Oroura Downs School (Cream Horn Rally)–21–23 October 2016

This was a new venue for the club and what a great one it turned out to be.

In attendance were:
Canvin, Benton, Turnbull, Fisk, Fitzgerald, Richmond, Wylie, and Solomon. A good turnout!

Situated along state Highway 1 just before the Sheepskin Factory it was a little bit further north than we usually rally but as it was a long weekend it did not really matter.

However I get ahead of myself. As it was a long weekend and the fact that school was in session it meant we were unable to to gain access to the school grounds until 4.00pm. As this is quite late in the day to start a rally some of us decided to have lunch and wait until entry time at the Manawatu Boating Club boat ramp.

Turnbull, Richmond, Benton, and Canvin obscured behind

As Derek & Dot had arranged to pick up the key at 3.00pm and were informed by the Head Master that the grounds could be occupied as most of the children had departed. We received a phone call saying we could now enter so preceded to travel the short distance to the school. Our apologies to those who did not know of this early entry and arrived at the appointed time to find us all onsite. We will try and communicate better next time.

Those in attendance (Solomon obscured on the right)

Due the extra day there were two rally families. Robin & Jenny looked after Saturday and organised a trip the the nearby sheepskin factory. We were shown how the skins are carded (combed), ironed and sewn into car seat covers. The rally family purchased a pair of seat covers for the Land Cruiser. We were joined before this though by our foundation life members Peter & Elaine for morning tea and they spent most of the day with us. It was nice to have your company. Saturday evening the rally family provided pictures onto a large screen, provided by Selwyn (thank you), of their recent trip on the Ghan train from Adelaide to Darwin.

Sunday was the day that Derek & Dot had organised. first up was morning tea at Viv’s Kitchen in Sanson for cream horns, hence the rally name. We all mostly had the cream horns (we really did need them!).

This went down very well and I can see this becoming a regular habit. The second part of the day was a picnic at the Pohangina Community Reserve. This is a future rally venue in an old school and the idea was to scope it out.

Picnic at Pohangina

As can be seen the venue looks ideal and is now firmly on our list. This site is now earmarked for our joint rally at the end of February next year. The day ended with the rally family getting us all to make cards using our imagination. Some people have better imaginations than others don’t they Geoff.

The weekend ended on Monday at Morning Tea when prizes were handed out, farewells said and slowly camp was broken and we made our respective ways home.