Sleepin Around New Zealand: First Trip and More!

[pchast]

Love the quilts.

[Sheddie]

Ford Capri Car Club Summer Camp February 2016.
For the afternoonwe were off on a drive around Mt Egmont. This was a competitive trip with a quiz and games along the way.
Someone had found out that there was a car show on at the Inglewood school, so our first stop was there for a quick look around and to add a line up of Capris for them to look at.

Datsun 120Y Coupe. Dales grandmother had one of these many years ago.

Wolseley 1500. My mother had one of these when I was at school. I sat my driving license in it.

For a little place there were lots of vehicles and a great variety, from this old Cadillac there were fins and wings,

originals and imposters, like the one below. It may look like a Ferrari, but it is actually a Datsun 240Z.

From Inglewood they lead us on a drive up Mt Egmont as far as the road would take us.

On the way back down we stopped in a car park for one of the games, throwing pennies in paint tins.

Some of the throws were not very accurate so a bit of time was spent retrieving them from under cars.

This also gave a bit of time for some of the cars to cool down as the combination of a hot day in the
middle of summer, a mountain and some not so young cars was causing a bit of steem,
and I don't mean the mountain although it is an active volcano.
Fortunately I had spent a bit of time before the trip fitting an extra cooler to the engine in our Capri
to keep it a bit cooler when towing the TD.
From there our drive took us out through the Taranaki farm land winding over the hills and through
the valleys to our next stop at Lake Ratapiko.


Here we had to throw rubber chickens and pigs in to buckets. The further the buckets were away,
the more points.

Next stop after this was Stratford.

[KCStudly]

Looks like fun!

[pchast]

Nice trip. Thanks again for the pictures.

[Sheddie]

Looks like fun!

Hi KC, they sure are a fun bunch of people. There are young ones that have grown up with the club through to our oldest member at about 94 and he is still driving a Capri. The membership is spread from one end of the country to the other and although for a lot of us we only catch up once or twice a year, it's like a family gathering and everyone gets on so well together.

Nice trip. Thanks again for the pictures.

Thanks Pete, nice to see you still tagging along. Sorry that it is taking me so long to catch up

[Sheddie]

Ford Capri Car Club Summer Camp February 2016.
At Stratford we re-grouped at King Edward Park for a game of lawn darts. (Sorry no photos, you will have to Google that one).
After that we went for a walk through the park, before heading back to the camp.






It is quite a surprise after going through the bush area in the park, that when you look at the area on a map, how small it is and that it is in the middle of town.

[pchast]

Nice park. Clean well maintained trails!

[Sheddie]

Ford Capri Car Club Summer Camp February 2016.
Monday morning it was time for everyone to leave the camp and head our separate ways. For us, we headed in to
New Plymouth to have a look around, before continuing north to Hamilton for an overnight stop.


On our way in to New Plymouth we tried to get a photo of Mt Egmont, but it is one of those mountains that
always seems to have a cloud around it and makes it difficult to get a photo.
New Zealands Maori name is Aotearoa. The common translation is "the land of the long white cloud",
so generally the only time the mountains haven't got clouds in the way is when you haven't got a camera.https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Taranaki&ved=0ahUKEwjWy7TYxObVAhWJV7wKHSEcDuwQqa4BCG0wDQ&usg=AFQjCNHqkM6zlntqCWQIDnjpjzILZQdmtg

After a short drive around town we ended up near the port, at the lookouts below Paritutu Rock.

From here, out across the Tasman Sea, next stop Australia 1300 miles away.




Above is Paritutu Rock. There is a stairway leading to the top, but time was limited so we settled for looking at the view from below.

Heading north, we encountered more of the rain that we had come through on the way down.

It soon cleared and although the cloud stayed around it ended up another lovely day.

We had a lunch stop at Mokau. The butchers shop across the road from the Caffè had white bait for sale,
which we decided would be a nice treat for dinner that night in Hamilton.

2016-02-08 19.15.09 - Copy.jpg (119.3 KiB) Viewed 5308 times

[KCStudly]

Keep those beautiful scenic pictures coming. It is always a pleasure to see the wonder of NZ.

[Sheddie]

Thanks KC, there would be a few more photos if I could get the co-pilot a bit more enthusiastic with the camera.
I also must apologize to everyone for tking so long to get this done.

[Sheddie]

Ford Capri Car Club Summer Camp February 2016.
Tuesday morning leaving Hamilton for home.
We stopped in at a shopping mall and saw this display advertising a car show.

With an engine shaped chilly bin on the front and a rather large bbq out the back, it still wouldn't make a very suitable camper.

By the time the bbq is swivelled around sideways and slid inside, it doesn't leave much space for anything else.

A very nice collection

We stopped for lunch in Huntly by the mighty Waikato River. The Waikato flows from Lake Taupo, north to the West coast, just south of Auckland.

This is the Huntly thermal power station. Coal-and-gas-fired steam turbine units.

[pchast]

Frank,

Thanks again for the views of your country.

[Sheddie]

Thanks again Pete

[Sheddie]

Hi to everyone on tnttt.com.
I have been a little busy on other projects for a while and haven't much time to post much on the site.
I have been popping in to have a quick look now and then to see how you are all going.
For now I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, from down here in the south Pacific, and the hopes that 2018 is good to you all.

[KCStudly]

And a very merry season to you, too.