Alexander (Sandy) Lyell ANDERSON -11 February 2016

It is with great sadness that the Heretaunga Caravan Club Inc morns the loss of one of its members who passed away on Thursday 11 February 2016.

Sandy & Bea only stopped rallying with us recently when Sandy was diagnosed and it was apparent they both were unable to continue the lifestyle they both loved and enjoyed.

Sandy will be remembered by a large number of members of both the Caravan and Motorhome fraternity as he has been an avid Caravanner and more lately a Motorhome owner for more than 30 years.

Sandy was a member of:

Wellington Caravan Club Inc,
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association,
International Caravanning Association, and
Heretaunga Caravan Club Inc

REST IN PEACE

SANDY YOU WILL MISSED

Kahutara School–5-8 February 2016

We had 6 caravans and 2 motorhomes on site for this rally. 7 members from the Heretaunga Caravan Club and 1 from Taupo (or Bay of Plenty CC or Waikato CC). Welcome to Peter and Anne it was good to have your company. Enjoy the rest of your travels. We also had the pleasure of the company on Saturday of our recently retired Founding & Life members Peter & Elaine, it was good to have your company and fly a kite with you.

The Vans in attendance

Some of the vans decided to take the long way to the rally and left home a couple of days early and stayed at the Fell Engine Museum POP and at the free camping area at Ngawi. Some of us climbed the 252 steps to the Cape Palister lighthouse (and are still suffering).

The over night stop in Featherston

Ngawi free camping area

Before some of us climbed all those steps!

Bill and Val were Rally Family for this rally and had us on our toes all weekend with Quizs and games. The games included a straw and peanuts. Part of the hilarity was provided by Bill not being able to remember how to make up the teams – all good fun.

The festivities included: Kite flying, BBQ cook off, Picnic at Lake Ferry, Funny Tea Shirt Competition plus the normal banter at morning tea and happy hour.

Three of the humourous ‘T’ shirts.

The 3 ‘T’ shirts in the above photo read left to right: “I don’t need GOOGLE my wife knows everything”, “ WARNING RETIRED knows it all and has plenty of time to talk to you about it” and “Mr Grumpy” in the doorway.

Selwyn and Kath celebrated their 50th wedding Anniversary recently and this was recognised with a ceromoney on Friday Evening

The Happy Couple

Val reading her special poem

It was nice to once again rally at this lovely school who are very hospitible and it was also good to not have the high winds we had last time at rthis venue. A very enjoyable rally.

See you at the next rally at LUTZ FARM, OTAKI, 26 – 28 FEBRUARY 2016

Central Regional Rally–Te Horo School–22-25 January 2016

Well what a venue this turned out to be, and it was only second choice. Originally the Regional Rally which was hosted by Wellington Caravan Club was to be held at the Coley Street School, Foxton but because of some unannounced building alterations at this school, it was no longer available. Therefore an alternative needed to be found and the choice of Te Horo School was a good one.

With 17 caravans, 6 motor homes, 1 5th wheeler and 2 tents camping at the school over the long weekend, there were hordes of campers everywhere.

Just Some of the Vans in Attendance. The above photo is of Leisureline Lane

Of those present Heretaunga had a good turnout with six vans present.

Also in attendance was the current President of Caravanning Camping New Zealand Inc (CCNZ) and his wife – Alan and Judith Dale. It was good to see you again.

The entertainment provided was:

FRIDAY

The banners were piped in and we had the opening ceremony.

SATURDAY 

CRC Meeting, Card making classes, and Ian Palmer entertained us with songs most of which we all knew the words to.

SUNDAY

Some went to Ruth Pretty's for afternoon tea, in the evening we had wine tasting conducted by Alan and Judith Dale. The wine was donated by Yealands Wines. The three wines tasted were; Pinot Gris, Sav Blanc and a Merlot. There was also a plentiful supply of crackers and cheese to clear the palate. The evening finished with drawing of the raffles. The Wainuiomata Club had their lucky day in that every van won a prize. How Tinny is that.

The programme also included the mandatory items such as Morning Tea and Happy Hour in the afternoon.

After a very good rally we all traipsed home before lunch on Monday morning knowing we had enjoyed ourselves. WELL DONE WELLINGTON.

Alan & Judith officiating at the Wine & Cheese.

Next CRC rally well be run by Wainuiomata Caravan Club and held at Brookfield Camp, Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata in 2018.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

On behalf of the Committee I would like to wish all members of this great little club of ours a very merry christmas and a happy new Year.

Found this wee gem on a Facebook page and sort of sums up the situation most of us have reached at this time of life.

Have a good one and don’t eat or drink to much and see you at the Central Regional Rally which is now to be held at the Te Horo School.

Koputoroa Hall - Xmas Rally 11 - 13 December 2015

We had eight vans in attendance for this rally which was at the changed venue from the school next door to the community hall.

Some of the Vans in Attendance

When we arrived all the others were already on site and were sitting in a circle, in the sun, catching up since the last rally. The talk was being helped by the lubrication of some of the brown stuff for some, the other had their own poison.

Friday evening we had a film screening courtesy of Selwyn of the very funny film which starred Robin Williams, "Mrs Doubtfire".  The only draw back was by the end of the film we all had square backsides from the hard chairs.

Saturday dawned a little damp so we all met in the hall for morning tea where we were informed of the activities of the day, which was very relaxing as nothing much was organised. Some of us went out to do some shopping as certain essentials were left behind; others went out and purchased fresh asparagus as the season is nearly over and this was the last chance to get fresh supplies direct from the processing factory.

Some of the vans, mainly the non european vans had their tow ball weights measured and the results were for some as expected but others were left thinking about the results and what to do.

Discussing some of the differences between Vans

Xmas was celebrated in the evening with a shared meal. The meat was kindly cooked on the rotisserie by Don who did a marvelous job, it was delicious and tender piece of pork with lovely crackle. Everyone else was requested to bring a salad to share and who would have known there are so many different types of salads. The club provided a desert of strawberries and ice cream which was augmented by other deserts provided by committee members. What a great meal, very convivial and all it cost outside individual contributions was the reimbursement of the cost of the roast. GREAT!

The Meal before it was Devoured

The Lovely Desert\s

The evening was finished off with another film, this time "Hotel for Dogs" very amusing. We sat in our own chairs!

Sunday also dawned damp so morning tea was again held inside where the thank you were given, xmas wish conveyed, clean up of the hall and goodbyes said.

See you at the next rally at the Regional Rally, at the Coley Street School, Foxton on Anniversary Weekend. DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER

Brookfield Scout Camp, Wainuiomata 13-15th November 2015

We were down in numbers at this rally with only 4 members from Heretaunga and 3 from Wairarapa Caravan Clubs.  This wouldn't stop us having fun though. We arrived around lunchtime to find two of our members already in attendance, the others arriving shortly after. We were located in what they call the paddock, close to toilets and showers (if required).

Lined up on the paddock at Brookfield Scout Camp, Wainuiomata.

All on their lonesome, well not quite, the others are just out of the picture.

Settling in we were watching the weather as to whether we needed to change our plans to visit Wellington tomorrow via the Dominion Post East West Ferry compliments of our Gold Cards. As all our members are now over the official retirement age we all have cards compliments of the Government for free travel concessions.(conditions do apply with restricted hours but not on weekends).

After the usual 4zz’s we had a get together in the hall after dinner for the usual catch-up and jokes before discussing our plans for the following day. We opted to give morning tea a miss and head straight for Days Bay Wharf at 10am in three vehicles to catch the 10.30am ferry crossing to Wellington. The day looked brilliant although the wind was forecast to rise later in the day.

Our Ferry Tickets.

Turning to pull alongside the wharf at Days Bay.

Here we are all set for embarkation.

A quick drop off at Matui (Sommes Island) and we were off.

One side of Wellington’s picturesque harbour to the other.

Alongside the Ferry Terminal in Wellington.

Breaking up into several groups we headed off to check out the Wellington waterfront. Some of us to the Maritime Museum in one of the old wharf buildings. We planned to return around 2.30pm to be back for the compulsory 4zz’s and hopefully to miss the stronger winds on the harbour. A great Lunch was had by all in various restaurants before meeting back at the ferry for our return. The harbour was decidedly more choppy this time around as we headed out towards the heads to Seatoun Wharf, although we never stopped, before heading straight back to Days Bay. A couple had opted for the later ferry so that they could take in Petone Wharf and Matui again on the way back.

Wellington Maritime Museum in the background behind the Fire Brigade display.

We arrived back at camp to see we had guests Graeme and Jo (new members of Palmerston Club, we believe) had come to join us for 4zz’s.

Thanks to Cath and Selwyn we had a great evening with a couple of quizzes on animals and the royal family. Sunday saw us very slow to pack up and depart until next time.

Another great Rally. See you soon at Koputaroa Hall for our Christmas Rally.

Carterton Holiday Park, 23–26 October 2015

We had 8 vans in attendance at this rally which was held in one of the club’s favourite sites. So much so there were one or two who came early and left later than just the weekend.

The weather started off with wet and windy on the Friday but Saturday, Sunday and Monday dawned fine and sunny with little wind. The temperature is sure rising by the number of morning teas that were held outdoors in the sun.

An indication of the weekend weather.

The rally families had us amused all weekend with quizzes. One quiz was to work out what the texting abbreviations meant as well as some well known common abbreviations which are used in everyday life, or as someone thought. Going by the banter around the room some were not as common as originally thought. Still a lot of laughs, There was even LOL. 

Saturday afternoon was set aside for wine and cheese tasting. This went down so well that many confessed to passing on having a full meal at tea time.

Sunday evening we had a pot luck meal with a shared pudding and the amount food that was brought into the hall was staggering. Anyone would think we feeding an army.  It was all good though and went down a treat.

Other highlights were the amount off goodies such as cake and chocolates that were handed around to celebrate birthdays. Thanks to Jenny for the Carrot Cake, Kath and Selwyn for the big box of chocolates, and Val for the savouries. To top this all off the, camp manageress brought out a enough hot cheese scones to satisfy all present.

Into this mix of activities, we were put into teams to have a game of non-physical cricket. There was a very complicated method of scoring, some of us were convinced this was to hide any match fixing. There were lots of laughs.

Trying to hit the ball and look elegant – Failure.!

 

 

Some of the goodies on display.

For morning tea on the Saturday we had a pleasant visit from Peter and Elaine, our founding life members. They have recently stopped caravanning and it is good they are taking the time to keep in touch. It was nice to see you both and catch up with all your news.

A good rally, thanks to Barry & Dianne and Bill & Barbara. See you at the combined rally at Brookfield Camp, Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata.