23-26th February 2017 Ohakea

After spending a few days at home in Cambridge, fishing at Kawhia and working (!), we finally took-off for the Ohakea Air Tattoo.

Some of the aerobatics at the Air Tattoo

We stopped enroute to Ohakea (where we parked for $30 for the whole weekend) at Marton NZMCA - to make sure we got there early. Marton is a great place for a stop-over, as I've mentioned before....

It was a fabulous airshow - and F16 was a highlight. The overview of the event was a recruitment drive for the Air Force, but I couldn't help wondering about the investment needed into the hardware...



At the end of everyday, the paddock used as a car-park was clear and we could enjoy the peaceful environment - including watching hares running across the length of the fields!

It was dry and sunny and great spot for watching the aircraft - both when they were 'officially' flying and not.




We listened to the marching of the cadets first thing in the morning and supported all the retired veterans who walked by - including one guy from Yorkshire who had been in NZ for 30 years, but still had his recognisable accent!

We met with caravanning friends and spent a very enjoyable weekend. 

It was a very big audience by NZ standards  - about 20,000 maybe more. And very well run - apart from the poor car-drivers weren't given numbers for the aisle they were in  - and it was a massive paddock, full of holes. So many people - after a long day in the sun, were wandering around in search of their car. 

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The only downside was the surrounding area. I expected some nice riverside walks through the Wanganui and Rangatiki valleys, but the bridges were an eyesore covered with graffiti and around every corner seemed to be a pile of fly-tipping... a very sad sight.

8-9th Feb 2017, Opotiki & Whakatane

Leadfoot over, and it was off to Whakatane to get some tweaks to the Van - the wonderful Paul and Coastal Motorhomes is the ONLY guy worth going to for Camper/Caravan issues - we've learnt the hard way! - he makes his own motorhomes at his workshop, so what he doesn't know is nothing (!)

Jobs completed, we camped overnight at the nearby Opotiki NZMCA. This is one of those  - what I call - 'genuine' New Zealand towns...friendly and not too many tourists....

View from the edge of Opotiki - with a beautiful stretch of beach..

The town itself is quite run-down with little in the way of jobs in this area, that's no surprise. The shops are a diverse collection of old-fashioned haberdashery-type places, clothes and sportswear. There's even an organic cafe/deli which makes a create use of the old butchery that it's located in. 

We had dinner at the nearby RSA, which was excellent and a very modern, comfortable building with friendly staff. Always good value at these places - something like $15 for 3 generous courses...

There's a lot of graffiti and evidence of poverty surrounds the place which could be described as a bit 'desolate' in areas - especially this walk (about) from the town Rugby grounds through the sand dunes to the beach. To the right of this photo is a patch of ground that used to be landfill, but 10 years ago was 'returned' to 'nature'. How sad that this will inevitably have to be dug up in the future: tyres and plastics just do not 'return' to the environment - especially on a beach - without help or removal!

Ironically, whilst at the NZMCA park, a guy from the local Maori Trust came round with his truck full of Glyphosate for spraying the 'weeds' around the area. (which actually needed a strimmer). The sun was out, the breeze was blowing IN towards the campsite where we all had our doors and windows open, dogs outside. The guy with the hose was in shorts and T-shirt, no sign of any PPE. His mate driving the truck was looking relaxed and window open "she'll be 'right" attitude...

I did say a few words to them - told them how concerned I was for their health and that of their whanau too. But I think it fell on deaf ears. It's their managers who need to be held responsible after all - asking them to do a job without the proper training or equipment...

Ho hum. New Zealand will learn from the rest of the world's environmental mistakes - eventually perhaps.

3-6 Feb 2017: Leadfoot Festival, Cooks Beach

So Leadfoot is a strange Kiwi phenomenon. The owners aspire to build a Goodwood-Festival-of-Speed -type event, but that could never really happen here. (although many Kiwi's who haven't attended the original are rightly very pleased with the line-up). So instead, there is an eclectic collection of classic cars and bikes - even Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang! was there! LOL! And the race itself is formed from the owner's Rod Millen's 'hill climb' driveway. It's different. Fun and quite an event for all the family  - especially when the sun is shining like it was for us this weekend.



This was the back we stayed at in Cooks Beach...

Justin at the Michelin stand at the Leadfoot Festival...

Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang - still goes! LOL! Long live Ian Fleming's dreams...

2 Feb 2017 Whitianga, Coromandel

Once we'd stopped home to sort a few things out, at the end of that week, Thursday 2nd Feb we headed off Northbound in preparation for the annual Leadfoot Festival on the Coromandel. Justin was due to set-up the Michelin Bibendum stand (as sponsor) and the weather was looking good for us.

We were planning to stay at the Whitianga NZMCA, but the first night, along with other staff we were invited to stay at the bach owned by the Tyreline director's family.  This is a superb piece of timer-themed modern architecture, isolated in a bay off the Coromandel Forest Park, near Black Jack Road.

We left the caravan at the NZMCA (which is new, dry and very spacious, conveniently only a few minutes walk from the pretty quayside town):

.... and drove up to beachside place, spending an enjoyable evening eating hand-made pizzas and talking nonsense.




The sheltered beach is beautiful white sand and excellent for fishing.



But you know how paranoid I am about poison, and being aware of the poison spread in the previous bay - only about 5 kms in Otama Beach and also the 1080 in nearby Horseshoe Bay, it is every-present as a worry for my Dizzy on any beach.


....And as if to confirm my fears, there was a smelly goat carcass (or what was left of one) washed-up on the tide that morning.




Did those bones contain one of the lethal poisons that poor Dizzy only needs to lick to suffer an horrendous death from?  Luckily, I saw it before she did and we stayed away... But THIS is why I am so against NZ using these inhumane poisons - especially from helicopters. There are so many risks from secondary poisonings - beyond belief that some people think this risk is some kind of acceptable 'collateral damage' in a delusional, uninformed ecological war against so-called 'pest species'. Horrific.

Anyway, we were soon on our way to pick up 'Stan-the-van' and get over to 'base' for the Leadfoot Festival - the bach at Cooks Beach. Just a stone's throw (via the funny little pedestrian-only ferry) from Whitianga harbour:

One of the many residential developments in Whitianga where new builds have their own moorings...

Feb-Mar catch-up soon!

Haumoana beach, Near Hastings, North Island

Wow we've had a great few weeks, watching an Airshow at Ohakea, visiting friends at Haumoana (where these photos were taken) and other stuff..

While I'm busy catching-up with some work, posts will follow soon of the last month and the next adventure which will start this weekend - Northland! :)