Back on the Road

Hello again all and welcome to the new blog site. If you haven’t registered to my site then you will be none the wiser.

After an enforced hiatus I am finally getting back on the road on Monday morning. I have admitted defeat and  given up on heading north as after several attempts I only got to Muriwai which is about 40kms northwest of Auckland. Im am convinced that there are powers at work far greater than me which just didn’t want me to get to the top of the North Island. So Monday will probably be a gentle trip to Rotorua and will park up there for a couple of days and figure out a new plan. It will probably be down towards Taupo then across to Napier and then slowly head South towards Wellington aiming to catch the ferry across to South Island at the end of October or early November.

I had a simply wonderful trip to the UK for 3 weeks in August. It was truly lovely to catch up with all the people I did and big thanks go out to Grazz and Amy for looking after me and for the adorable Eliza for entertaining me. I managed to bring their hot summer to an end during my time there, and get the temperatures more down to their liking.

Lots of changes going on around the old stomping ground, mainly houses going up on what appears to be every spare bit of land, it seems the powers that be are determined to link up Southampton and Portsmouth into one big super city. As for the traffic that was something I had completely forgotten about, just about every junction you came to you had to queue before proceeding.  Im used to rush hour being an extra tractor or a herd of cattle roaming the roads.  I was thinking Heathrow to Locks Heath would be about an hour, maybe an extra 30mins due to the time I landed, but boy nearly two and half hours later. some of the extra time was down to me driving a manual car for the first time in six years and kept forgetting to press the clutch when coming to a stop in the traffic, anyway those problems were overcome and I soon got the hang of it yet again. It was good to catch up with some of the old work colleagues from the Police, and Benners I would like to say your driving has improved, I would like to say it but to be honest I would have felt safer with a crash helmet and a padded suit.  But I did notice you found that funny lever which made those left and right lights flash. Shelley it was great to catch up with you and thanks to you and Phil for putting me up and feeding me so well.  Wendy and Kate it was a good day sat gossiping and having my favourite meal sat out in the lovely sunshine a perfect weekend was had.  Finally to Stu, Vicky and Alistair just thank you, you know why and it was greatly appreciated.

Anyway as previously mentioned Im back on the road finally, did a very short hop on Monday from Whakatane to Rotorua, boy to say Im sick of that route would be an understatement, but fingers crossed it will be a long while before I do it again. I stayed in Rotorua  for three nights and it was good to get back into the swing of things again, the weather was more than decent and nearly broke out the shorts. Didn’t do a great deal whilst I was there and as you have been made aware it not the first time I have stopped there.  This morning I departed from Rotorua and made my way down to Taupo, yet again parked up at the Equestrian Centre, its very peaceful here just me and one other motorhome making use of the facilities.  I will be moving on Sunday morning heading to Napier, and from there will decide my zigzag route down towards Wellington and the ferry

Not a lot to update you all on but I just wanted to get this blog up and running and hopefully once I get to pastures new I will have some things to tell you about