With our house sitting in Sumner over and although we have had an amazing time, it was at the same time good to get back into our routine in our Moho. We spent the last two days moving bits and pieces of our own back into our motorhome. We picked Rosie and Giles up from the airport and the poor guys looked absolutely shattered from their long flight back from the UK, so with Jude and I already being aware that this would be the case we decided not to stay too long and allow the
travellers to get some well needed sleep. Leaving them at home we headed to the Woolston Club for the night where we had parked our moho the day before. Dinner was to be at the pub the first night there, after that it was back to the moho for a good sleep. For the first night back in our moho, we actually had a great sleep waking to a very frosty morning. Deciding that we needed to spend another night there it would be better if we moved the moho to the other side of the Club to get the sun first thing in the morning. Rosie and Giles had also had a good nights sleep and it wasn’t long before we got a call from them asking if we would join them for a cuppa and what would turn out to be a regular process, pick up some forgotten items…well we’ed never say no to that and before you know it we were back at Joe’s
Garage for a final lunch there as well. As we have said on many occasions time flies when you’re having fun. With lunch done and dusted and our farewell to two dear friends whom had trusted us with their home for two months, it was back to the Woolston Club for the night, and dinner at the local pub was again on the cards… 2 for the price of 1 evening meals so its a no brainer… until we bumped into John and Carolyn, two people we keep running into at the woolston Club whom are also full time moho’ers and have become good friends asked us if we would join them at the Woolston Club for tea. Jude and I looked at each other and thought why not. Ironically our other moho friends from Ashburton are also called John and Carol.
One of my personal highlights was catching up with friends that I had not seen for sometime such as Stephen Mann, Stephen Graham, Jeff Lewis, Cath Timlin and a dear friend from way back in the Ohai days Suzanne Talbot.
The next morning we were of to Oamaru for the next night but changed our minds and decided we might as well go to Dunedin and catch up with our dear friend Boyle whom was in dunedin for a while on business. It is also the first trip with the new Suzuki Jimny in tow and a new preflight checklist updated to include making sure the right processes had been completed for safe towing. I know we are towing the Jimny by the feel of the moho, but overall it is not much of a difference… just have to remember the unit is now 5 meters longer and although we knew we would use more diesel by the time we reached Dunedin with all their hills just to the north she didn’t do too bad using just under 3/4’s of a tank. We arrived about 1600hrs and once at the NZMCA park up the Leith Valley we went next door to the Camping ground catch up with Boyler who gave us a awesome coffee in his caravan. It was then a early night to be ready for the next day in Dunedin.
With the catchup with our friend Boyler out of the way, it was back on the road with our Jimny in tow, heading for Winton and as Boyler was heading home on a bus it turned out convenient for both of us as he could instead drive the third vehicle we had… Toms car that we were returning to Otautau… isn’t it funny how things just fall into place… well most of the time anyway lol. The day was cold and wet but still had a good feeling heading South and looking forward to seeing family and friends again especially the team from St John Winton who outside of family remain special to both of us. By the time we reached Winton we were looking forward to a coffee at “Adagios” one of our favorite cafe’s, Ken and the girls Wendy, Janice and Chrissy never change and we had a lovely chat and laugh… yep so cool to catch up with them and look forward to catching up with the the many friends we have here.