Home run

22 November 2011



New porch floor for Nicky...



We've spent the last couple of weeks at 'home' in Wellington; it feels less and less like home each time we return. It's wonderful to catch up with our kids, other family and friends, though.

Craig got to use his beloved nail gun, doing some maintenance work on his daughter's house. She has a great place for us to park the bus outside her house, very quiet and out of the way.

...and gates, complete with beer bottle decorations.

We also went on our version of a shopping spree. This involves a visit to the storage unit to pick up more clothes (and shoes!) for summer. At the same time we got rid of stuff we've been carrying with us but haven't really needed, like the printer that's never been used in 10 months. Plus we loaded up with all the other summer stuff like kayaks, fishing rods and all the paraphernalia that go with them.

So no we're back on the road again, heading for Whitianga for a week or so, before we head north for the summer.

I helped out at the Santa Parade - which really is mostly about the waiting!

Summer can't be far away - this tui was gorging on flax flowers right
outside the bus door.

    



Saving the best for last

29 October 2011

It has taken a week to recover enough energy to post about finals' weekend.

Our camp is now closed, the fences and buildings removed and before long no-one will quite remember we were there.

We had the most amazing time running the Westhaven Campervan Park. Incredible people came through our door every day. Some of them came back time and again and felt like family.

And we were honoured to work with some very cool people; too many to mention but very dear to us nonetheless.

Here are just a few photos from the last weekend. There are so many photos they can't all be posted here, but over the next day or two I will post links to some albums in the sidebar, so keep an eye out for them.

And there is no denying, the All Blacks gave us the perfect finish to the whole wonderful experience.

The cutest fan!

Maori Nesian - the band one of our guards brought in to
entertain the guests who thought of this as home.

Resting up before the final?

So many happy campers.

This week's dress-ups

17 September 2011

Someone couldn't work out how to put his daffodil on!

This is better - and now we can't see his undies.

Simon and friends dressed for the game...

...and their camper dressed for the tour.

Quarter finals

13 October 2011

Each weekend seems to get bigger and busier. Quite a different feeling this weekend, now we've reached the knockout stage.

Many of our guests have been here two or three times now, and many more will be with us for the next two weekends, too. Noticeably fewer of them are existing on a shoestring budget - if they could afford tickets to the quarters, semis and finals, then moeny for the rest of it wasn't much of a worry.

The overall feeling is still party mode, but some are starting to look a bit jaded after weeks of travel, drinking and restaurant eating.

Quote of the week from the Argentinians:
Happy night, sad morning.

Adam from TV One did live weather forecasts from the park
on Saturday, with plenty of help from the Argentinians.

What else would you do with all this space but play rugby?

English Dave and friends enjoying a beer...

...supplied by the friendly folk from The Long Room in Ponsonby.

Pretty sure the guy in pink is in costume, but the Scotsman looked
like that most of the time.

These two were even more cheerful after France vs England game.

These guys, not so much.



And Sunday morning brought us the Whakatane tourism people with
sausages for breakfast for all.

Eggs and all the other people

4 October 2011

On Saturday we were joined by the 2 Eggs Road Trip. This was a couple of guys from Campermate promoting their new app to help campers in NZ find campsites, supermarkets, wi-fi and other services.

Campermate have been touring the country cooking free breakfasts at campgrounds and i-SITEs along the way. One of the 2 Eggs had gone missing the night before, so a camper stepped in to help and soon the delicious smells of bacon and eggs (and Craig's announcements on the loud hailer) were waking our guests from their slumber.  

This weekend was all about the English and the Scottish for us at the Westhaven Campervan Park. The English may have won the rugby, but the Scots took out the weekend for enthusiasm.

That body paint didn't wash off very well the next day.

These two just never stopped smiling.

The queue for the dumpsite on check-out day - we got a fairly good
campervan ballet going at one stage.

If you don't have time to write, put up photos!

29 September 2011

We still haven't worked out where they sleep in this one.

First time we've seen one of these all black campers - but it was
a bunch of Aussie guys.

Van swap - replacement for the one that came in on a
transporter yesterday after the gearbox blew.

French horns!

Contributions from our campers.

Invasion of the Irish

19 September 2011

We had a complete nationality change for this weekend; last week was all about the French, this week we've had Irish and Australians - mainly Irish.

Most of them arrived on Friday and promptly headed for the downtown bars. There were still people getting home at dawn, which gave them a few hours sleep before they were up and ready for the big game.

No doubt where their allegiance lies.

 And then the great upset - Ireland beat Australia. The partying went to a whole new level, although fortunately they partied elsewhere and only came back here when they ran out of steam.

I went for a run early on Sunday and saw one of these lads walking home.
I don't think gorgeous is how I would describe him.

On Sunday we had plenty of the Irish pay for an extra night so they could recover from Saturday. Then they went out and got drunk all over again on Sunday.

In my office on Monday morning. He'd lost his mates and they had
the keys to the camper.

A bit of a breeze

13 September 2011

The last few days of strong winds in Auckland have caused all sorts of chaos - they couldn't even fly the flags on the bridge. Our fences have been getting pushed around, despite us taking some of the banners off.

And then today one long stretch of fence gave up resisting and toppled over. Luckily we have very few vans in, so no campers were affected, but one car in the public parking space was damaged.

Our fencing suppliers were great, so by tonight everything was back in place (with extra bracing in case we have any more Wellington-like winds).

Opening weekend

12 September 2011


Tucked in for the night. Just the way we like them - quiet.



Opening the park on Wednesday gave us the luxury of a couple of warm-up days before the first large group of campers arrived on Friday. Or so we thought. 31 bookings on Thursday quickly swelled to 52 actually checking in; many of them also then decided to book for later dates.

Friday and Saturday nights we were at full capacity of 98 vans, and had to send a lot more to the alternative location at Alexandra Park.

As expected the biggest challenge was the language barrier, with about 70% of our guests this weekend being French. It's hard to keep talking slowly when you have six vans waiting to check in. But most of them do a better job of speaking our language here than we do of speaking their language over there. Favourite phrase of the weekend: We want to stay this day, tomorrow and next tomorrow.

Musketeers waiting for the shuttle.

Everyone is certainly here to have a great time and the atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly. One of our security guards even organised a France vs the Rest of the World touch rugby game.

And now it is Monday, the place is almost empty and we get a few days of reprieve before the next onslaught - Ireland is playing Australia here this weekend, so we'll have a completely different mix of nationalities. And no doubt there will some serious partying to be done. Again.

One of our more unusual visitors - using the boat ramp at Z Pier.

The mobile i-SITE, ready for business.

Installation

4 September 2011

We've had a busy few days, getting the Westhaven Campervan Park ready for action. We're so wrapped up in what we're doing, sometimes it's hard to remember this is really all about the rugby.

The park now has fencing, extra toilet and shower facilities, and office and some signs and hoardings. The office is completely empty and the ablutions aren't hooked up yet, but we've got two whole days to get all that sorted.

Once again we've been impressed by how enthusiastic everyone is and how the whole focus is to get everything working and provide the best experience we can for all our visitors.



650m of temporary fencing. Bet these guys were sore at the end of the day.

Have to keep the public path at Westhaven open.

Some delicate placement of the temporary facilities - and you better not
scratch the flash new toilet block a Z Pier.

Got enough signs there, Craig?

Hope they come and play with us.

Laundry day

22 August 2008

We're relaxing at Shelly Beach, near Helensville, for a week or so, enjoying the beautiful weather which followed the awful storms that hit New Zealand in mid-August.


The Kaipara Harbour at its most tranquil.



A sunny spot to do my chores.



It's a lovely spot to park, low cost but with practically no facilities. That doesn't worry us, so long as there is fresh water and a dump site, which there is.

There are only eleven camping sites here, and most nights we've only seen one or two other vans. The first night there were four young German guys who've been travelling around for the last few months, sleeping in their (two) cars and really feeling the cold.

However, the lack of facilities does mean we have to either take a 15km trip to the nearest laundromat, or do the washing by hand.



Nice of them to supply a fence for our wringer, although it
does clamp onto the bike rack, too.



We carry a barrel and an old-fashioned hand wringer just for this purpose, and it gets us some funny looks from passers-by. But it does a good job - although we've not yet tried doing sheets or towels this way.



Sure, it takes a bit of time, but we've plenty of that these days.

Plenty of clean socks and undies, not to mention my running gear.

Speaking of carparks...

3 August 2011

Looking toward the city from J Pier

A month from now, we are going to transform two large carparks into a temporary campervan park for Rugby World Cup 2011. Piers J and Z at Westhaven Marina (Auckland) will provide sites for 98 vans - and our bus.

The park will open on 7 September and operate until 25 October. We will be on site to manage the park during that time, and for a week or so before and after for the set-up and pack out.

We have over 700m of temporary fencing going in, along with a portacom office and several portacom ablution blocks. The carparks will be repainted to mark the sites and temporary power installed. And then we'll be ready for the inundation of foreign rugby fans in rental vans. The weekends will be very busy - there are 15 games in Auckland - but we should get the chance to catch our breath during the week.

It's going to be busy and a lot of fun.

Just part of the J Pier carpark



Our little blue car, sitting where our bus will spend a couple of months on Z Pier