Innholdsfortegnelse for No 63 i RV Travel Lifestyle

GRUMPY OLD WOMEN – GAME OF CRONES When: March 13 Where: Civic Theatre, Invercargill W: skip.co.nz The show has plenty of laughs, poorly supported breasts and unreliable statistics, so for a night of unbridled fun bring your swords and handbags and learn from the Sorceresses themselves, how to survive the modern kingdom of Aoteoroa. CAROLINE BAY ROCK & HOP When: March 17-19 Where: Caroline Bay Park, Virtue Avenue, Timaru W: carolinebayrockandhop.co.nz 2017 will be the inaugural Caroline Bay Rock and Hop, featuring classic, custom and vintage cars, bikes and caravans from across New Zealand in a weekend of nostalgia, fun and festivities. WOMAD When: March 17-19 Where: TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth W: womad.co.nz New Zealand’s world festival celebrating music, art and dance, featuring six stages delivering 30 hours…

Tucked away in a quiet area of sunny Nelson is the home of RV Leisure Centre, owned and operated by Mike Irvine and Barry Avery. These guys have been in business since 1978 and have a long history with RV owners New Zealand wide. The business has been a distributor for the Tourism Holdings Ltd Group products as well as other caravan manufacturers’ products over the years. From 2011 they became the sole official distributor of the quality UK-built Elddis and Buccaneer caravan range, and we’ve seen Mike and Barry at motorhome shows in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch with these quality caravans since then. We arrived in Nelson for the NZMCA AGM rally early so we could catch up with the guys and their latest arrival just off the boat…

A new German-made Dethleffs Nomad caravan will be on display at the 2017 Covi Super Show that has a story of Kiwi ingenuity behind it. Prior to the last year’s Covi Show, the team at Central RV in Taupo customised a Dethleffs twin-single bed caravan into an east-west island bed layout – a floor-plan particularly popular in the New Zealand RV market. Dethleffs’ export manager visiting from Germany inspected the altered caravan and was instantly impressed, and sent photos back to the company’s design team. The endorsement of the export manager, combined with an assurance from Brent Thurlow, owner of Central RV, that the layout would be well received in New Zealand, convinced Dethleffs to agree to work towards putting it into production. Subsequently, Brent Thurlow, owner of Central RV,…

This was the first part of New Zealand to be discovered by both M?ori and European explorers with Waka arriving from Hawaiiki about 1,000 years ago and followed by Captain Cook almost 250 years ago. Eastland is also the first place in the world to see the new day’s light, and vid back coastal town famous for its golden sand beaches. The Eastland section of the Pacific Coast Highway, State Highway 35, is one of New Zealand’s most scenic drives. The views are simply stunning and the laidback “Coastie” way of life a delight, with many locals still using horses for day to day travel. There is something special about the isolation, the sometimes stark beauty and the interesting characters you meet along the way. Opotiki is the northern gateway…

Drive down SH39 from Ngāruawāhia to Otorohanga and you’ll pass a prominent sign pointing to a small, relatively unknown coastal settlement called Kāwhia. I've passed the sign many times thinking that Kāwhia must be very quiet and isolated, unlike the Big Kahuna, Raglan. Today I’m breaking the pattern and making the right turn onto SH31 full of expectation and enjoying expansive views over the roughhewn King Country landscape. The sealed road climbs over ridges and descends through native bush to lush green pastures that remain verdant even at the height of summer. I’m surprised when I catch my first glimpse of the sparkling waters of Kāwhia Harbour. It’s a huge expanse and looks stunning at full tide. Oparau Roadhouse appears without warning in what I thought was the middle of…

Ok aihau is the small Northland town where the old Northland rail corridor officially ends, a place that was made famous by Peter Cape’s 1950s ballad, The Okaihau Express. It's also one of the terminals of the Far North’s new coast-to-coast cycle trail, covering a 14km section of the trail between there and Kaikohe to the south, the first section of the four stages of the trail to be completed and opened. It’s also the start of the final westbound section of the trail, tracking for 24kms along a ridge high on the hills, before dropping steeply down to the picturesque Utakura Valley and finishing at Horeke on the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour. It’s the most demanding section of the trail, and is classified as Grade 3. The…

Here we are in March and hot cross buns are already on sale around the country. In more traditional times in my childhood, they came on sale a week or so before Easter weekend, as did Easter eggs. But now we can buy these treats a few months either side of Easter, so they’ve become a little less special. Easter weekend is the last of the long weekends before we head into winter. Even though I was brought up a Catholic girl, I confess the reasons why the date for the Easter break changes every year has always confused me. So I asked our friend Google how the dates are set, which turned out to be more of a brain twister than I was looking for, but I’ve reached a…

It seems like so long ago since I wrote the last Chronicles – it was only December, but honestly the time is flying by so fast, I’m scared I’ll blink and it’ll be the end of March heading into April, and then winter will be here before you know it. By the way, the summer weather has been non-existent until the last week or so. It has been so awful I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a snow dump or frost in late March this year, and that’ll get the vineyards around us scurrying around to protect their fruit. We started off our New Year by spending hours getting the RnR (our motorhome) emptied, cleaned and tweaked to within an inch of its life. We rented it out again,…

The team at RnRV in Silverdale has been waiting for months for this most exciting arrival, a bit like waiting for a baby to arrive really. We saw RnRV owner Paul Cook at motorhome shows last year with big posters and information about the new Carthago brand motorhomes that he secured distributor rights for, but we’ve all had to wait with baited-breath for the first models to arrive from Germany. THE MANUFACTURER The Carthago company is interesting as it’s a family-owned and operated business, not one of the multiple brands produced under the huge Trigano Group, or one of the other big dominating players in the market. It was founded in 1979 by Karl-Heinz Schuler to produce tailor-made conversions to customer specifications on any vehicle base. Over the years Mr…

Nelson is only about 90-minutes’ drive from Blenheim, so it was no surprise to see Marlboroughbased DeLuxe Group displaying the products they distribute here in New Zealand – from the latest Dethleffs and Bailey caravans, to the classy Australian Winnebago and French Pilote motorhomes – at the NZMCA National Rally and AGM in the Nelson suburb of Richmond last month. I noticed straightaway that there was a new model in the Pilote range, the first of the 2017 A-class motorhomes – the Pilote Galaxy 740C – and what a beauty it is, so cool that it was no surprise that it had sold by the end of the weekend, and a second order was on the books by Sunday. It looks like a large vehicle, but being on a WOF…

The best way to experience the wonderfully fresh quality of the East Cape region is to travel by campervan. Walk the beaches and forest trails, talk to the people and see the sights, then you’ll understand what a special place this is. The day’s first rays of sunlight reach Earth and penetrate the window of my camper under a leafy glade in the secluded Te Araroa Holiday Park. It’s a soft light at first, not yet infused with warmth, but somehow the light is different here on the East Cape. Not because it’s more intense or because this is the first place in the world to see the sun. There’s a soulful and mystical quality to these eastern lands that quickens the senses and gives a clearer perspective of culture,…

On January 29, 27 vehicles rolled into the New Plymouth Golf club for the start of the 2017 Lower North Golf Safari. The vehicles ranged in size from medium to large motor homes – some towing trailers with golf carts and one towing a car – plus four caravans. It was quite an impressive sight. About half of the 49 attendees had met on previous golf safaris, and all the newcomers were welcomed into ‘the family’. Thirty-seven of the group were competition golfers, and we all had everything crossed for good weather over the following two weeks. The safari route went from New Plymouth via several southern North Island centres to Petone. Monday morning, and the first game was greeted with drizzly rain, but not bad enough to make the…

SUE’S SIMPLE BREAD LOAF 3 cups of flour (I used organic white flour) ½ teaspoon yeast (yeast granules) 1½ teaspoons salt 1½ cups warm water, maybe a little more, as it needs to be wet dough. Method Put everything in a bowl, mix together, cover, leave overnight. In the morning turn out onto a floured surface, pull together and divide into two portions, and place in well-greased tins. Leave for two hours to rise, then bake in 220C oven for 30 minutes. TIPS WITH YEAST AND BREAD BAKING From Cookery the Australian Way 1. Utensils and ingredients should be lukewarm. 2. A little sugar added to the yeast and liquid will increase the rate of activity. But salt and too much sugar will stop the rate of activity, most of…

Talking with so many people at a motorhome show is great, and there’s always a lot of friendly debate over motorhome versus caravan preferences. As I tell readers, it really is horses for courses, and the answer is a matter individual choice that relates more to who you are as a person, how you holiday, how you intend to use a vehicle and how often. When talking caravans though, another consideration is the tow vehicle required – do you have one already and you want to get a caravan that is weight-relative to that vehicle, or are you happy to purchase a new vehicle to match the perfect caravan, that may be longer and heavier than your current car will handle? I spotted a couple of absolute little pearlers in…

TrailLite has launched a new series of motorhomes that will be unveiled to the public at the Covi Motorhome, Caravan and Outdoor SuperShow in Auckland this month. This includes new models of its popular New Zealand-designed and built motorhomes, as well as new floor plans, and new and upgraded features. Shaun Newman, TrailLite’s general manager says the new models and floorplans are a result of the company’s drive for continual improvement in its products, and months of planning and consultation with existing customers. Upgrades include features such as a facilities management locker to house all waste management accessories freeing up other locker space for more personal items, a central facilities master switching touchscreen display unit, redesigned kitchens and bathrooms, and upgrades to interior furnishings, upholstery and colour schemes. Shaun believes…

Franz Josef Glacier to Queenstown Airport On our way down the West Coast, we stopped off at Franz Josef Glacier Guides’ base in Franz Josef in the hope the weather would allow us to fly up onto the glacier by chopper. The impressive complex was alive with heartylooking guides in red shirts and shorts with climbing ropes, pitons and two-way radios hanging off them. The mist cleared by midday so after we were briefed and fully kitted up with boots, socks, mittens, jackets, waterproof over-pants, beanies, a bag for personal belongings and the all-important crampons – a serious set of spikes that allow you to walk safely on the ice – we took a thrilling helicopter flight and landed high up on the glacier. We spent an unforgettable afternoon on…

My husband used to enjoy a TV programme on old trucks that were once the workhorses of New Zealand. He watched the series, bought the DVDs and always hoped to meet some of these trucking legends and their mean machines. So when he got the chance to see Barry Caulfield’s truck collection at Awakere near Whakatane recently, he was over the moon. Barry’s collection is housed in a shed where at present – and without advertising – he gets about 300 visitors each year, mainly groups from truck clubs, classic clubs and vintage car clubs who travel to the area. Being a contractor, he’s sometimes too busy to be able to show them around so he’s hoping to open a museum sometime soon. Barry also hosts an ‘old truck drivers’…

Designed to be strong and wind resistant, the Shademaker™ Awning is ideal for Motorhomes, Campervans, buses and Caravans. It has no poles, giving you full head clearance. There is also the option of a full enclosure giving you an extra room with windows and door. Made of Aluminium and Stainless Steel components with a beautiful powder-coated finish, the Shademaker™ Motorhome and Campervan Awning is well recognised in the Motorhome and Caravan industry. Manufactured and installed by us right here in Tauranga, New Zealand. We have been in the NZ Motorhome and Campervan industry for 14+ years and pride ourselves on our quality workmanship. SHADEMAKER™ The Shademaker™ Campervan and Motorhome Awning is well recognised in the Motorhome industry in NZ. Continually improved and enhanced over a 10 year period, the Shademaker…

Hi there - woof-woof! Da Mama told me I have to get my column written before we get home, so I’m in the car on the big ship da Mama calls “the ferry” trying to remember what I’ve been doing. I wish we were in the motorhome – that’s really comfy for me when we go in this big ship over the water, but this time they’ve left me in the car. It’s okay though – I have my couch and some water, and I‘ve been in the ship lots of times now so I’m not really worried. It’s really dark and noisy though. I’ve done lots of stuff in the last couple of months. Papa went away for a long time with my big sister Shannon, and Mama left…