard we were worried about the trees falling on the buses we were very cosy.



That was our first adventure in our motor home. A most enjoyable trip and one we want to repeat again very soon.

Our First Motorhome trip

November 2009.

We left Wellington at 8pm on Friday and arrived at 11.00pm in Picton we drove to the motor camp in Blenheim under the SH1 Bridge After a good first sleep in the comfortable beds we went into Blenheim and called into a couple of shops to get some better drinking glasses and some bread and goodies. We then drove down to Ward Beach (see picture below) for our second nights stay. Motorhome was going really well

Our Ward Beach Camping Spot

This is at a POP [Park over Property --- exclusive for Motor caravan club members] site at Ward Beach it costs a donation to park in the site which is high above the beach and very sheltered from the wind. A small river comes out down by the rocks in the background. There were white baiters netting in the river and a number of divers out off the beach gathering crayfish, paua and kina. We walked down to the river mouth which is only about half a metre wide.

The next photo is the view from the little river mouth. Looking back to our motorhome in the pop site.

On day three we left about 11.30 and stopped off at one of the crayfish shops on the roadside before Kaikoura. Lunch was fresh crayfish and buns. Yummy.


Night Three was spent in Boat Harbour Camp just south of Kaikoura before the road turns inland. Nice camp and despite being just off the main road very quiet, sheltered and with good hot showers and excellent clothes washing facilities which we used as we weren’t sure when we would be able to do this further down the line.

There were a lot of seals right close to us as well the one in the photo has a badly gashed flipper!
Large Seal asleep on the rocks with gashed flipper


On Day Four we drove further south into a howling gale which made driving very interesting. We visited a great site at Gore Bay – just look at the Cathedral Pipe Cliffs. They are absolutely magnificent and a scary drop from where we were standing. From here we moved onto the mouth of the Hurunui River but it was too windy and too dusty to camp there so after a great lunch in the motorhomes we moved on to Amberley where we parked up at a friends house This house was originally built in 1884 as a girls school. It has since been added to and remodernised by the present owners.]

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Cathedral Pipes
Hurunui River Mouth

Amberley House

See if you can spot the rabbit in the middle of this picture above



Amberley House Gardens


On Tuesday we left Amberley and went to Ruapuna. For the first few days it was brilliantly fine and hot but on Saturday afternoon it started raining and continued raining right through until we left on Monday morning. We had a nice spot under the trees just inside the pit gates and spent a lot of the time reading instead of watching the racing on Saturday as the rain never seemed to stop.

Buses under the trees.

Our bus is the first in the line. Other than Friday night when it blew so hard we were worried about the trees falling on the buses we were very cosy.



We were due to come back to the North Island on the Wednesday lunch time, but decided as the weather was terrible that we would leave Ruapuna on Monday and head up to Blenheim in the hope that we would be able to catch the afternoon ferry on Tuesday.

We stayed the night in the same camp in Blenheim and then on Tuesday morning headed for Picton.

That was our first adventure in our motor home. A most enjoyable trip and one we want to repeat again very soon.

Winter

I have written before about Winter but this year it has been colder and wetter than we have ever known.
My heart goes out to those farmers who are struggling with calving and lambing. This was us two years ago, so I know exactly what they are going through.
But the down sides are definitely offset by the up sides. The sight of a new born lamb racing around the paddock. A cow and her calf sunning themselves - when we get sun that is.
Life in the country is marvellous. Hard work but marvellous. To see new life, to be part of that new life, is an experience that I would not have missed for the world.
Here in suburbia life goes on, each day bringing a new challenge. What has challenged you today.
Was it getting the children off to school. Getting the housework up to date. Or the challenge of making ends meet in these tough economic times. It you are struggling with the price of food I can really recommend a website that will give you some great ideas on saving money and how to get back to basics. Go to http://www.simplesavings.co.nz/ I thoroughly recommend it.
Meanwhile keep warm and dry and think positive.

Gardening and Writing

Do the two things go together. For me they do. Both are creative pastimes, one more hands on than the other.

Writing is hard work. No doubt about that. But if you love writing as much as I do when you can't write you feel like your hands have been cut off. When you type THE END what a thrill it is to know that you have written a whole book. Mind you there is still heaps of work to do before it is truly finished. Editing for one. Yuk! Editing is the one thing about writing that I do not like. If I could have someone to do it for me I would grab them with both hands.


To me Gardening gives me the same kind of rush. I love my garden. Love the way it looks when everything is in flower, love knowing that all my efforts have produce displays like in the photo above. But I love my vegetable garden as well, knowing that I can feed my family with something that I have produced.

So for me gardening and writing do go together. They both give me satisfaction and are both something that I love doing.

For more information on my books and my interests go to: http://www.annpatrick.com

Does anyone else have a to-be-read-list that reads like a grocery list. I currently have a pile of books beside my bed that I desperately want to read. But life has the habit of getting in the way.
Amongst that list is the latest Nora Roberts "Black Hills" and a book by Lisa Jackson called 'Deep Freeze".
And don't get me started on My Wish list on Fishpond. Oh boy! If I was to move them all to the shopping cart my credit card would catch fire.
Does anyone else have that trouble. Do you have trouble deciding what book you would like to buy knowing that your book buying budget for the month is very low?
I'd love to hear how you overcome this problem. Do you close your eyes and take a stab in the dark or do you carefully select the one that appeals most. Let me know!

Readers and Writers Unite

Are you a reader? Are you a writer? Do you belong to a Writing group?
If you do this is the blog for you.
I love to hear from fellow writers and readers. To talk about books I have read. My favorite writers. Their books.
To talk about writing. The pros and cons of being a writer. The highs and lows.
So if you are interested in any of the above join me and we will discuss it all.