What a lovely day this has been – and hardly any rain! But to start at the beginning -
We had the child from hell in the room next to us last night. The motel has a central corridor with the rooms leading off it and he was running up and down the corridor for ages. Then when he eventually went (or was taken) back into his room, he jumped up and down on the bed banging against the connecting wall, shouting and running around in there till 11.30pm! We tried banging about in our room to see if they would take the hint and were just about to go and say something when he eventually fell asleep. We thought he must be a little one, but when we saw him this morning, he’s about 7 or 8! This is the first motel where the walls were so thin that you could hear next door so it was s*od’s law that we should have a noisy neighbour. To top it all, one of the parents had a shower at midnight and it sounded as if he/she was in our bathroom!! I actually went to check that the water in our shower wasn’t running! Tom slept through this but gave me a look (!) when I told him what I’d done. Our bed wasn’t the most comfortable either, so I didn’t sleep particularly well. This is one of the problems of being on the move so much – the beds do vary in size and comfort. I’m not usually very good at sleeping in strange beds, but I’m finding few problems as I think I’m so tired at the end of the days that anywhere I can lay my head is OK!
As I said last night, we were planning to visit the Shearing Museum this morning in Masterton, sheep shearing capital of NZ, on the way to Waipukurau (I just love these Maori words) and so we did. Well, you wouldn’t believe how interesting it was – and I’m not being facetious either. We arrived before it was due to open but as we paid, the man in charge let us in. We spent an hour and a half in there, partly talking to the volunteer curator who is a shearer of indeterminate age (we didn’t like to ask how old). He still shears but only his own sheep these days. At this point I can just imagine Amy and Andy shaking their heads and saying ”They’ve finally lost it – NZ must have tipped the balance and they’ve gone doolally!” You have no idea how exciting it was to watch 6 good looking young(ish) men, with bodies most men would die for, wrestling these huge sheep to the ground and shaving off their coats in under a minute. (This was in a film, I hasten to add, in case all you girls suddenly get on a plane and rush out here!!) We learnt the best and quickest way to remove the fleece, but didn’t get the chance to have a go ourselves (!!!), partly because there were no real sheep available, you understand. The museum consists of two original shearing sheds that were transported complete, in quite poor condition, and refurbished.
It’s wonderfully well set up, as we’ve found most of the small museums here are, and the people who run them know what they’re talking about.
When we signed the visitors’ book, Tom noticed that we were the only ones to sign in 2 days so the upkeep of the place is certainly not sustained by the paying public. Before we left, the curator told us about a Pioneer museum that is at Woodville on the way to Napier – that also sounded good.
We stopped off at Woodville for coffee but found that the Pioneer Museum didn’t open till 2.00pm so sadly had to miss it. As we set off from there, the odometer ticked up 5000km since we started our car journey on the 22nd January.
Looking at the map, the ridge that we could see to our right in the far distance included the hill Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which just happens to be the longest place name in NZ. I will try to find out what it means. Llanfair…………gogogoch eat your heart out! I thought you’d appreciate that bit of information.
We reached our motel, Thornton Lodge, at Waipukurau, at 1.30pm and found they have wireless internet so I did the laundry and had a swim while Tom loaded the last two days blogs and put the photos on too. Then we changed into warmer clothing, as it was quite cool, and we drove to Napier and went back in time to the 1930’s. Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and totally rebuilt, so every year they hold an Art Deco Weekend to celebrate. The buildings are retained in all their 1930’s glory,
the residents, and visitors, dress in the costume of the period and cars of the era are proudly driven around looking fabulous.
We had no idea that there were so many cars like that still in existence, never mind in NZ. It was wonderful sitting in a bar being served by costumed staff, listening to the sounds of the ‘30’s and watching all this glamour pass by. (Pity the prices weren’t 1930’s too, but you can’t have everything). There were gangsters and their molls,
flappers (or slappers as Tom called them), 
chaps in boaters, evening dress, tails, and just about every other costume you could imagine. We took loads of photos and film and, after having a very nice dinner, we walked through the town stopping to listen to a jazz band and a brass band, watching people dancing in the streets
and just sauntering around in their frippery.
Tomorrow, we move to a motel closer to Napier (we’re 70km away here), and will be returning to see the final festivities so will get lots more photos and have more tales to tell you. We hope we’ll find wireless internet access too, so we can load all of this on.
Night, night all.
We had the child from hell in the room next to us last night. The motel has a central corridor with the rooms leading off it and he was running up and down the corridor for ages. Then when he eventually went (or was taken) back into his room, he jumped up and down on the bed banging against the connecting wall, shouting and running around in there till 11.30pm! We tried banging about in our room to see if they would take the hint and were just about to go and say something when he eventually fell asleep. We thought he must be a little one, but when we saw him this morning, he’s about 7 or 8! This is the first motel where the walls were so thin that you could hear next door so it was s*od’s law that we should have a noisy neighbour. To top it all, one of the parents had a shower at midnight and it sounded as if he/she was in our bathroom!! I actually went to check that the water in our shower wasn’t running! Tom slept through this but gave me a look (!) when I told him what I’d done. Our bed wasn’t the most comfortable either, so I didn’t sleep particularly well. This is one of the problems of being on the move so much – the beds do vary in size and comfort. I’m not usually very good at sleeping in strange beds, but I’m finding few problems as I think I’m so tired at the end of the days that anywhere I can lay my head is OK!
As I said last night, we were planning to visit the Shearing Museum this morning in Masterton, sheep shearing capital of NZ, on the way to Waipukurau (I just love these Maori words) and so we did. Well, you wouldn’t believe how interesting it was – and I’m not being facetious either. We arrived before it was due to open but as we paid, the man in charge let us in. We spent an hour and a half in there, partly talking to the volunteer curator who is a shearer of indeterminate age (we didn’t like to ask how old). He still shears but only his own sheep these days. At this point I can just imagine Amy and Andy shaking their heads and saying ”They’ve finally lost it – NZ must have tipped the balance and they’ve gone doolally!” You have no idea how exciting it was to watch 6 good looking young(ish) men, with bodies most men would die for, wrestling these huge sheep to the ground and shaving off their coats in under a minute. (This was in a film, I hasten to add, in case all you girls suddenly get on a plane and rush out here!!) We learnt the best and quickest way to remove the fleece, but didn’t get the chance to have a go ourselves (!!!), partly because there were no real sheep available, you understand. The museum consists of two original shearing sheds that were transported complete, in quite poor condition, and refurbished.
It’s wonderfully well set up, as we’ve found most of the small museums here are, and the people who run them know what they’re talking about. When we signed the visitors’ book, Tom noticed that we were the only ones to sign in 2 days so the upkeep of the place is certainly not sustained by the paying public. Before we left, the curator told us about a Pioneer museum that is at Woodville on the way to Napier – that also sounded good.We stopped off at Woodville for coffee but found that the Pioneer Museum didn’t open till 2.00pm so sadly had to miss it. As we set off from there, the odometer ticked up 5000km since we started our car journey on the 22nd January.
Looking at the map, the ridge that we could see to our right in the far distance included the hill Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which just happens to be the longest place name in NZ. I will try to find out what it means. Llanfair…………gogogoch eat your heart out! I thought you’d appreciate that bit of information.
We reached our motel, Thornton Lodge, at Waipukurau, at 1.30pm and found they have wireless internet so I did the laundry and had a swim while Tom loaded the last two days blogs and put the photos on too. Then we changed into warmer clothing, as it was quite cool, and we drove to Napier and went back in time to the 1930’s. Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and totally rebuilt, so every year they hold an Art Deco Weekend to celebrate. The buildings are retained in all their 1930’s glory,
the residents, and visitors, dress in the costume of the period and cars of the era are proudly driven around looking fabulous. We had no idea that there were so many cars like that still in existence, never mind in NZ. It was wonderful sitting in a bar being served by costumed staff, listening to the sounds of the ‘30’s and watching all this glamour pass by. (Pity the prices weren’t 1930’s too, but you can’t have everything). There were gangsters and their molls, flappers (or slappers as Tom called them), chaps in boaters, evening dress, tails, and just about every other costume you could imagine. We took loads of photos and film and, after having a very nice dinner, we walked through the town stopping to listen to a jazz band and a brass band, watching people dancing in the streets and just sauntering around in their frippery.Tomorrow, we move to a motel closer to Napier (we’re 70km away here), and will be returning to see the final festivities so will get lots more photos and have more tales to tell you. We hope we’ll find wireless internet access too, so we can load all of this on.
Night, night all.
1 comment:
We missed the Art Deco weekend by one day last year, but we loved Napier. Don't know how you're managing to pack so much into your days. Sydney awaits!
Post a Comment