The Weird, the Wacky & the Wonderful

Sunday evening & our time at the Mount campground is coming to an end. Just two more days & we’ll be on the road, heading for the next two week stop, Napier for more farewells.

We’ve had an extremely busy time here & today was the first time in over two weeks that we’ve been able to relax a little & enjoy the sunny weather & all the activity going on around us.

 After my last blog post I know you’ll all be keen to hear that the total on the counter at 5pm this evening was 44,881. That’s forty four thousand, eight hundred & eighty one! That means that a small city of 32,435 has passed by our door over the last 10 days, 9880 people alone have pounded the boardwalk this weekend (or plodded, as the case may be) And from my seat at the table I have a good view of the passing traffic in all its various forms.

So many people doing so much exercise. I felt worn out watching them all.

Both these lots were doing extreme exercise! The paddlers would have paddled back & forth across the bay at least 20 times & the runners were up and down those steps a similar number of times.

The camp site has filled and emptied many times over since we’ve been here. After the storm blew through we had the place to ourselves for a few days, it was lovely;  peace & quiet.

I wonder who lost a hatch cover in the storm?

The last few evenings have brought a steady stream of hire sleepers & motorhomes of all shapes & sizes containing some interesting people. And this weekend the camp ground has filled up with caravans & families with plenty of children, some had come just for Saturday night.

These vans were either side of us for a couple of nights. I was in awe of the couple with the baby, so much gear was stacked in the van I'm surprised they managed to fit the baby in. As it was he sat outside in his plastic highchair in the cold wind whenever they had to do something inside (they wrapped him up & he was quite happy playing with his toys) I was more worried the wind was going to blow the chair over. And on our other side was a guy travelling alone but living like a king! He set up his table with all the gear for every meal. Very well organised he was.

At 6:30am this morning, while I was making a cup of tea, the young teenagers sleeping in the caravan awning next door to us decided they were going for a swim, two chickened out; one still has his sleeping bag wrapped around him. This is the brave one bellowing at the top of his voice as he came thundering up from the beach & straight through between the vans and on up to the shower block behind us. I think it was cold!

I can see life on the road is going to bring many interesting encounters & challengers especially for David. Here he is today being a mechanic & last night, a relationship counsellor. The German guys had just purchased their car & it wouldn't start this morning when they went to leave. The battery was flat or so it seemed but the jumper leads didn't help; David's & another guy that came by. So the car sat all day with a couple of sad looking travellers in it. They were going to wait until tomorrow before getting it to a workshop. But David came back from the lock up this afternoon with his battery charger & after a good charge the engine sprang into life. David has new best friends!

An Austrian couple were obviously experiencing a dose of cabin fever when they arrived in the afternoon. An argument in any language is easy to spot and after a couple of hours or so of heated discussion and much pacing & packing they had calmed down enough to engage in a conversation with David as he was passing later in the evening.

 And then just when we think we've seen it all along comes Tonto & the Lady Ranger. Don't ask...

Next, from around the point came some warriors in their waka.

The best (& the saddest) part of the weekend has been saying goodbye to friends & family that have been visiting us at the beach. After going out for lunch with the family we brought our darling grand-daughter Maddie back for one last play at the beach. We are going miss her & her brother Joel so very much when we leave but then we're looking forward to seeing our other two grandchildren, Ollie & Ruby very much too. We wish they were all in the same city.