Earlier this week we decided that we would take the motorhome to Paraparaumu Beach and freedom camp on Friday night, go out for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant with a friend, and be in pole position for Saturday breakfast with the guys.
So we loaded up with teabags, milk, bread, butter, cheese, chutney (in case we got hungry in the night ...), a few clothes and some toiletries; David primed the toilet cassette, and away we went. We called in at Novus Glass in Paraparaumu first because the new suction cup that Sam and the team at Freeway fitted also doesn't like the heat and had let go - leaving the rear view/reversing camera monitor dangling...
Jarrod glued the suction cup on to the windscreen having first removed the glued on bolt that the original camera monitor was attached to. Yay! That means the front windscreen blind now closes properly and I don't need to keep the two sides together with fat rubber bands!
He spoke about his slight anxiety re his ferry trip to Picton on Saturday morning given the weather was meant to be pants. I checked the Wellington, Picton and Cook Strait weather and told him he'd be fine, but to take it easy if it was windy on their way down to Invercargill on their motorbikes - there's a Bert Munro World's Fastest Indian event on this weekend, I think.
For some strange reason, it didn't occur to us it was going to be windy here on the Kapiti Coast - doh... But as we left his workshop, the rain started and we noticed that the sky was black to the west and south. And as we pulled into the freedom camping parking area on the Paraparaumu waterfront, we realised it was pretty damn bumpy with very strong wind gusts and the rain was coming in sideways. And we could barely see Kapiti Island through the deep black rain clouds.
So we turned on the gas, started to make the bed, commented on the wind and the driving rain and then looked at each other. A very quick decision to call our friend David R and suggest cancelling dinner - he said he had just been about to call us and cancel. I do love it when all participants are on the same page!
Gas turned off, and home we went.
It was a bumpy drive back along the expressway, but to be fair, not as windy as our trip from Warkworth down to Whangaparoa a few weeks ago!
As it was hosing down and very windy at Waikanae, we parked the motorhome beside our house, unloaded the little we had taken with us and scurried inside to the warm, dry and immovable accommodation!
After the long trip to the Far North, we had decided we would do short trips away in the motorhome, but I am fairly sure we hadn't banked on durations of less than 3 hours ...
