Cruising down the river and 'no boys allowed'!

A while ago, our friend (and Jo's colleague) Allen asked if he would recondition the 'steering wheel' for his boat -  the woodwork experience and equipment was dusted off and this was duly done and delivered. Here is the finished product, prior to delivery and installation on the boat. Not too shabby, if you ask me!

And here is the 'wheel' in action on the Whanganui river.

When we were invited to take a little 'spin' on the aforementioned boat - of course we jumped at the opportunity to see the wheel in action. Allen has spent coutless hours reconditioning this boat (we even heard that he had been forced to hand her over to other experts in town for a while, so went to visit her while she was there!) and we were extremely honoured to be taken on a trip down the Whanganui river.

The caravans and motorhomes in this picture are at the Top Ten holiday park, where we spent some time with our 'new' caravan, testing the water as it were and parking our van in one of these very spots - this is the view of that same spot, from the 'other side'! A fabulous afternoon, zooming down the river, getting a hoot from the paddle steamer as she sailed by with her contingent of booze cruisers! 

'Girls just wanna have fun' - an evil plan conjoured up by my kiwi girlfriend Trudie and her kiwi girlfriend (and my new kiwi girlfriend) Gail, for a weekend of R and R. This pretty little home in Martinborough (South-East of Wanganui on the North Island - for those of you who are willing to get out a map)was rented for an overnight stay - no boys allowed! We spent an awesome two days relaxing in good company with wine, table tennis, wandering around the town and poking around in little boutiques and 'kaggel kakkies' shops, playing cards, riding bikes and doing an all-girls barbeque!

 The area around Martinborough is literally overgrown with vineyards and we were hard 'pressed' to decide where to do a spot of tasting. Ended up at a lovely cellar and bought a couple of bottles to take home with us.

 Martinborough has a great cenotaph in the centre of town, surrounded by a lovely park/square - we enjoyed a fabulous Italian icecream sitting on a park bench and then noticed that this was a big white 'monument' to those who fell in the Boer war in South Africa. Who knew that Martinborough had chappies who had fought in South Africa? (and lost!)

And here they are - Trudie on the right and Gail on the left - armed and dangerous, wine in hand, sunglasses donned, brolly erected and lasses ready for a couple of hours of all-girl 'conversation' about everything .... and nothing!!  The lone glass of red wine waiting for the photographer's attention!

It was a terrific weekend - and went a long way to proving that gals are gals wherever you go and we are all capable of laughing till we are weak at the knees about the most ridiculous things when there are no gentlemen about, forcing us to be 'ladies'!
Roll on the next one!!! And thanks Ms Pickle for the original idea! A stroke of genius!
Dis al!