Middle of May

More of the same here in Ohakune recently...

Rugby has been going well, although last weekend we lost our first game 16-13 to Ratana, who treated us to a haka in the clubrooms after the game! Check out the club website.

Robyn has started volunteering one day a week at Ohakune Primary School, and is going up to Matamata next week to have a week with Tracie at Matamata primary.

We have one more canoe trip booked for next week I think, the NZ Navy are coming to do some teambuilding/training, then that's it for the summer. The weather has taken a definite autumnal turn, and at the moment it's not too pleasant to be on the river! Although tomorrow Robyn and Simon are taking two fellas from Bare Kiwi on a day trip so they can shoot a promotional video for us which will appear in I-Sites (tourist information centres) in our district, tour buses and their website which is a pretty cool one. The videos are well worth a watch, and we're all looking forward to seeing ours! Check out their video for Escape Rentals, the campervan we rented is parked in the garage! Unfortunately I can't be a part of ours, as I'm sitting a course for a passenger endorsement for my NZ drivers licence! Hopefully I might be able to get in the background of the intro or something...


P.S. Pic is Robyn and her new besty Flint, they are in lurrrrrv!

Easter

Today was the Ohakune Easter Hunt, and we went along for a little look. There were three categories, stag, boar and trout, and we watched plenty of people (lots of whom we know from the rugby club) turn up and unload and weigh their catch. A couple of people we know won in various categories, one guy we know won in 3 different categoies! Robyn felt a little squeemish seeing all the headless beasts, and didn't join me in a couple of sausys for lunch. For the kids there was possum, rabit or trout competitions, and even a possum throwing comp too.

Canoe season here is winding down now, and ski season opens 24/25 June with the Ruapehu Mountain Mardi Gras.

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days away in New Plymouth, doing a few walks around the town and a bit of shopping too. We called in on our friend Paul who lives in Hawera on the way, and drove home via The Forgotten World Highway, which connects Stratford and Taumarunui. It's a pretty cool drive through the middle of nowhere but just takes ages!

The rugby season is going well, we're up the top of the league with 3 wins from 3 games, against Taihape, Marton and Counties. No game this week because of Easter, but next week we have our longest away trip, down to Waverley on the Wanganui/Taranaki border, to play Border.


Our laptop has decided to pack in too, so hopefully we'll find a good deal in the Easter sales. In the meantime we're on a loaner, very kindly donated by Tracie.

Crutching

Yesterday me and some of the rugby boys took a trip into the middle of nowhere to do some crutching for a farmer who was going to pay the club for our efforts, keeping our season membership at a reasonable price.
By the time we got there all the sheep were inside so we got straight down to work. I was 'dragging', which meant going into the smaller pen and man-handling a sheep out to the shearer who shaved a little patch around their bum and lady bits, then booted them down the porthole back outside. I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life.
We were aiming to do 3000, but due to a bit or rain recently we only got through 1000, making about $500 for the club. We had a good feed and a few drinks afterwards then it was back to Ohakune for tea time.
Lats weekend we had out first pre season game against Wanganui Pirates who we beat 50-35. I managed to get over the line for a try and kicked 5 goals so good all around. Our first league fixture is a week on Saturday at home to Taihape.