Day 002: Ohakune > Clive River – Hastings

Blue Sky Bound – East Coast Headed

#smilingontheinside – Monday 02 June 2025

Waking up in Ohakune

This morning’s dawn was lovely – bright sunshine and clear skies. Alas, it didn’t last long, unfortunately before the clouds rolled in and the rain started.

I was oh-so-very pleased that all we had to do to ‘packout’ was unplug our ‘shore power’. A few of our neighbours were folding down wet awnings and slipping around in the mud a bit.

And talking of slipping – wow! I came pretty close to doing the splits walking to the ablution block! How I didn’t fall over on slippery wooden steps, I have no idea. All I ended up doing was giving myself a bit of a fright – nothing more sinister than that.

Truck Stop Nozzles Don’t Fit

Who would’ve thunked that trucks have different size diesel nozzles…? Certainly neither of us. Until we ended up splashing diesel down the side of the van instead of inside the fuel tank.

Which is a bummer going forward, because truck stop fuel prices seem to be attractively cheaper than regular petrol stations.

We ended up faffing around cleaning up the mess and the smell. Ugh!

Gentle Annie Route to the Hawke’s Bay

We’ve made noises about taking the Gentle Annie road from Taihape to the Hawke’s Bay many times but never have.

Wanting to see if we could find better weather, Alan checked both the rain and the wind forecasts. The east coast looked good and so decided to head over the range to that side of the island.

On a clear day, the trip would be absolutely stunning because it was pretty spectacular driving up in the clouds through the murk.

We met only about a handful of other vehicles on the entire road.

Both of us had heard that the road wasn’t that pleasant to drive. But we decided it was certainly in a better state than HWY35 up through Gisborne and the East Cape. By far!

Hastings – Hawke’s Bay

After the diesel fuel mess, I promised Alan a real fruit icecream – to help get him back to #smilingontheinside again.

We sat outside in the sun enjoying Rush Munro cones. Such a contrast to the weather in Ohakune this morning.

Freedom Camping – Evers-Swindell Reserve – Clive

We freedom camped alongside the Clive River at the Evers-Swindell Reserve. Stunning!

Before dinner we walked a bit along the pathway towards the coast.

We were one of about 20 vans parked up for the night with varying degrees of ‘power’. The van next to us kept starting up their engine – presumably to top up their house battery.

Although we don’t (yet!) have an inverter, I’m still very appreciative of the house battery power we do have and the fact our solar panels were topped up this afternoon as well.

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Here’s to exploring the Gentle Annie Road for the first time…

Here’s to following the sun and blue skies…

Here’s to our first night of Freedom Camping in our new van!

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Here’s to SmilingOnTheInside!