Tauranga-Whakatane-Waiotahe-repeat

After leaving foggy Huntly we headed over the Kaimai ranges to Tauranga, well, really to Pyes Pa and to Rona’s park over property. We spent a bit of time here last year so it was lovely to see friendly and welcoming familiar faces and catch up on all their news before heading off to meet up with family.

Of course I neglected to take any photos but we caught up with Keith and his 3 girls – Jenna, Amy & Rebekka and their families. Over the next few days we managed many a catch-up, and had a few laughs especially with the three great nieces entertaining us with their antics.

The time went very quickly as we had another appointment to make, this time in Whakatane. You see my relatively new oven decided not to work, yet again. This will be the third or fourth fix since having it installed, and it always fails just when I’m just about to cook dinner which is very, very, frustrating. This time it seems it is the oven dial, which when released after ignition, the oven goes off. In desperation we took turns holding the knob in to keep the oven going to cook dinner one evening! So we are heading back to Whakatane to the installers to get it sorted.

Heading along the road near Pikowai with views across to Whale Island

Arriving in Whakatane we left the van with Coastal Motorhomes whilst we headed off into town to meet up with John & Jude over lunch. And yes, you are correct, I didn’t take any photos! It was great to catch up on all their news and before too long it was time to return to pick up the van.

The oven was fixed, we checked with a couple of trials to make sure before we headed off as we had been invited to stay at John & Jude’s in Waiotahe.

Todays trip

A rest area along the route where we pulled over to let traffic past.

The next few days passed quickly, we had a slight change of plans with Roy’s specialist checkups with both the Urologist and the Respiratory Consultant able to do the consults over the phone. That is after X-rays were done in Tauranga with the Specialist able to access the films online. Isn’t technology wonderful? That saved us an early return to Auckland. Another X-ray and checkup is scheduled in a few weeks with the urologist and another respiratory check is scheduled for November.

We went sightseeing with John & Jude to look at the new breakwater and development going on in Opotiki with the deep water mussel farms off shore and the new safe entrance into the river for the mussel boats to unload their cargo.

The view from Waiotahe heights across to the new ground being constructed at the entrance to Opotiki

There is a large processing plant to deal with all the mussels once landed at the wharf as well as 2 large kiwi fruit packing houses in Opotiki. There seems to be a positive vibe and growth around the area, with a lot of new building going on.

Days were spent pottering about, checking out the beach, doing odd jobs and just a little bit of chat as well. Oh and there was a Jigsaw to complete after I found one at the local Hospice shop.

Jude and I went for a walk along the beach one cloudy day

John & Jude wearing her infamous dressing gown.

John’s daughter Julie and her husband Troy returned from their honeymoon whilst we were there and they came for dinner. It was lovely to see them and hear all about the wedding and their honeymoon travels around the South Island. We even managed another game of cards – thanx to Julie for checking on John’s scoring, yes I did win that game!! We also managed to twist Troy’s arm to entertain us with his wonderful singing, he has a fabulous bass voice.

Time for us to head off again, we have plans to make, things to do and people to see. We headed back to Pyes Pa for a few days but ooops, what’s this? Plan A is out the window, plan B is quickly formulated.

The dead centre of town

We were off down the motorway in good time, just a quick stop at the Mobil station in Mercer to fill up with LPG and fuel before continuing on to……Huntly! Yes, we’re we’re off to Huntly, staying at the golf course on the outskirts of town.

At the golf course with the sun setting in the background

Why Huntly? It’s not exactly known for having any generally appealing features. But this is where Roy’s mum was born and raised after her parents emigrated from the UK at the end of the First World War. Roys grandfather had a farm just next to where the Power Station is now located and he had a butchers shop in the township.

Safely parked at the golf club

We were meeting up with Roy”s cousin Robert the following day at the cemetery….where else? You see we were on the search for their grandparents gravestones, as well as aunts and uncles. We had looked up the gravestones on a web site called billiongraves.com, which once there you can add filters such as country, region, town, and name of the people you are looking for. I found both of the grandparents on the web site which also has pictures of the gravestones, how fortunate as it made it easier to locate the headstones. The web site also indicates which particular part of the cemetery to focus your search i.e. old cometary, new cemetery, cremation markers etc. N

Roy and Robert deep in conversation

We found all the gravestones and markers of all the relatives in the cemetery, it was a glorious autumn day with the ground covered in leaves making for a pleasant walk.

We returned to the van for lunch and a long chat with Robert, with him telling us lots of tales. Robert had a significant birthday the day before so it was lovely to be able to celebrate with him.

After two nights in Huntly and waking to thick fog enveloping us each day we decided it was time to move on, but where are we going? We can’t venture too far as Roy has checkups scheduled in Auckland soon so on with the thinking caps, or more to the point, take out the map and make a stab.

Omana

With the first job completed on the van we headed out to stay at Omana, another one of Auckland’s stunning Regional Parks. We were looking for a bit of quietness in lovely surrounds not too far away as we had to be in close proximity to Roy’s specialist in case of any dramas arising from the kidney stone procedure. We found exactly what we were looking for at Omana.

We were the only ones in the campground so we took our time to find the perfect place to park. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit there, it seemed to take ages….it was a bit like “park here”, ‘no that’s not very level’, or “no that’s too close to the road” or ‘no, it’s the wrong angle’, or “we need to turn around to get the sun” or….well, you get the picture. I don’t think we’ve been that indecisive since we first started this adventure.

Will this be ok?

Yes, this will do nicely

We spent a lovely few days here relaxing and exploring. Carol & Glen came to visit one day as they were kindly delivering some forgotten items to us. We spent the day talking, and talking, eating lunch, and talking some more and not a picture was taken!!

View across the park to Rangitoto

From the lookout

Rangitoto (the cone shaped island) on the horizon

We also caught up with Erica who is the Ranger here at Oamana. Erica was the summer Ranger at Shakespear 3 years ago so it was really lovely to catch up with her and to hear what she has been up to.

But all too soon it was time for us to leave as the van was due at the garage for its final job to be done.

Driving through Maraetai village, and the beautiful sandy beach

The drive along what is called the Pohutakawa Coastal Drive, which would be spectacular when the trees are flowering

The the van was delivered to AD Motors in Takanini for the last bit of work to be completed. We had a few wee chores to attend to whilst we waited, one of which was for us both to get our flu shots. That was quickly done and later that afternoon the garage rang to say the van was ready to be picked up. Hooray, that meant we could then go and get the recheck completed for the COF but to our surprise the garage had already taken it for its recheck and we were good to go. Excellent service and we can highly recommend them.

We stayed a couple of nights at Bruce Pulman Park so we could get a WOF for the RAV and do the final few bits and pieces and catch up with Antony before heading away for a few weeks. But where are we going? Oh, you’ll soon find out.

In and around Auckland

It’s that time of the year, yes it’s COF time so we duly rolled around to the Takanini VTNZ to wait our turn in the queue.

Waiting in the queue, which didn’t take too long.

A couple of minor things need to be attended to before we get the big tick so from there it was just around to corner to book the van in to get everything sorted.

On our return to Ardmore we decided to move positions so we wouldn’t attract so many neighbours,

Parked along the back fence this time.

Another day and it’s time to meet up with Glennis & Robin, we arrange to meet at the Botanical gardens which was roughly a halfway meeting point for us all. It’s great to catch up with these two as it’s always entertaining and a bit of a laugh.

Entrance to the gardens

Glennis, Rob and Roy with their new friend!!

Whilst parked at Ardmore this interesting form of mobile accommodation came in, a caravan/houseboat. How cool is that?

Boat-a-home

Anzac weekend rolled around, unfortunately there were no public dawn parades or services in Auckland this year so we remembered the fallen in our own quiet way.

An early morning start to take the van in Truck & Trailers in Takanini, just a short 5 min drive from Ardmore to get a couple of things attended to. Dave the owner is a very affable chap, and just a short hour or two later we got the call from him to say the van was ready. We’ve used his business before so we were confident that he would do a great job at a very reasonable price, and true to his word, it was very very reasonable for a great job. We have one more thing to get done which will be done at AD Motors just around the corner next week. These two businesses work well together and we are confident of the work that they do.

Stoned!

There was a very good reason why we had to return to Auckland at Easter. During some of the checkups with various specialists Roy had had recently, it was discovered that he had a couple of decent sized kidney stones. If they hadn’t shown up on a routine X-ray then we would not have known that they were there unless they decided to move and cause agony. The specialist suggested that as they were of a decent size then it would be prudent to deal with them before they became an issue as you could almost guarantee that they would cause a problem at the most inconvenient time i.e. mid journey on a long haul flight.

A timeline was agreed upon and so the Wednesday after Easter we were at Ascot hospital bright and early for Roy to undergo a Lithotripsy procedure. What on earth is Lithotripsy I hear you say?

Lithotripsy is a non invasive surgical procedure that uses shock waves to break up and shatter stones. It is done under anaesthetic and takes about 1 to 1.5 hrs to complete with the patient usually sent home the same day.

Illustration of Lithotripsy copied from Urology Associates.

The procedure is done in a mobile lithotripsy surgery unit which is set up at the hospital and I presume visits other hospitals in the region.

Lithotripsy mobile surgical unit.

We duly arrived at the hospital at 6.30am where I dropped Roy off. I went off to do a few bits and pieces as I wasn’t allowed into the hospital, and was back at the hospital to pick up him up at 11am. He’d been sent home with a pile of painkillers but he told me he was feeling fine with no after effects whatsoever. I wondered how long that feeling would last but incredibly he had no pain or uncomfortableness at all so the bag of multiple painkillers were eventually returned to the pharmacy.

We were told it was advisable to stick around Auckland for a couple of weeks post surgery, just in case, which unfortunately meant that we would be unable to attend my niece Julie’s wedding in Ohope. We were really upset we wouldn’t be able to attend but it’s best that we do as we are told as Sod’s law says that if we didn’t then…well, you get the picture. We will catch up with Julie & Troy soon and we wish them all the happiness for their future together.

One of the unexpected side effects of this whole procedure has been a very positive one. Roy has been on a drug for his Atrial Fibrillation which is for anti clotting /blood thinning which he has been taking for the past couple of years but he was told to stop taking it a week before the surgery and for a few days afterwards. He noticed something a few days after he stopped taking it, and that was the soreness, almost gout-like pain in his feet had disappeared. Hmmm, was there a connection? He started doing some research and came across a NZ medical paper which indeed backed up exactly what he was experiencing. So an email was sent off to his cardiologist explaining what had happened, the upshot being a different drug was prescribed.

Now, weeks post the change in drugs, he has no more pain in his feet, he can walk comfortably again and as well, his ankles which had become quite swollen, have also resumed to normality. Unsurprisingly, I can also attest that Mr Grumpy has also been sent packing!!!

Mr Grumpy

If it wasn’t for the fact of having this surgery which necessitated the cessation of the medication I am not sure that we would have linked the symptoms with the drug, particularly as the symptoms only came about gradually over some time.

But how fortunate is that? Fixing two problems at once, and for once it was not being put down to an “age related” condition.

Meanwhile we have the checkup scheduled where we hope to see in the X-ray a normal kidney sans stones.

Easter weekend

The long Easter weekend was looming and with that hoards of campers would be arriving at Uretiti for their last opportunity to camp before winter. In anticipation of the hundreds of campers coming in we decided to move from our hideaway spot to another of our usual parking positions closer to the road. A move of less than 100metres! as we didn’t want to get hemmed in.

The old parking area

Parked in the new spot

Carol & Glen parked up behind us, they moved earlier in the week to escape the potential of being caught out by potential flooding.

Arrow indicating our previous parking spot

We settled in for our last few days here, Roy & Glen went out fishing a couple of times with Roy coming back with good catches. By late on the Thursday afternoon the camp had started to fill up with tenters, caravans, motorhomes and every other sort of mobile accommodation imaginable squeezing in to every available space. Are we ever pleased we moved in readiness to leave on Easter Saturday.

Happy hour

The camp certainly did fill up, with a couple of large groups taking up significant portions of the camp. It was entertaining watching people put up their tents, manoeuvre their vehicles into position, and generally set themselves up for a good weekend break. We listened intently to the news and weather forecast and it seems we chose a good day to leave as the traffic reports for Thursday and Friday were of very slow traffic movements in and out of Auckland and weather warnings were subsequently issued for Sunday and Monday.

There was a bit of a commotion in camp on Friday afternoon when a helicopter began circling overhead before landing on the beach in front of the camp.

Helicopter landing

It appeared that a young man had got into difficulties in the strong surf and had been rescued from the water. At the time of leaving we hadn’t heard how he was doing, we trust he was being well cared for in hospital.

Saturday morning rolled around and we packed up ready to leave, just as well, as there were heavy rain warnings for the north due to arrive later in the day.

It was an uneventful drive down to Auckland, although we did get held up in traffic heading into Warkworth, a known bottleneck. It wasn’t until we got through the traffic lights that we realised that our queue was a minor one compared to the queue of northbound traffic.

In the queue to the traffic lights in Warkworth.

Further south around Puhoi the traffic heading north was at a standstill coming out of the tunnel, as we wizzed through the tunnel and came out the south side the queues of traffic waiting to enter the tunnel were just as bad.

North side of the Johnsons hill tunnel

The south side of the tunnel. Excuse the view through the dirty windscreen, it will be cleaned!

Apparently the queues on Good Friday were much worse so we were very pleased to have chosen a better day to travel.

We arrived at Ardmore in good time and parked ourselves on the newly tar sealed parking area. The tar seal had been painted with areas marked out for parking, we chose a spot to park away from other people before setting ourselves up then heading on round to see Antony. Later, when we returned we found ourselves no longer on our own, with others parking directly alongside us and behind us.

No longer on our own

But with all this wide open space available, why do people think that they need to park directly next to others?

I’ve never been able to figure out why people need to flock together around others, I guess I have to just put it down to our magnetic personalities 😘.