We love Waipawa

Our journey seems a little different from others I am following .... we are travelling slowly, seeking out the country back roads to get to know the small rural towns in the regions. We like to stay there for about 2 weeks and love exploring the quaint shops, cafes and places of interest, chatting to the locals and getting to know the community. The most amazing and friendly people are often found in these little towns. That‘s what I enjoy the most about our travels. 

And one of these towns is Waipawa in the Central Hawkes Bay, a small, friendly town where life seems cruisy and relaxed.

Apparently, it is one of New Zealand's oldest inland towns and has gone through times of great economic boom and bad times of depression.  It has also been referred to as one of the towns that almost died.  Luckily it survived for it is a gem of a little town and well worth spending some time in.

Small towns have a sleepy, lazy reputation but these towns can have their own vitality and buzz.  That is what we loved about Waipawa.  We were totally swept up in the charm of the town and friendliness of the folk that live there that we stayed there for 3 happy weeks.

We loved the little country campground we set up home in.  The facilities were clean and quite adequate for our needs and the folks that we met there were a happy friendly bunch.  Paddy the owner was so welcoming - what an awesome host.

We easily fell in love with the town and region, so much so that we even looked to see if any sections of land were available.  Had there been we just might have bought one to be our future off-the-road home.

We reluctantly packed up after 3 weeks to move onto Masterton.  It was time to carry on our journey and attempt to get to see as much of the bottom end of North Island before winter.

Here are some photos of our stay here. Enjoy and maybe you too will get a glimpse of the great lifestyle these small towns of New Zealand have to offer.

Riversedge Holiday Park:

All set up at our campground in Waipawa

 

Some photos of the town of Waipawa:

 Beautiful gardens of an Art Gallery we Visited:

Napier - Such a sweet treat for the tired soul

Napier is one of the cities we visited quite a few years back and always wanted to go back to again.  So we decided that Napier would be the start of our summer tour of the bottom half of North Island.  We stayed there for 2 weeks and were not disappointed.

Throwback to the Great Gatsby era!

The whole art deco scene of Napier is just my thing.  The whole Great Gatsby era of the 1920 and 1930 years has always fascinated me.  And Napier just oozes with sights very reminiscent of this glamorous and stylish period of history.  So many of the building are painted in soft pastel colours and have beautiful Art Deco facades and detail.  They are arty looking, with gorgeous olde world charm and vintage memorabilia tucked away here, there and everywhere.

The main street along the ocean has stately palms lining it which almost make you believe you could be in Maimi.

So during our stay here, we wanted to check out some of the lovely highlights of this small city.

City Centre.
One of the most beautiful town's centres I have seen so far.  Well preserved Art Deco facades, and a lovely town centre - some parts when deserted of modern-day cars and people, it could well be a movie set for the 1930s.

One of the main streets in Napier

Fabulous old buildings

Art Deco Building

Vineyards.
Beautiful wine farms to chill in and enjoy some good food and wine.  We found this to be an extremely expensive experience but were very happy to enjoy a lunchtime meal in my favourite wine farm of Hawkes Bay, the Black Barn Vineyard.

Entrance to Black Barn Vineyard

Lovely Al Fresco dining under the grape vines

Lovely outlook over the vineyard

Sweet Delights.
Tempting chocolate factory and sweet shop, so decadent and delicious.

Silky Chocolate Cafe

Jars full of yummy sweets at Birdwoods Sweet Shop

Beautiful Gardens.

Serene and peaceful gardens - perfect for quiet reflection.

Gardens along the ocean front

Entrance to a garden

Charming white rose garden (and no the birds aren't real)

The Art Scene.
We went to see the amazing sculptures of Birdwoods Gallery.  Just as a side note for all our South African and Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) friends and followers - yes some of the sculptures are from Africa as the owners of the gallery support the artists from Zimbabwe as a means of promoting their art.

Entrance to Birdwoods Gallery

Beautiful sculpture at Birdwoods Gallery

Funky art at Birdwoods Gallery

Sculpture at Birdwoods Gallery

Sculpture at Birdwoods Gallery

Sculpture at Birdwoods Gallery

Thank you Napier for a lovely 2 weeks here.  We will stop here again.

Let's go off the grid

Now that we were back on our travels, it was finally time for us to go off the grid. 

So what does that really mean?

It means responsible camping on a site with no power and minimal or no facilities such as taps, toilets or showers.  It also can mean no dump station where you camp.

In New Zealand, this type of camping is often associated with freedom camping - free as in "no pay" camping where you can camp for the night in areas that are not always meant for camping like parking lots, roadside pull-offs, reserves or picnic areas.  (Note: you can't just park and camp anywhere in New Zealand as there are rules around such camping.)

Off the grid camping is also found in many campgrounds such as those under the control of the Department of Conservation and also the many campgrounds run by regional or local councils, associations, volunteers, etc.  For use of these grounds, there is a nominal or very low fee which makes them very affordable.

So camping in New Zealand can be really, really cheap.

So now back to our off the grid camping experience in Napier in November 19:

Solar power:  Overall we had no problems.  Our 2 solar panels worked like a bomb and provided us with plenty of power.  But as I was still working on the road, our only challenge was getting maximum use of my laptop to get my work done with minimal disruption.  Charging up my laptop each day meant that I had a 2 hour forced midday break which was actually the best thing for me.

Gas:  Together with our solar system we were more reliant on gas.  We usually run our fridge on power, but now we needed the fridge being able to work on gas.  And oops we found we now had a problem with our gas igniter.  Oh dear, this was a concern at the time.  But we found a dealer in Napier that was able to solve our problem within a couple of days.  Crisis averted.

Fresh Water:  We have good water tanks onboard that could easily manage our fresh and wastewater usage.  We obviously have to conserve water to make it last, so we had to be clever with washing dishes and taking hardcore showers known as "navy" showers.  

Going off the grid also means you use up your water quickly.  And with the tap being some distance away from us we needed to have a plan to bring water to the caravan without having to move it every time.  So we used 4 collapsible water containers to get the water from the tap and a little pump to get the water into the caravan.

Wastewater:  As there are no toilets or showers at the campground, this meant that you had to be fully self-contained.  In other words, you must have toilet and shower facilities in your campervan, motorhome or caravan.  This also meant having to remove this waste by loading it up in a removable container and taking it away to a dump station.

Our caravan does have onboard tanks to collect the wastewater from our loo and sinks.  But it does get full if you are camping off the grid for a time, so we used one of these cassettes to take this waste away to the nearest dump station.

Good tip:  Oh, and we did a learn a trick from the experience of full-timers on the road.  There is usually a pool or gym facility in the area that will allow you a nice long hot shower for a small fee.  We found one in Napier and those long showers were a real treat.  😄😄

The best advantages of living like this:

The savings in camp fees is so worth it.  We paid $36 for a whole week of camping off the grid which is equal to only one-night camp fee in a managed holiday park.

Oh, and I guess I should mention that we had no TV as we did not bother to put in a television system that would work off the battery.  But hey, who needs TV when we find ourselves in these great locations.  And this forced break is a way of bringing you back to basics and connecting with the wonder of books, games, crafts, etc.  And what better way of spending an evening watching a beautiful sunset and hearing the night sounds of nature.  

In Hindsight:

We do need to put in a more powerful inverter system into the caravan in the near future.  So this will happen as soon as we can get to a suitable installer of these systems.

Our Verdict:

We are definitely going off the grid again soon.  We did not feel we had to compromise any aspect of our lives to live this.  With a few extra tasks and habits, we found we can do everything in our caravan that we could do in a sticks and bricks house.  

It is also great to know that we can live a very independent and free lifestyle.  New Zealand has so many opportunities for freedom camping and really cheap off the grid campgrounds.  In today's world of social media, devices and television distractions, it is good to be able to disconnect from it all and plug into the simple pleasures of the outdoors.