Ross and Wyn Davies Travel Blog

Oh dear! Oh Dear! Oh Dear…! This is a very long time and no post.
We are however alive and well and back in Blenheim – having had a few adventures in the meantime. It’s a question of where to start. Sometimes this blogging business gets a bit behind and then it gets hard to catch up and then it all gets too hard.
So, it’s a new day and the sun is shining and this is as good a day as any for a new start.

Thursday morning was a lovely one. The weather forecast had been promising good weather for several days but somehow the sounds had been missing out. The forecast was good for several days ahead as well, it looked like being good for the rest of the week. Whatamango is noisy in the morning. There’s the bellbirds (and tuis?) for a start. They are prolific. Plus there’s pukekos and wekas and paradise ducks. And heaven knows what else out by the water. Wyn and I had a wander around the water’s edge before packing up to leave. Most of the DoC camps have someone who keeps an eye on things – if not someone in residence. The guy at Whatamango was particularly helpful and hospitable. Continue reading →

Wednesday 7^th April started early – the boys were going home. Michael and Andrew had a long drive home to Dunedin – approximately 750kms. So we were up before 7am and they were away by about 8am. It had rained in the night so it was wonderful to have their camping gear already dry in the car. Suzi seemed a bit empty after they had gone. The morning was not very inviting so we sat and lay around reading. I am reading the Lonely Planet ‘Travel Photography’ book and it is inspiring me to rediscover my camera. I’ve used the Fuji Finepix 6500 for about 4 years now and am still getting to grips with the features. This morning I was reading about the continuous shooting options and the exposure bracketing feature so there was a lot of clicking and looking. Continue reading →

Now that we are Scrabblee World Champions it might be time to reveal the history of this new board game. New and exclusive that is; it is only played by us since there is only one board in existence. It is a long story so make a cup of tea, get comfortable, and read on. It all started with bubbles. I’d given Andrew a huge bubble wand thing for Christmas which sort of worked and the only trouble was we used up most of the bubble mixture. So come Boxing Day when the rest of Dunedin was queuing in Harvey Normans for $288 netbooks and $36 DVD players we were in town looking for cheap bubble mixture. That and large soft flying discs which is why we ended up in the Happy Coin shop next to Kathmandu. Continue reading →

We’d had a good relaxing Easter at Whites Bay but by Tuesday 6 April we figured it was time to move on. Michael and Andrew had to drive back to Dunedin and put off leaving until Wednesday. In the meantime we came up with a plan to shift further north, past Picton. It proved to be a good plan as it meant we got mostly packed up on the Tuesday. It was still cloudy and overcast and it had even rained a bit in the night. Not only had all the campers left but all the motorhomers had moved on as well. We started packing up the tents which involved a bit of drying as well. We also cleaned Michael’s car; or more accurately I got him the hose and brush. Everyone pitched in unpitching everything and it still took until 1pm by the time we were ready to go. Continue reading →

Easter Saturday was another busy day at Whites Bay – more campers arriving and lots of families out for the day. There were lots of little Life Savers practising on the beach – it’s the home of the Rarangi Surf Lifesaving Club. It’s a bit ironic because it’s also one of the safest beaches on the East Coast of the South Island. We enjoyed hot cross buns for breakfast and then everyone blobbed out in the sun; Laura painting and everyone else reading. After lunch Wyn, Michael, Andrew and I went for a walk up Black Jacks Track to a lookout with views back to Cape Campbell and north to Port Underwood. Continue reading →

Easter Friday dawned a lovely day at Whites Bay. Campers were busy turning up all morning and eventually we were glad to have booked a spot. As well as campers there were a lot of day-trippers out from Blenheim so it was a busy place. The sea was so calm in the morning I decided to have a go skimming stones on it. I headed back for my togs and some of my supply of skimming stones that I carry around for just such an eventuality.  I had to wade out a bit over my knees and the stones skimmed well – showing that it was a lovely calm sea. Continue reading →

Wednesday 31 March was another lovely morning. The racecourse backs on to the golf course which fronts on to Pollard Park – Blenheim’s botanical gardens. We had a lovely walk around the golf course and through the gardens. The flowers were in full flower and everything was a picture. Reluctantly we headed back to Suzi to get on with the day. We intended heading out to Whites Bay that evening, thinking we might need to beat the rush for spots for Easter. We moved Suzi over to near the entrance to the racecourse and headed back to the motels for more work on the accounts – setting up the chart of accounts which was interesting. Continue reading →

We had to head back to Blenheim on Monday (29 March). We had some work to do at the motels helping to set up their accounting system. After our cloudy Sunday it was nice to see a bit of sun again in the morning although it still took a while to warm up. We packed up and headed back over the hill, stopping for a view over Rarangi Beach. The road didn’t seem as bad on the way back although there’s still a few places you wouldn’t want to meet a logging truck. Continue reading →

Sunday. Well it certainly was an uneventful day compared to ‘Shakedown on the Blenheim Bridge’ anyway but hear goes. The day dawned cold at White’s Bay and was quite a shock compared to the warm weather we have been really enjoying up here.   I wasn’t in any hurry to be going anywhere, it was Sunday after all.   I was still suffering with my sinus cold and had also managed to pass it on to Ross so we were both happy to keep warm inside.  I was ploughing my way through a Kathy Kelly book , ‘Lessons in Heartbreak’ that Ross’s sister had given me.  It’s a new author for me and I am enjoying it – and still marvel at the fact that I have time to read books.  I sometimes still feel like I should be doing something. “Yeah right” I hear you say. Continue reading →

Saturday 27 March was an auspicious day – we’ve been on the road for 15 months living in Suzi. It was also a fine and warm day so we decided to go to the beach for the weekend. Blenheim was hosting a bike event called the Graperide where 2,500 cyclists on road bikes race/ride for 105kms from Renwick to Picton to Havelock to Renwick. It seemed like a good idea to be somewhere else. We had been told that Whites Bay was a lovely beach so that seemed like a good place to aim for. And it was Wyn’s name so that seemed auspicious. We arranged to leave the car at the motels – the road in to Whites Bay is a winding one and we had no need for the car anyway. Eventually we headed north out of Blenheim on SH1.

Only just in time we saw the bridge. It’s a bridge over some river I suppose but I’ve never ever managed to look out from the bridge. It’s the bridge from hell. Continue reading →

Friday was a real good catch-up day. Wyn started to replace the lining in one of the drawers – the non-skid stuff that stops things skidding. It’s great for motorhomes except it gets a bit manky after a year or so. This turned into a major spring clean of most of the drawers and several of the cupboards and a complete overhaul of the baking supplies. I thought I’d better do something as well so went in search of the locker hinges I’d taken off to get more ventilation for our overheating solar controller. Continue reading →

Monday 22 March was going to be back-to-Blenheim day but it started out windy and got windier. There were high wind warnings out and we didn’t need to be going anywhere. Plus Wyn was trying to fight off a cold. So neither of us took much convincing that there were worse places to be on a Monday than Marfells Beach in Marlborough. We passed the day catching up with things and keeping an eye on the sea and watching the birds. We noticed that the sea gulls were passing the day huddled in groups on the beach, heads into the wind. Like them we hunkered down for the morning. Continue reading →

We were keen to explore further around the coastline to the east on Sunday. We’d seen some people further around on the Saturday and it looked like low tide was the best time. We knew that Cape Campbell was further around but didn’t know how far or whether we could get right round the shore to get there. There was the possibility of going overland but there were locked gates and he hadn’t been able to get any information. We’d anticipated a walkway but there was nothing. (It turns out that there is a walkway over the hills but it is private.) Continue reading →

Friday 19 March and we’re headed south out of Blenheim. We were aiming for Marfells Beach, on the coast (obvious I suppose) just south of Lake Grassmere. Lake Grassmere is the place where they make salt in the ponds of many colours. As we passed Seddon we had a discussion about how we only just had ¼ of a tank of fuel and perhaps we might be below the diesel heater outflow and mightn’t have any heating if it got cold. Wyn had spotted some sort of EFTPOS fuel place in Seddon so we decided to turn back. Which isn’t that easy when towing a car on an A-frame. Continue reading →