2026 March - A month of golf tournaments and unplanned extended stay in Masterton

On Sunday 1st we arrived at the Waipukurau Golf Course to play in a 2 day Vets tournament joining about 8 other vans in the car park where we were moved 3 times mainly because of a bees nest close to where we first nestled. We had hired a cart as when we booked we weren't sure how hilly it was and I didn't want to run out of breath. However I would have been fine walking. Len and I played together, the first day with Glen from Napier and Miles from Wellington and the second day with Caren from Mount Maunganui and Alistair, the Waipukurau Golf Club President. It's hard to remember a lot about the golf course as it was soooo freezing cold with the odd little shower. We can't remember being as cold as that before and it seems like it didn't help the golf much with neither of us playing particularly well. The second day I put so many layers on that I felt like Michelin Man and could hardly move.

We also played in a 2 day golf tournament at Dannevirke on Wednesday and Thursday with me just playing 9 holes - a new format from normal. 

Good finish!

On the way there we stopped for a game at the 12 hole Takapau course, for only $10 each, which looked flat until we got out the back where there were some quite steep hills for me to struggle with but it was an interesting course and a shame that they might not be able to keep it going much longer, being just run by worn out volunteers. We passed through Norsewood to go to the Norsewear shop where I bought a pair of bed socks for the suddenly arrived cold nights, getting a second pair for free. We also enjoyed a homemade pie and soup at the very nice Norsewood Cafe - guess who had what?

Parking at the Dannevirke Golf Club was easy, although there was no-one to tell us where to go, and the weather had totally changed - 2 lovely hot sunny days so we were back to summer attire on a nice course with well kept fairways and greens. Even though I only played 9 holes it was very hot and I drank my bottle of water long before I finished the round. There was no water on the course but luckily a lady I played with had some to spare. Lots of bunkers but I managed to stay clear of all of them, thank goodness. The back nine was particularly interesting with a railway line running through the middle of it. Len played better than me but wasn't in the prizes except for winning $10 in the raffle. 

There were 14-15 motorhomes staying and we happened to be parked next to Caren, from Mount Maunganui, whom I had played with at Waipukurau and her husband, Martin. We all got along very well and had lots of laughs when we joined up for Happy Hour each night. And they happen to live over the road from my daughter, Sandra.

Saturday 7th we were on the way to the Pahiatua Golf Club for the night, stopping in Dannevirke on the way to dump, go to New World and stock up on fruit and veges at the fruit shop on the main street where Caren always goes to buy her peaches for bottling. Lunch was at the Wind Farm Cafe in Woodville where I sadly had probably my worst Eggs Benedict ever - won't go there again even though Len thought it was passable. It might have been better for me to stick to a toasted sandwich or make one in Heidi. Good to support the local cafes though. Steve, from Miramar I think, who also played in the 2 tournaments,  already had his motorhome parked at the course when we arrived and he was out playing with the locals in their competition but we waited to play on Sunday when the course was quieter. I filled in the time with making some more muffins. 

Pahiatua - nothing under the bridge

We were out early the next day and found Pahiatua to be a very good, interesting course, made even better by not being in a tournament I have to say. Lots of pluses for me - flat, pretty good fairways and greens, hardly any bunkers and it finished with a Par 3 which is unusual. Covered in cloud and a little drizzly but the temperature was perfect for playing in.

A quiet night at the club

The Club at Eketahuna was a good quiet spot for the night and although right by a railway line there weren't any trains - no other vans staying either although a few came in to empty their waste at the dump station there. We had a wander through the tiny town which is tired and depressed. 

The following morning we played golf at the Eketahuna course which was just down the road, finding that Steve had played in a fundraiser the day before and stayed the night. I think we're following him around!! Surprisingly the 18 hole course was really nice and you have to wonder how a golf course can be maintained as well as it is in such a depressed little town and with many other courses in the area. Well done them! 

The course is flat except for hole 14 which rises back up at the end and we only saw one bunker. The signage of holes 13/15 was confusing and we ended up getting a long way down, the Par 5, No 15 before we realised our mistake, having to go all the way back again. We weren't able to play number 17 due to tree felling work. There were light showers while we played the last 3-4 holes which prepared us for actually having a shower in the clubhouse afterwards. Taking the advice of the lone club member we saw we had quite a nice lunch at the Lazy Graze in town before heading on to the NZMCA Park in Masterton, a fabulous spot close to the walking and cycling paths into town and around Henley Lake.

Still more golf to come as, in the morning after walking to New World along the cycle path past the playground and the top end of Queen Elizabeth Park and it's lake with eels - about 15 minutes - we drove out to Castlepoint stopping on the way for a round at the 9 Hole volunteer-maintained golf course which looked flat until the big climb up to the No 2 tee block but after that it was all very easy and definitely my kind of course being all Par 3s and 4s  and no bunkers - like being in heaven especially as with all this golf my game is actually improving! 

Very high slope index?

Trish on a "mish"

Only a couple of other men on the course and initially it was cloudy. However the sun came out in the afternoon and we experienced Castlepoint with no wind, unlike last time when it was blowing a hooley. We did the lovely obligatory walk along the beach and up to the lighthouse and drove back to the Hotel next to the golf course where parking is free for NZMCA members. They have a large, flat area out the back where there seemed to be a couple of permanents and units with a team of bikers staying but we were the only casuals, picking a spot close to the pretty hen enclosure. We were looking forward to a beer in the Pub but both the bar and the restaurant are closed at present for some reason that we don't know.

The lovely Riversdale Golf Club with it's brand new clubhouse was the next course of call and even though it's just down the coast you have to first travel inland to get to it, following a very narrow, but sealed road, where we were pleased not to meet anyone coming in the other direction. Again, like Castlepoint, it's all Par 3s and 4s so once again we had good games with the course almost making me want to live there, but the sea's too cold!

Greenkeeper's best friend came to greet us

Afterwards we made ourselves at home with the 7 or so other vans at the NZMCA Park before doing a good walk along the beach from the little river entrance as far as we could in front of the houses before returning back via the road. By having a good chat with a man from Wellington in his holiday house garden we learnt that the permanent residents only number about 400 but over summer it swells to about 3000. Certainly most of the houses appear to be unoccupied, the hub of the village being the golf course and the general store which has a large outside eating area and serves the biggest ice creams we have ever had. I think Len wants to live there now!

Riversdale NZMCA Park

We found out that night that Sue & Pete, our friends from Tauranga, were staying at Castlepoint - surprise, surprise - so we arranged to meet back at the NZMCA Park in Masterton the next day. Plenty of room there so it was easy to camp next to each other for the night. We all had a nice dinner at The Farriers which is an easy walk from the park, Len enjoying his lamb shoulder and me, my pork belly. We were staying on in Masterton to play some more golf but the next day Sue & Pete headed off to Plimmerton as they had planned to do the trip out to Kapiti Island.

The next day - Friday 13th - was very hot again at 29° and we were very pleased that we hired a cart to play the Masterton course which seemed very hilly, long and pretty difficult when we started with thick, long grass lining the fairways, especially on the 1st hole making it difficult to find balls. 

Good views over the town

It did get a bit easier as we went along and the big redeeming feature of the course, for me, was that I managed to get a Par 5 with my ball going into the hole from off the green. A rare occasion for me. Lunch was at the Cafe at the course and after settling back at base we had a walk into town. We 'brushed the cobwebs' off the bikes the next day to follow the good cycle paths out and around Henley Lake, Len continuing on to take a peek at the Mahunga golf course while I did a bit of blogging. That night we enjoyed a flavoursome curry from Spices of India, having enough left over for the next night - don't I love that!!

Our golf game at Mahunga on Sunday turned out to be the last game for a while for a very sad reason which I'll talk about soon but really I think I've played more golf in the last couple of weeks than I did all of last year! 12 games in 16 days I think. Wow. And Len has played more than me. 

Snack time

The Mahunga course was a nice surprise and although the clubhouse, which was originally the old homestead is very rundown and in need of lots of work the course was nice to play being flat except for the climb up to all the holes on the 2nd level. It was park-like with streams and a little lake, the course itself being dry with brown patches but quite a bit of run. It was sunny with no wind, the greens were pretty good and, although it was Club day, there was no-one in front or behind so a nice, easy day out.

The next day all our plans changed and this is where we really get to know Masterton!

Poor Heidi had been doing a few little bunny hops the last couple of times she was started and this all came to a head at a busy roundabout in Masterton whilst we were on our way to play golf at Carterton. She just refused to move as the traffic backed up behind us - a lovely passing police-woman stopped and even offered to push us but once there was a break in the traffic we managed to coast down the very slight fall in the road to a truck petrol stop where, after doing all the necessary phone calls, the biggest tow truck in Masterton arrived. 

Oh no!

Fortunately Heidi just managed to fit on to be taken to Motor works, a garage which fortunately had worked on a Comfortmatic gear box before as not many mechanics have. It's not a traditional automatic gear box but rather a manual one with a robotic actuator so it feels like an automatic. Until it won't go of course! They found that the clutch and a couple of other things needed replacing and with a bit of research we found that this is not an uncommon problem with these motors. The garage was very busy and had to wait on parts but they allowed us to stay in Heidi in the yard where the tow truck had left us for 6 nights until they were ready to work on it. The work took 2.5 days but was all set to go at midday on the Wednesday which meant we had 3 nights at the Berriman's Cottage AirB&B, a quaint cottage built in 1889 so historic for NZ. We found it very cold at first but the heat pump worked really well and we didn't even need it on at night. I loved the garden which was full of flowers and even some ripe peaches. 

Tea in the cottage garden

The railway station was only about a 4 minute walk away and town, along the river pathway only 20 minutes or so.

Although we didn't need to use it much my sister-in-laws niece, Emma, had very kindly lent us her car which turned out handy for doing such things as emptying our motorhome black waste and moving our clothes, food etc from Heidi to the B&B. Altogether we spent 2 weeks in Masterton so we got to know it pretty well! Things that we did included:

Taking the free bus to Carterton, trying out all the exercise equipment around the park - about 26 stations in all with a couple of things to do at each one. (Both our 'abs" were a little sore the next couple of days.) Enjoying lunch at the popular Auntie Ginger's Kitchen. 

Feel the burn.

Honing the muscles

Exploring Greytown in the free bus with a snack & coffee at Cahoots.

Wellington on Saturday on the free train - only one train going in to Wellington at 7.45am and one train home at 6.55pm which was perfect for us as it gave us time to visit the rather different "Breathe" exhibition at Te Papa, take some sushi up to my grandson's Oli for lunch, see his new flat spacious flat with great views and meet his girl-friend, Mika, get the bus up to my school friend, Janet's, as we had been getting post sent onto her - such things as Len's new driver's license, bank-card and a new toilet cassette to replace our slightly broken one. After hydrating us with a beer Janet kindly dropped us back to the station armed with our cassette in her lovely Tesla with all the bells and whistles. We had our first McDonalds for about 7 years for dinner as it was just over the road from the station and we did enjoy it especially reminiscing with a naughty caramel sundae for dessert!

Hi tech effects at "Breathe"

L,T,O & M

3 movies, in Masterton, for me at the very nice, comfortable Screening Room theatre. We both went to the Elvis film which we enjoyed, I went to the movie about the Tenor, Pati, which I absolutely loved and also saw the NZ film Holy Days, written by Joy Cowley, which would have been better if I'd had some young grandchildren with me!

Wandered the shops and visited all the libraries and Op Shops in the town we went to looking for my new book club book to no avail.

Loved the coffee and special baked treats at the very busy, big Cafe - 10 o'clock Cookie.

Walking along the river and riding our bikes around the excellent cycle/walking tracks to Henley Lake and  Queen Elizabeth Park.

Queen Elizabeth Park

Henley Lake

Nice curry from Spices of India.

Also supported the local repertory theatre group by going to the opening night of their play "Gone to Seed", the theatre only being a short 4 minute walk from Motorworks and it did give us a bit of a laugh.

Liked my haircut by Michelle at Michelles.

Enjoyed a lovely evening and dinner with Anne (sister-in-law's sister) and Emma with lots of good conversation.

Not so impressed with the Masterton Museum - in fact there isn't one even though it is described as such. It's really a gallery and had one artist's still life paintings, half a dozen dresses from the Golden Shears and a few other paintings. They also now have a Maori canoe on display which is newly built and was transported from Levin, BUT it has a fibreglass base! I still can't imagine what they were thinking of. So that was all a bit of a downer.

The only thing we regret not doing is going to the Masterton Pool which we would have done if we had thought to pack our togs when we went to the B&B. Apparently it's very good so at least we have left something for next time!

Because of Heidi's repairs we had to re-book our Sunday ferry crossing to 2.00am on Thursday morning and with the Interislander ferries doing less crossings due to faulty ships, we were lucky to get that time. I'm not great with windy heights so found the Remutakas, which I hadn't been over since school days, rather daunting but managed to just hold on and not make too many expletives. Heidi coped really well, her new transmission working perfectly. We decided to park on the Esplanade at Petone to fill in time before we sailed only to get a message that the ferry had been delayed by 3 hours or so but they said we could go there any time after 7.00pm which was great as with the aid of a sleeping tablet cut into quarters I managed to get 2 different periods of sleep before we embarked and Len and I could share the other 2 quarters on the ship as, for the first time ever, we had opted to book a cabin which was a great idea. Slept and showered. I'm not the best sleeper normally so I really felt I'd caught up with having more sleep than during the 2 previous nights put together!

We arrived in Picton some time after 9.00am on 26th March and drove straight to the Koromiko NZMCA Park, about 10 minutes away - a very handy spot to stay and room for about 80 vans. It's always busy with travellers coming off, or filling in time before the ferry crossings.  It was raining lightly at the park but the weather up North was much worse being very wet and windy.

The next 3 weeks were mainly filled with playing golf and us moving a bit faster than usual in our attempt to play all the Southland and Otago courses before we return to the North. After leaving the busy NZMCA camp, passing a very large solar farm ( yay! - wish there were more)  and stopping at the rest/free camping area by Lake Elterwater, passing through the brown barren hills and then the occasional green vineyards we arrived at the NZMCA Park at South Bay, Kaikoura. Wind was predominant and it was rather daunting to walk up the South Bay track amongst the tall trees in the wood, with the wind howling and the trees cracking, to Tom's Track and into town. I definitely put my speed legs on to get through to the top. About an hour long walk in total.

A blustery view from the end of Tom's Track

Mid-excursion water hole

We walked through town to the Strawberry Tree pub and enjoyed a Guinness on tap and a wine, whilst chatting to a lovely American couple who had just cycled the whole length of NZ on their 'muscle" bikes. After quite a good dinner of Deep Sea Cod and chips at Coopers Catch we walked back to camp, which was on the sheltered side, via the footpaths this time to keep safe, the return walk only taking 35 minutes. By now there were about 15 vans parked on site.

Beautiful autumn colours made for great scenery the next day as we drove out to the 9 Hole Amuri Golf Course but with the fairly narrow road there was no safe place to stop to take photos at the right time. We did pull over for about 30 motorbikes to pass though.  

Autumnal Amuri Plain

The temperature had risen to about 28° and we found it very hot. The golf course was very nice to play being flat with well-kept greens and no other souls to be seen.

The Manor from its garden

The grounds of Amuri Manor, out of Culverden, alongside a couple of other vans which arrived later than us, was our stay for the night. Amuri Manor was a 1922 historic hospital which has been restored, after being on the market for 5 years, into a B&B. With large grounds and fruit trees. We were able to help ourselves to some of the many fallen pears as we wandered around. They do tours of the manor but with quite a few in-house guests staying, tours were off the menu while we were there. Just $15 to stay in Heidi with the use of a toilet - an extra $5 each if you wanted a shower which we didn't need. We were parked very close to the road which seemed quite busy but it did quieten down in the night.

Next, Harewood golf club in Christchurch where we could play and stay ( a couple of other vans there too).

Plenty of space here.

Certainly an interesting course - both undulating and "bumpy" with a multitude of bunkers, about 6 on the first hole, and a day that was rather foggy and cold. I thought the 18th hole was in an odd place, a bit away from the clubhouse with rough surrounds - you couldn't imagine any spectators bothering to be there to see a nail-biting finish to a round! Len was lucky enough to get a shower but the ladies one was out of action although I did toy with the idea of hopping into his until I realised men using the urinal would have to pass me. Although we were parked fairly close to the airport we weren't disturbed by the planes through the night.

With foggy drizzle the next day it was great to catch up with Helen & Bill and Jane who was also in our Physio class, at Aikman's Merivale Restaurant for lunch then buying some delicious sweet treats - brownies and citrus squares  from the Bohemian Bakery to take to our friend, Sandy, who is doing quite well in her retirement unit. I'd definitely use that bakery again and it's so good to catch up with friends.

Papanui Club was again an awesome place to stay the night and we were the only van there as not many people know that NZMCA members are welcome with it not being listed on our app. We already had our dinner organised but enjoyed a drink in the club while watching some rugby on the big TV.

Tuesday was a busy day with lots achieved - a visit to Papanui Library to get my driver's license certified by a JP for my ongoing Life Insurance Payout claim - it's been ongoing for nearly 6 months now and I''m at my wit's end - baking of Date & Walnut slice, laundromat, New World & Thai takeaway at Rolleston, with Golf in between times at Russley - a good course even though it had lots of bunkers and rough with long, 'sticky' green grass which I found hard to get out of. Once a group of 4 allowed us to pass it was quick flowing with no one else in front of us. There were some easy Par 4's to start with. No shower available afterwards as the Cafe and amenities were all locked up by 4.30pm. After the full-on day we found ourselves, once again, at the Weedon's NZMCA Park.

Winding up the core at Russley.