Waitarere Beach - Tow Bars & Electric Bikes

Ohinemutu - is a living Maori village
(The original Rotorua Settlement) 

As we left the East Coast and headed inland, the rain stayed with us. Quite torrential at times - finally got into the NZMCA camp at Ngongotaha (Rotorua) mid afternoon. Thankfully the camp site is up on a plateau (an old cattle sales yard) as poor Ngongotaha was in a state of civil emergency after its streams flooded areas of the suburb (not that we knew till a couple of hours later).

Lake Rotorua after the storm
(with a lot of weed washed ashore)

Rotorua we had decided was a good destination to get our COF (WOF or MOT to you car/English vehicle owners) - so headed into town the next day, after morning tea (the Inspectors have had their coffee but before lunch) - and almost sailed through! Except for a leaky shock absorber at the rear of the bus! Damn.
As we were due for a service as well and Rotorua was too busy to do it in the next day or two, we booked into Palmerston North on our way through to our next destination of Waitarere Beach.
The weather couldn't have been more different as we departed from Rotorua - beautiful and sunny all the way through to Taupo and southward. We had planned a night in Turangi at the bottom of Lake Taupo. But after talking to some locals near the bottom of the Lake, we found a lovely little spot to camp for the night.
Continuing on down through the Central Plateau the next day, the weather was like a summers day with beautiful scenery of the majestic mountains in the Tongararo National Park.

Central Plateau looking at Mt Ruapehu as we
headed south- nice lunch spot

Waitarere Beach at John & Sarah's Bach once again was to give us a base where Bill could install a third solar panel and get our tow bar sorted.
Our Tow Bar saga: I'll try and keep it brief (you'll be pleased it's me writing this part of the blog and not Bill!) We had our Bus tow bar made and certified in Nelson by Engineer Peter Wastney whose work has now been recalled due to unsafe design practises - effectively cancelling the right for us to use our tow bar which we tow our Suzuki. We now were required to find another Engineer and workshop to build a new one - which we organised while in Palmerston North with it only being 40mins north of Waitarere Beach. 

Cycling along the River Trail in autumn colours

Palmerston North is a great city to stay over night in a motor home with parking right in the city - making it handy for us to drop the Bus off for it's service and shock absorber replacement early the next morning. And give our new Engineer  (David Manley) the opportunity to look at our existing tow bar & come up with a new design and organise with a workshop to build it.

The Riverside trail along side the Manawatu

So we had the day out & about Palmerston. We started off on our bikes riding 26km along the City's lovely river trail. It's a nice flat city, easy cycling. With a large Square at the heart of the town it was easy to find our way around, enjoying a bite to eat in the Square with its many eateries.
Finally we got away at the end of the day after an expensive service & repair bill (I thought he'd made a mistake with an extra digit in the figure!!) And a plan to get the new tow bar made next week.
It was then onto Waitarere Beach to catch up with John &Sarah once again over the weekend before they headed back into the Capital for another full on week of work in their busy lives.
Bill spent the week catching up on bus jobs (lights/usb chargers) and started on adding in an additional solar panel. I caught up on work online and started our EOY paperwork for the accountant. Not that that should take that long with our current lifestyle and income - but it all has to be documented correctly doesn't it!

Installation of the electric kit- Bill's new workshop

But the highlight of the week would be Bill fitting out his bike with an electric kit. It all came together pretty smoothly (a few You Tube clips helped out) and now he is away! But wait! What about me............ With my shorter legs and different style bike - I require a different kit that is cheaper but will take about 3 months to arrive (on a slow boat from China). Watch this space.

Bike complete with battery / display and knobs!

We had a brief stopover by Sam & Pauline (last catch up being Warbirds over Wanaka) as they were finishing 8 weeks travel in the South Island to return home to Hahei up the Coromandel. The neighbours here at Waitarere were probably getting nervous the Circus was coming into town with all these motorhomes arriving!
Vicki was up from Nelson visiting her folks in Palmerston North, so bought them through for a visit. It was lovely catching up with Max & Julie after quite a few years since we last saw them. And Vicki had kindly bought our mail - which these days is pretty boring as we have managed to reduce it with emails - but the likes of the LTSA that recalled our tow bar - still like the slow mail.
Sunday being Mother's Day we went into wellington to stay the night and catch up with Shannon & AC-had a lovely dinner at Tahi in Courtney Place- thank you S&AC. Also nice J&S joined us too.

Removal of satellite dish & existing solar panels

We returned to Waitarere after a visit to Te Papa's renovated $8.4m Art Gallery (Toi Art) with 35% more space to show off the National Art Collection. We can't say we were as excited as we were expecting after Radio NZ's talk to the Curator back in March when it was opened. Art is like that isn't it - what appeals to one doesn't necessarily appeal to all. But it certainly is a great venue for exhibitions as they come through and rotate through the national collection.
Tuesday we took the Bus to O'Leary's Engineering for an 8.00am appointment to start on the tow bar - so we filled in another day in PN -this time with a movie (Rocky & Nick's recommendation - sorry guys a bit of a waste of 3 hrs!) and walks through gardens in the City etc. At the end of the day when we were hoping to pick up our Bus - we were told it wasn't going to be ready till the next day! Did the man forget we live in this Bus! No he didn't, he was happy for us to sleep in his yard - very kind but with half our gear back at J&S's Bach (like all our food), we grabbed clothes and headed back to Waitarere to sleep in the Bach for a change.

Third solar panel nearly installed

Cousin Sandra from Otaki came out for lunch before we headed back into PN to pick up the bus late afternoon and got sign off with the Engineer.
Bill continued the week working on the solar panels / I continued with some admin work and cooking & cleaning for Bill in the lifestyle he has become accustomed now that we have defined the Pink and Blue jobs (actually it's more Bill has the blue jobs - the rest are purple I would say!)
Catching up with old friends Chris & Marie for lunch at the Quarter Acre Cafe was enjoyable, as always, at the end of the week before taking the Bus in for it's recheck with it's new shockies. Now we are all legal once again, so can start to plan our next destination. We have enjoyed our stop over Waitarere (thanks again J&S) and the opportunity it gives us to catch up with Shannon & AC with its close proximity to Wellington. And Wellingtonian friends & family.
My eldest brother is keen to do some cycling around the Taranaki area so are looking at our options to travel up that way. Bill with his electric bike may be a bit hard to keep up with. For now!