An extended family weekend

We left home on Friday last week, the day after the Democrats cleaned up in the mid term elections for the House of Representatives, but lost one seat in the Senate. Had to stay home till the day after as it all had to be listened to and watched...

I seem to remember it was fine as we drove towards Taranaki, but the cloud started to come down. This was the best view we had of the mountain from just north of Eltham. It was clear to the west and south, but dense cloud to the north and east.

VERY low cloud, about 5 minutes up the road from where we took the photo of the mountain.

  

My lovely sister Dee, her husband Murray (Muzz) and their son, Kurt, and his partner Charlotte have taken over the lease of the Waitara Holiday Park. They are doing a grand job of bringing the place up to scratch. They bring a range of skills which fit together well to cover the gamut of tasks, both developmental and maintenance. One characteristic that they all have is a wonderful manner with people; they are both welcoming to new guests and compassionate and helpful to their ‘permanents’.

David and I are having a holiday in the motorhome and had 4 nights with them, with a night in the middle at Judy and Jim’s in Onaero.

But before we went to Onaero, there was a series of family get togethers. Great to see all of the NZ-based kids (now adults, mostly in their 40s) again. Friday night there was a shared dinner.

My nephew Joe and constant family friend Ripa who has been part of the family since he got together with Julie, a neighbouring bacher at Tongaporutu back when they were teenagers.

I'm in the shadows, as always (yeah, right!). To my left is Dee's son Jonathan, Muzz (who ALWAYS avoids being photographed) and my lovely sister Dee

Julie, Joe and Ripa

 

I promised scones for Saturday morning, so they all came back. Cheese scones plus lemonade scones with jam and cream (Dee supplied the jam ...). L-R: Nicola's boyfriend Gerard, Jonathan, and Dee and Murray's son, Kurt. Charlotte and Murray in the background, waiting their turn ...

Charlotte, Julie and Charlotte's twins, Luca and Ziana. They are pretty much identical and I haven't known them long enough to tell them apart easily.

Sitting on the porch is my brother with his new partner Estelle. Gerard and Nicola are sitting on the step, Dee is hidden behind Charlotte, and there am I. Julia and Mick, do you recognise my T-shirt? Purchased on our expedition to Leamington Spa, where there were a number of out-and-backs from the Wethersppon's base camp.

Julie and Ripa's son - I am sure he must take after his koro (grandfather) James who is a guitarist and has played at many parties at Tongaporutu and elsewhere.

After the scones were cleaned up and later servings of pea and ham soup at the house, David and I packed up and headed to Onaero.

Saturday night was not the best night to choose to stay at Jim and Judy’s, as there had been a wedding that day and the music at the post-wedding party across the road didn’t stop till about 4.30am. However, it didn’t matter as I had earplugs in and slept well. I had a spare pair but thought David was asleep so didn’t want to disturb him by offering them to him… He operates much better than I do on little or disturbed sleep so it didn’t matter, and there were plenty of podcasts for him to listen to, to keep him occupied.

We’d had a walk along their beachfront in the evening, and were stunned by how much erosion there has been in the last few years.

In the morning we went to Wai-iti to the beginning of the Whitecliffs Walkway, then an early lunch at the Wai-iti Café. Very yummy pizza …

 

While we were waiting for the pizza to arrive, Judy and David played two square - a variant of four square. But if Jim and I had wanted to play too, the infrastructure was in place.

Back into Waitara, as there were curtains to make for Ollie’s room. Dee had cunningly purchased a double duvet cover and pillowcase set from the op-shop for a couple of dollars, and she’d been given some former motel sheets; my job was to turn them into lined curtains. Mission accomplished after a time of wonder, and they look pretty cool. Not my best sewing effort, so they are not perfect, but are definitely perfectly adequate.

Charlotte putting the curtains up.

The finished result - not fab, but as my mum would have said 'a blind man would be glad to see them.'

 Nicola and Gerard came out on Sunday to do some planting for Dee - she had lots of pots outside the 5th wheeler before they moved over to behind the camp managers' house (now occupied by Kurt, Charlotte, Luca, Ziana and Ollie). The plants have been in a trailer and some had been placed in their pots waiting to be put into the garden beside the shed. Nicola is a great and keen gardener, so she was the ideal person to get the task done.

The pots are ready, but photos were required first. Nicola and Gerard.

Caption competition - my entry wins: You are right! You are not worthy ...

Well, OK, maybe he is. That's Dee and Murray's 5th wheeler behind them. I note the plants still haven't made it in to the garden ... But that was soon remedied once the paparazzi moved off.

Murray and Kurt were removing the old gatepost and it needed some welly to make it move. So the Dodge was called in to action.

A bit more digging was required, and just how much was subject to debate. You'll see the orange strops are waiting to be re-attached.

The fence post and its gate are out and Kurt is taking them for a walk round to the home of old unused artefacts ...

Ollie had to help his dad with mowing the lawns so he found his earmuffs and his glasses ...

It was hot work, so a swim was called for - wearing Kurt's large hat to keep him sheltered from the sun.

I missed the photo opportunity in which Ollie was looking down into the tub - the hat was pretty much sitting on the tub's rim and it looked very cool!

Roly is part of the camp family - he's the camp cat and extremely friendly!

On Tuesday Dee had some time off and she and I went for brunch with her best friend, Sarah. I have known Sarah for ages too as she is a long-time Tongaporutu bach person. I knew that she loved Penguin biscuits that are available in the UK but not in NZ, so I bought some for her (managing to keep David away from them …) and brought them home for her.

She had asked her brother to get some while he was in the UK but he failed. so I was the heroine of the day!

While we were out lunching and shopping, David had packed up the motorhome, so when we returned all was ready for the leave-taking. We decided to head for Opunake with a visit to Cape Egmont first. We were in New Plymouth and had got almost to the beginning of State Highway 45 (the Surf Highway around the mountain) when a text came in from Dee asking if a plug with split pins found where we’d been parked was ours. Yes, it was! So instead of turning left, we turned right and went back to Waitara to collect it.

That brought about a change in destination – on we came to Tongaporutu. More about this beautiful and very nostalgic piece of the trip in the next post.