Retro Holiday Park

Camp at Rapahoe on Tasman Sea

Smelling sweet peas as I write this and look out at this amazingly powerful sea! I’m hoping for a good sunset and perhaps a chance to see the night sky and maybe identify the Southern Cross. My host doesn’t really know where to look for its appearance in the sky.

We pulled into this place this afternoon and met a somewhat older woman who is our host – I’d say she’s in her 70’s. She and her husband have this land by the Tasman Sea and they obviously are collectors of some sort. There is stuff everywhere. We have a lovely site although we do gaze at other camper vans in our same lot. It’s been such fun to explore the kitchen, commonly used by patrons here. It’s got huge banks of windows and has been so bright during our day of off and on sun. This is true in spite of the fact that I don’t think the windows have been washed for at least a decade. In the “common room”, one end is where the washing machines are located, and the other has an area of couches and several book shelves. Alas, nothing really up my line in book selections to be found. The room is quite littered with plants of the cacti, spider plant and succulent variety and they climb past the windows. The spiders love them it’s quite obvious and webs appear on nearly every pane of glass. One hanging plant has been dead for several months. There are bits of Christmas garland hanging from pipes in one corner – these are old decorations, not something getting put up early for this year! Chess players would adore the old-fashioned chess set on the dining table and there’s a darling little wooden rocking horse sitting under a table. By the way, the dining tables are covered with rather heavy, somewhat stained (but laundered) table cloths. Very British! It’s bright in spite of it all. I’ve had a hankering for an oven cooked meal for a few days now. We do have an “oven” but it’s really only a grill and will work with some dishes in a pinch but I haven’t tried it yet. This kitchen has not one but two ovens found within creaky old stoves. However, they worked and I made a wonderful mac and cheese to fill our stomachs tonight. Smelling it cook was a sensation I needed very much. While it cooked I took the time to cut some sweet peas (asking first, of course) and have the most delightful bouquet at my elbowside as I type this. There is one bicolour of pink and white that I have never seen before. I also had a chance to browse through the NZ Gardener magazine and copied two apple recipes to try back in Canada. Dave has just returned from the showers in the kitchen building to say that he thinks the building was probably an old school – it does have that appearance in a way. I hope to accompany this with some pictures.

There’s a sign in the kitchen that our host has spring onions and rhubarb and available for FREE so hope to check that out before we leave tomorrow.

Update: We left at 8 a.m. this morning as I was anxious to start my next coastal walk to the next town and no one was about so I missed the onions and rhubarb. We did manage to see the Southern Cross – our host told us to look for a kite in the western sky – that worked.