Music In The Mountains

Friday afternoon rolled around and the truck was ready to pick up. Heslops hadn't found the source of the problem but they had tinkered with a few things and taken it for a test drive. All seemed to be running smoothly. Phew!
We hitched the rig up and drove off to our very first rally, "Music in the Mountains". It's an annual event held by the NZMCA at Tapawera school. We were impressed with how organised everything was. All vehicles were parked in rows with enough space to manouvere out if needed. By 6 o'clock we were parked up, enjoying a meal that was waiting for us (thanks to Amanda, Paul, Graeme and Rob).
After dinner, we collected our chairs and set off to sit and enjoy the first performers. They were a band from the North Island called 'Legal Tender'.
The next day, Bernie wanted to fix some things on the truck, so I went for a walk around Tapawera Village. It's such a cute town and the locals obviously take pride in their properties. I came across a sign for the 'Shedwood' bush walk. I followed the directions, which led me across a paddock and into native bush. The track led uphill for 20 minutes, I had the company of a couple of black fantails who were too quick for me to photograph. After an hour I was back walking along the main road of Tapawera, where I visited an art exhibition displaying local artwork.
We had lunch at the rig and Steve called in to visit. After a shared dinner with Amanda, Paul, Rob and Graeme, we grabbed our chairs to listen to Suzanne Prentice. Although it wasn't our sort of music, she was a great performer and it was an enjoyable night.
We decided to leave on Sunday so I could spend the next day getting ready for the new term. The 'Gypsy Pickers' were playing on Sunday night, but as they are a Nelson band we thought we'd have another opportunity to listen to them during the year.
So Sunday morning started with a cooked breakfast (thanks Bernie). Then we went for a walk to check out the dump station to make sure we could get in. When we got back, some friends of Bernie's from Westport (John Lee & his wife) called to say hi and to check out the rig. After they left we visited a couple in the van beside us,Geoff & Carron Stevenson (who are members of 'Motorhoming with Pets'). It was great to meet up, Carron is taking a writers course and has had several articles published already. That's exactly what I want to do this year, learn how to write for a magazine. Just as we were leaving Colin Smith arrived along with his poodle, it was nice having a brief chat with him. Then we hitched up, and arrived back in Richmond mid afternoon. The truck went well...the perfect end to a wonderful weekend.

Dinner on our first night.

'Legal Tender'

A little 'sober driver taxi' available.

'Shedwood Bushwalk"

Lots of cicadas to be heard.

The white patch to the left is Tapawera school where the rally was held.

There were 507 cameprvans and caravans at the rally.

Suzanne Prentice

False Start

On Thursday we packed up the rig and headed to Tapawera to experience our first Motorhome Rally. We both had to work on Friday, so the plan was to take the rig to Tapawera, set it up, then drive the 4 wheel drive back to Nelson and go to the rally the next day. Amanda and Paul were holding a spot for us beside their rig.
Unfortunately, fifteen minutes down the road, at Spring Grove, the truck lost power and stopped! Fortunately we were close to the Spring Grove garage so we restarted the truck and limped it into their yard (they were closed!).
We called Heslops and they sent an after hours person out to connect the truck to their computer to find the problem. They couldn't find anything so suggested we carry on incase it was a 'one off'. The Heslop's guy said he'd follow us to the top of the Spooners Range. We didn't get that far though. On the south side of Wakefield, the truck coughed, and lost power again!
So we had to turn it around and take it back to Richmond, where we parked the rig up and then dropped the truck off at Heslops for them to look at it again the next day.

Leaving Richmond

Parked at Spring Grove garage waiting for Heslops to arrive.

Heslops to the rescue.