HERETAUNGA CARAVAN CLUB

HERETAUNGA CARAVAN CLUB

Sunday 15 December 2019

Christmas Rally at Shannon School, 13–15 December 2019

The caravan club held the last rally of the year, our Christmas Rally, at Shannon School.  Not too far away, about an 18km trip from home.  As the school year had not quite finished, we had to wait till 4.00ish till all the children and parents had cleared the school.  We chose to drive up mid afternoon, found a shady spot several streets away, parked up, chatted amongst ourselves,  and waited till the time was right.  The rest of the gang soon ambled in, and we parked up on the hard.

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Some of our vans at the school

We ate together on Friday night, providing our own main course, and the committee had bought strawberries and ice-cream for dessert.  The entertainment was a film evening and we sat in the library building and watched as the story unfolded.  Barry had brought up his Christmas Tree for a bit of festive ambiance, it twinkled nicely in the background.

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There was quite a bit of interest on Saturday morning when Owen’s friends arrived with their lovingly restored cars, a Mark 1 and Mark 2 Zephyr.

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Two Zephyrs

There was even more excitement when we were offered a ride.  Kath and I decided we would really love to have a ride in the Police car, and settled down in the back seat.  Robin came too as the front seat passenger.

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Oh dear, in trouble with the police!

Robin really wanted to ride in the Mark 1 as well, he had his own version of this car as a young man and was very proud of it.  Riding in these older cars certainly reminded us of the difference in driving before power steering became a standard feature in cars.

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Bring back memories

We pooled cars and drove to a local restaurant, Murrayfield, for dinner on Saturday evening.  With three choices for each course, there was something to appeal to everyone. 

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Dinner at Murrayfield

While we were happily chatting away and enjoying our meal, a police chase was underway in the area, we found out later.  A helicopter and armed police were called in to help as two cars were pursued during a police chase.  The pursuit started about 4.30pm at Foxton Beach and ended in Shannon, where two people were taken into custody about 7pm.  A helicopter was used to find the offenders and police were armed as a precaution, the spokeswoman said.

Saturday Morning tea we were greeted by Annette handing out lovely creamed meringues and then yet more food for Sunday’s morning tea, with Christmas Mince Pies, and Val provided some yummy rum balls.  There was even some left over strawberries and ice-cream that needed to be finished up.  We seemed to have been eating all weekend! 

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Festive morning tea

Then it was time to say our goodbyes and head for home.  Some of us will be meeting up after Christmas at the week long Drop In Rally at Foxton School.  Sounds good to us.

Wednesday 22 May 2019

Carterton School, 17–19 May 2019

It has been a long time since the last report, this is due to some extent to the program used to post ceased working because of changes made by Google to the way photos are handled. A work around was available but clumsy to use. Open Live Writer the program being used to post has had changes made to it so that it now operates as it should again.

If you are reading this post then the changes have worked.

Now to the most recent rally which was held at the Carterton School and was a jiont rally organised by the Wairarapa Caravan Club. Of the sixteen vans in residence Heretaunga had 5.

As it was a school day on the Friday we could not get access to the grounds until school had ended for the day and all the children had departed for home. However most vans were settled in by 4.00pm.

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Our Flag flying proudly with Wairarapa’s

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Some of the Vans in residence for the Weekend.

We all ate together in the hall on Saturday night, cooking and eating our own main courses.  This was followed by a shared dessert, with everyone bringing their contributions.  As always, there was a great selection on the table.

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Desert Selection

After the tables were cleared and the dishes done, we played several games of “Card Bingo”,  with Harry doing a great  job as Caller.  Sadly, neither Robin or I had a win, so didn’t get rich with our gambling.  But never mind, it was quite a fun game with our “Eyes down and Looking”.

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Card Bingo

Visitors called in on Sunday morning, well known to most of us.  It was Diane and Pete, who previously  ran the Carterton Holiday Park for 8 years or so.

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It was a nice quiet weekend tempered by the news that Bill Stevens of the Wellington Caravan club had a nastie accident and is at the moment slowly recovering in hospital – we all wish you a speedy recovery.

The Next Rally is the AGM rally at the Manawatu Caravan Club Grounds on Queens Birthday Weekend, 31 May – 3 June 2019