Art Deco Land
Still in Catchup mode this one was late Feb 2016

Napier turned on fabulous weather, our first trip to the Art Deco Weekend.
All in all the era of the 1930's seemed to have allot going for it with the clothing, the style of the period, the cars, the music and mix all that with wholesome family values. One feels good to be alive and this was very much the theme in Napier. Many people dressed the part and were definatly out to have a good time (in period) So nice to see people actually enjoying themselves, parading, showing off and displaying manners and style.
Something we don't see so much in todays world....or am I living in cloud cookoo land?

 This blog will mostly be photos to give feel for the Weekend ...best option is to check it out for yourself next year!

Such a well balanced photo

A gangster in the making!

Anybody favourite Grannie

dancing literally on Main street Napier

MacDonalds is that way...Sir

Wooden Mahogany drawers under the running board..

now that's class....and wot a lovely colour!

Jolly good show Chaps...What Oh!

All the way from Wanaka

so the driver told me!

This 10 year old boy was totally focused on playing...

and BOY could he play

Two sisters one with style...

the other with runners and a bottle

Both sweeties!

My fist car was one of these..

Except mine was a two door

Morris 8

The parade...a Bert Munro look alike.

I'd give you a Farthing for every time

 you've ridden that bike...mate

Strange.... this type of transport was a wartime thing

 I'm told!

I parked 2kls down the road and clowned into town

Those are real Kiwi kids

bare feet!

Napier Art Deco Weekend was a blast...would love to go back again next year and take it a bit more leisurely
Next we head North around the East Cape.

Till then stay safe, have fun and B creative
Jimu & Christine

Edinburgh Tattoo in Windy Wellington.

Feb 17th  Still catching up!

This trip we are heading to the North Island via Bluebridge.

We left the Lane pretty late as I was working on various things getting the bus ready for the Journey away up to Whangapararoa.

 I resprayed the bike rack and fitted it back on the bus, new black foam in the boot, sorted out better storage under the seats for Christines clothes and off we headed with new graphics and a spruce up of little paint chips etc. I fitted two bikes and two unicycles and covered with a foam sheet and a Barbecue cover. We left at 6.50pm, had fish and chips at Haven fish chip shop, where I had to re-adjust the bike covers so the rear lights could be seen. Got into Picton around 9.30 pm and parked up across the road from the Bluebridge terminal. The park up beside the NPD station was not such a good idea as truckers were visiting all night and the very strong lights made it seem like daylight, so I didn't get much sleep. 

Pretty easy sailing across the straight.

In need of a paint job...for a tourist ship, a bit rough!

The Bluebridge ferry left just after 8am getting into Wellington just before noon with a slow exit from the Ferry onto the lunchtime traffic. We called into Te Papa but parking was pretty full and continued onto Evans Bay, a free park up which had plenty of space. (though it did fill up later in the day) The wind sculpture as you can see was fair healed over with Wellingtons famous over abundant wind. We caught the city bus using our Goldcard, getting off in Courtney place walked around to Cuba street shopping and also I went busking. It's always fun busking in Wellington, my favourite place is the Wellington Railway Station, with its fabulous echo chamber, high ceiling, marble floors and walls

Right in the city with the tall buildings the wind even gets stronger and the flag is going straight up!

We happened to be walking past the Westpac Stadium when the Fijiian band was rehearsing,

they sang unaccompanied, it was so moving, however on the night in the stadium,

 with the wind and poor sound projection we heard nothing!

I'd say the average age of the audience, 

who had come from all over NZ

 and even Australia were seasoned goldcard members

At the Cake-tin (the Westpac stadium) 

We got there far too early and had to wait for the 8.30pm start.

Specially erected castle...good effort, but not a patch on the real thing!

I was having difficulty with my new Canon Camera with all the extra bells and whistles settings and options....even reading the book didn't help.  I was unable to get the focus working at zoom length and therefore was unable to take any really good shots, I also had left my glasses in the bus so this was another factor. The focus problem turned out to be a faulty contact with the battery

  The Tattoo ran over time, it was really good I liked the Norwegians, the NZ Army Band and the Swiss Drumming band. Mostly of a very high quality tho there were issues of sound quality and poor lighting occurrences. The very windy conditions saw hats and kilts flying. We caught another bus back through to Kilbirnie and walked home to Evans Bay before bed after 12.20am.

 After breakie we left Evans Bay at 8am taking the #2 highway though Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Featherston, Greytown, Masterton,  Stopping at the Mount Bruce Bird sanctuary highly recommended. Drove through Ekatahuna, Woodville and onto the #50 to Hastings via Ongaonga. The weather as we drove north slowly cleared and became sunny though the wind was pretty strong in most places till we got near Hastings.

The next blog will be about Art Deco land....ie Napier!

Till then, take care, have fun and B Creative.

Jimu

Rata Blossom Festival and Otira Time Warp.

Return to Otira for the Rata Blossom Festival.

Trip 22 5th Feb 2016

After some more improvements to the bus in the way of a new box at the front between driver and navigator for technology with a charging hub and a drivers armrest box. 

I plugged up gaps around windows and passenger door to hopefully seal out the sandflies. Washed the many cobwebs off the bus and loaded one bike, my mountain bike and the 20" unicycle. Left the lane about 12.30 then to the supermarket to stock up, hitting the road getting diesel and coffee at Brightwater. We had lunch at the Waiiti domain, quite a nice large open area up the back away from the traffic noise. (saved for future use)

Through Murchison and Reefton where we had a break to stretch our legs. Christine is using a new GPS app for the android Samsung cell phone (Maps.me) which seems to work quite well.

We arrived at the Otira Hotel at 6.58pm (2 minutes ahead of the apps arrival time) via the back route from Lake Brunner, Moana and onto State Highway 73. I parked up backing behind the large shingle pile near the Hotel and away from the road noise.

An old rusting pile of railway lines.... 

Saturday after a lazy breakie, the festivities were late in starting, also the Rata Blossom were not going to happen this year due to weather conditions and other factors, however the Festival was definitely on! I wandered around down to the Otira Railway station  about 100yards away, which was interesting with some of Lesters odd weird stuff under semi cover.

I'll bet this platform could tell a story or two!

Just what you'd expect to be sitting at the Otira Railway Station

Yeah Right!

Vintage Fiat with Gorilla in a cage...Hmmmm.

More photos down the road past all the unoccupied houses 

and a large building where the Otira Farmers Market used to be.

Pretty cool building tho the Otira Farmers Market no longer happens.

Heaps of interesting Junk about outside...probably more and better inside?

An old carriage turned into a neat batch!
I reckon

We also saw the black powder guys firing old muskets from Reefton

...these guys seemed to be stuck in a time warp.

Lester Rountree the owner/publican/horseman and another time warp individual and full blown character, 

showed some of his collection of artefacts and Arti-facts.....as below?

On come the Clydesdales 

Lester got his two Clydesdales with a tow rope and got the public

 (around 24 people) to try and hold them but to no avail. 

Sunday the Penny Farthing society from Oamaru were up practicing for their races. 

Everything they do, seemed to be in the spirit and period of the Victorian era

This is how you get on a Penny....not how you spend a Penny

The Oamaru boys turned out to be really good value, they even went down to the Raiway station and cycled around for the Trans Alpine  tourist train, which stopped there after they disconnected 3 of the 6 engines which pull the train over, up and down Otira.

The Penny farthing riders really performed with fun and aplomb.

Giving the tourists something to gawk at and photograph

Lester then hitched up the draught horses to the Stagecoach...if you look closely the back wheel tyre on the coach is held on with bailing twine.....meeting health and safety requirements for State Highway 73 joy rides around the block!

Not every day you see a stagecoach leaving the Pub with Can-can girls from the Coast!

We left there around 1.30pm ish heading for home and onward to Greymouth  After some Fish and Chips at Cobden we then took off for Slab Creek Hut south of Reefton getting there around 7.20 pm taking these photos of Kereru feeding and flying.

All in all another successful trip away in our Motorhome.

Still in catchup mode...next one will be Heading North across the Cook Straight, Tattoo and Art Deco bound!

Stay safe and well...above all...have fun!

Jimu & Christine