Tag Archives: Tramping

Extravanganza, front

Wellington

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It’s hard to believe that Mum and Dad actually had a life before I came along, but they did, a whole 32 years of adventure! Evidence of this arrived in the form of their old friend Anna from England. She came to their wedding and joined them on their month long honeymoon around the south island 18 years ago. Anna arrived right in the middle of our circus training. After we had finished it was hugs all round. She has come to travel with us as long as it suits her.

Waitangi park is a a great place to be set up for the Extravaganza, right next to Te papa, the supermarket and Circa Theater, where we went to see “Puss in boots” the pantomime after set up. I’d never seen a pantomime before but I loved it. It was hilarious  and amazing  at the same time!

Usually the Wellington weather is a bit of a gamble , this time we got lucky. My Auntie Robbie (Mums sister) and my cousins Jaan and Delishia joined us on Saturday. Sweet Delishia loves helping in our shop!

Bike Rave? What’s a Bike rave?  Evidently it’s a thing! Dad and I were tired on Saturday night but he managed to talk us both into dressing up and joining 12 other Gypsies on our bikes. We rode down-town to Bicycle junction( a shop that organised the Bike rave) to meet up with more than 120 other ravers, all on funked up bikes! These included a tricycle sound system pumping out awesome music, bikes lit up with fairy lights, tall bikes, short bikes, long bikes, rickshaws and much more. We dominated the streets of Wellington, stopping at the rainbow pedestrian crossing on Cuba street and holding up the traffic for blocks. No one seemed to mind. We partied there for 10 minutes then moved on to rave at another intersection. We toured the streets and back alleys of Wellington while pedestrians shouted encouragement, waved, clapped and took photos.

So that was a Bike Rave! Next year we will definitely be back with more decorated and funked up bikes. It was the highlight of the weekend! Here is a pro video which does justice to the occasion.

After hauling ass over the Rimataka’s  we stopped at Featherstons lovely Book cafe, which we had discovered last year. I walked out with a supermarket bag full of scrumptious books and a warm cozy feeling.

We decided to have a couple of days peace and quiet at a new destination; Mt Holdsworth D.O.C camp, close to Masterton. Our bubbly friend Anna joined us there. Tues after school work we walked up to view point, then came home and watched a movie and went to bed. We had some crazy weather at Mt Holdsworth, hail, thunder, heavy rain, burning sunshine, sometimes all at once!

Wednesday we decided to start socializing again so we sped into town truck n’all to pick up a yummy fudgey slice then made our way through the suburbs to Nana and Pa’s lovely house. We had lunch then Nana and I made Belgium biscuits. I’ve made them before but not by my Great grandmothers recipe. They tasted amazing! Thanks Nana! Afterwards Nana and Pa dropped me off at my Auntie Carolyns and Uncle Des’s house which had recently been completed. All of my relatives  in Masterton are on my Dads side, so we usually have an early mini Christmas and this year was no different.

Thursday morning Auntie Carolys and I went op-shopping at Savemart. I love op-shopping and this time I got a particularly  good score, including a funky costume for Cupa-dupa (if you keep following my blog you will know what Cupa-dupa is sooner or later).

I’d been wanting to bake a cherry pie for a while now, so Christmas dinner was the perfect opportunity. Nana and Pa arrived and after a quick(not so quick) fashion show of my op-shop bought clothes, we had a delicious Christmas dinner, finishing off with my perfect cherry pie. Then it was present time. Mum and Dad are saving their presents to us for actual Christmas but I got a cute notebook and an amazing Anabell Langbein cook book.

Thanks Nana, Pa, Carolyn and Des! So that was our first mini Christmas of the year. Usually we have a few since our family is spread out in the North Island.

Well that was a lovely little week with the family. And an amazing cherry pie!

Tomorrow set up, this weekend Masterton. Bye!

 

 

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Wanaka the West coast and the Copeland track.

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“3, 2, 1, Go!” I race frantically up the wall like a spider(I hate spiders!) gripping the handholds with white knuckles. I smash the top button only moments before Lettie hits her button on the other side of me. Leaping off the wall and abseiling down is my favorite part!

My amazing Godmother Sunny Sky and her daughter Indigo took my brothers, Tiwai, Lettie and I to the Wanaka clip and climb on Friday. It was so much fun! After that we retired to the hot pools at the hotel Sunny was staying at. The rest of the day was spent eating chocolate cake and watching a movie. My ideal day!

An average weekend, very social and busy, with my good friend Mia and her Mum staying in a tent behind our truck. Fish n chips on the beach. By Sunday afternoon I was peopled out and couldn’t bear talking to anyone any more! The rest of the afternoon was spent in hibernation.

Sea spray, rugged rocky coastline, deep green forest, winding twisty roads. The stunning scenic west coast. At one part we sped over some bumps and almost left the ground. We stopped to check for damage, luckily only one cup smashed.

We drove on to the Copeland valley.  One of the Gypsies friends brothers has a farm which he kindly let us park on in order to be in close proximity to the Copeland track entrance. There would be too many house trucks to fit in the car park.

The Copeland track is a 7 hour walk up the Copeland valley to some amazing natural hot pools. We packed our backpacks (and yes I did carry one) and went to bed early, ready for the long walk tomorrow.

All the Gypsies that are going on the walk arrived last night. There was 13 of us in total. As usual we dressed up extravagantly! Tutus, headdresses, elf ears, parasols and more tutus. Did I mention tutus? We started walking around 10am Tutus and all!

Dressed for tramping!
My happy place!

At the pace we were walking we got there in less than 6 hours, giving us more than enough time to soak in the amazing natural hot pools, have dinner and soak some more(under the stars and moon until 11 pm)!

Gypsy bath time!

Ok, I’m going to press pause for a minute and explain the scenery. It was the most beautiful walk I have ever been on and that’s saying something! Imagine every shade of green you know in one immense rolling rain forest. Did you know that green is the most peaceful colour on the human eyes, and it’s my favorite. As you look higher up, forest gives way to sheer cliff faces and the rugged beauty of the mountain tops iced with snow. What a stunning cake it would be!

There’s some cool swing bridges, this one crosses Shiels creek.

O.K back to the hot pools. After a fulfilling sleep we jumped back into the hot pools. The only problem in this beautiful place is the sand fly’s, the one handicap that’s stopped fancy apartments, hotels and houses being built all along the west coast.

We managed to walk out in 5 hours. Bye bye hot pools. We got back to the truck and drove to Franz Josef to park at our friends house and have dinner with them and their kids, Scarlet and Tom. It’s great to catch up and play with them every year.

The next morning we played some more then sped off to Greymouth, stopping in Hokitika for some much needed school work, but ended up staying until dinner time and past because Mum and Dad had a massive blow out. We finally left at 8 pm and arrived in Greymouth at 9 o’clock at night! They said sorry and that was it. Everything was back to normal again.

“Whew!’ what an exhausting, fun and exciting week! Tomorrow  setup, this weekend Greymouth. Bye!

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Ashburton

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Oh no! Here they come! Nerf guns in hand, four little boys chase me around the house. What is wrong with me? I have been reduced to playing with little boys! Four of them!!!!! On Friday night we visited Dan and Nicole’s house for dinner. They are Mum and Dads friends from when they had a life before kids. They have two little boys my brothers age, they all get along very well. Unfortunately for me, it was pure torture!

We had a great weekend, sunny on Saturday and a bit cloudy on Sunday. Everything went smoothly. We watched the B.F.G on Saturday night, projected onto the stage outdoors, it was awesome!

Monday morning and yet again we forgot about Monday grumpy’s. But you can’t be grumpy for long when you go shopping for toys! It was another shopping Monday though this one was a lot more enjoyable. We went to the Warehouse for toys, Warehouse stationary for school equipment and Farmers for three new scooters! Best of all was the Book Barn in Chertsey. An entire barn full of books! Row upon row tempting me, teasing me! So when I came out I was laden with books of every kind. It was book heaven! After that we moved on to a park over property with two strangely friendly sheep. They even tried to get into our truck.

Funny, it smells like a dog, but…?

We stayed a night there then sped to Peel forest campground to school, play and relax. I even got to bake my first ever carrot cake. It was (as usual) delicious! The next morning was spent preparing for our walk. The plan was to climb “Little” Mt Peel / Huatekerekere(1311m). At one o’clock we started walking , our dogs being baby-sat by a gypsy (thanks Yani). From the car-park we looked up and saw the most massive mountain. That could not possibly be our destination!…But it was (Dad knew it, but he kept it to himself). After an agonizing FOUR hours we made it to the top! It was definitely worth it!

Home sweet home!

The view was so incredible, I can’t find the words to describe it.

Looking out over the world makes your soul soar and your mind clear. Usually I would fly up a track like that, but I was just recovering from a nasty cough and we hadn’t done many missions over winter, so it was a bit more challenging for me than it might have been. I was really proud of my brothers, they flew up the track making it look easy.

I’m at the top of the world!

After a beautiful sunset, darkness fell and with it came the lights of every town from Christchurch to Timaru. You would expect dark patches between the bright lights of the towns, in their place was the flashing strobe lights of hundreds of irrigation machines working until dawn, A man made wonder.  The shelter was in the perfect position to get the best out of the sunrise. Light flooded over the land, one by one extinguishing the lights of the night.

The walk down was a breeze. Literally! A hint of summer haunted the cool spring air. Summer is coming! Back at the truck we unpacked and drove to the new grounds in Timaru. Getting there on Thursday night made for an easy setup on Friday.

Bye!

 

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Winter in Motueka

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Winter is a welcome holiday for us Extrava-gangsters. We fill it with buying stock, preparing our shop, maintaining our truck and for our family, making our new shows and practicing them. Not to mention going to school. Well sort of a holiday! The boys had their first day at school and it turned out… they loved it! Mean while I was loving being back at Rudolf Steiner my old school. It was great to see all my friends again, they welcomed me back with open arms and hearts. I had a lovely time.

                                           My classmates and I at a Hockey tournament

To begin with we stayed at kina beach. We said goodbye to last seasons shows with a ceremony involving throwing our end of season bouquets flower by flower in to the ocean.

After a couple of weeks we moved to Marchwood park (motor caravan camp ground).

Soon my birthday appeared on the agenda, so we planned a pretty primo party. It involved most of my class taking the ferry from Mapua to Rabbit island with our bikes. We then cycled along the trail to meet up with Mim (our truck) where Mum had set up a party. We ate, played and partied for the afternoon finishing by cycling back to the ferry.

                                                          Playing Port / Starboard

A month later Mum’s birthday came around. We decided to do something special with her. We packed up the car and headed to Golden bay to walk into Wharawharangi hut for a night. Mum and day had their usual mid winter swim in their birthday suits! We lit a fire on the beach (below the high tide line), toasted marshmallows and had a wonderful time. Happy birthday Mum!

A few weeks later we were back in Golden bay for the school holidays, this time with our truck. Daisy beach and Wharawhariki beach were the highlights of our trip.

                                             Cooking sausages over the beach fire

 

Over the five months in Motueka I enjoyed weekly Dance and Drama classes.

A lot of thought and practice went into our new magic show. Dad and I took Latin dance classes. Poor Daddy!

We also practiced our family circus show about three times a week which was not always easy outdoors in winter.

In September as a late combined birthday present Mum and I flew to Auckland to see in spark arena………… P!nk!!!!!! It was the most inspirational, sensational, performance I have ever seen! She is such a strong amazing woman.

With the end of winter came my school play and my Drama class play. Both high on my list of priorities as when I grow up I would like to become an actor. The school play was a stunning success (surprisingly as we wrote it ourselves). It had me staring as Julia the love struck roman princess. The title was Ludus Roma (roman play). Thank you to all my classmates and our devoted teacher Margot.

In my Drama class play we all got to create our own characters. My character was the sassy Clarissa De Vain, a detective.

                   Clarisa De Vain

The play turned out to be fabulous. The last performance was the night before set up in Christchurch, a tight squeeze. After the play at 9pm we drove the two hours to Murchison, stayed in a cabin then continued with the four hour drive to Christchurch for setup.

Whew what a busy winter! Now back to the Extravaganza. Bye!

,

 

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Papamoa

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The week started out like any other, shows , fun , hot, Busy etc… We had no idea of the disaster about to strike.

This year Riley’s (RJ) birthday theme was superheroes! Everyone dressed up (except Riley, he doesn’t like dressing up) and watched the new Wonder woman movie. It was super! (ha,ha!)

On Monday we checked into Opal hot springs. That day we all walked up to the top of Wairere falls. See last years blog for info and views of this waterfall, North islands highest. I was very proud of my brothers because last time they only walked half way to the top. Well done boys! Dad and I stayed the night up there under the stars.

I love tramping, it always makes me feel peaceful. We walked back down to the car park the next morning. Mum and the boys picked us up and took us to the hot pools.

Here’s just a couple of the insects I found in the pool.

I had been looking forwards to soaking in the hot pools and was enraged when I found out that the pools had not been cleaned and was filled from side to side with all manner of insects. From Wasps to Crickets to Beetles. I stormed up to the office and asked the lady at the desk for someone to clean the pool. She said “Sorry honey but there’s no one available.”  “Well do you at least have a net so I can clean it myself?” I fumed “No sweet-pea we have nothing.” Sweet-pea yourself I thought as I stormed back to the pools, and there sitting in the corner was a net on a long pole! I picked it up and started cleaning the pool. Soon my arms got tired and there was still millions of insects in the pool. I ran back home crying, to lie in bed and read my book.

The next morning we got up excitedly to go have a hot soak before breakfast. When we got there the pools were empty, and being cleaned! More fuming and cursing the lady at the desk.

We headed for New Plymouth and just as we were nearing Otrahonga a hideous hissing sound and lots of steam erupted in the cab of the truck! I tiny air hose had burst! Dad fixed it and an hour later we were on our way again.

It was pouring with rain and we were just about to hit the west coast when Mum got a phone call from her sister Ellie saying that her Dad Rod had died of a heart attack on his farm. She was very sad and cried a lot, we all did. It was such a shock! We turned around and set out for Taupo arriving at dinner time. We spent a stormy night in Taupo only to wake up and find the road to Napier was closed with flooding. It opened at 3pm. We then sped to Roz’s (Rods partner) house in Hastings.

Mum, Dad the Boys and I went to see Granddad in his room, he looked so peaceful and comfortable in his silken coffin. I miss him.

On Friday all the cousins played while the adults prepared for the funeral.

A very eventful and sad week. Bye.