Easter Sunday

April 4th, 2010

It’s Easter Sunday and we have just spent our first night at the Oparau Roadhouse. We left Raglan a few days ago and have been parked at a small, quiet, and beautiful, locals-only fishing wharf to wait out the holiday weekend. Kiwi’s celebrate Easter for 5 days (Good Friday through Easter Tuesday) and we wanted to be out of the way for the chaos. Then we needed gas and ventured out toward a town called Kawhia where we found the Oparau Roadhouse for gas, and a sign for free campervan and tent parking. Soon after we met Bill and Brenda, the owners and some of the most generous kiwi’s we’ve met so far. Bill showed me the many places we could park in addition to offering laundry and showers (which at this point were much needed) in the main house that has been outfitted as a hostel (called backpackers here). There is a Canadian couple living there for the time being until they return home at the end of the week.
Bill and Brenda moved on to this property 20 yrs ago after moving into a bus as a result of a bad recession in New Zealand. Bill’s parents lived in Kawhia so the ventured here in their bus and eventually saved enough $ to buy this property, which at the time was just a house and land. They slowly built the roadhouse and grounds, and eventually moved into a flat above the shop and fitting their house for the backpackers accommodation.
The Oparau Roadhouse itself is quite the one-stop-shop. There is a general store stocked with hardware, sewing supplies, fishing gear, wholesale adult beverages and everything in between. There is also a self-service café that serves up Brenda’s homemade goodies. Brenda makes the New Zealand favorite, meat pies, from scratch and we’ve heard they can’t be beat. They also serve up dairy-free fried chicken, which we couldn’t resist yesterday. It was finger-lickin’ good. A few hours after our chicken and chip feast, Bill called us in for ‘afternoon tea’ (or lunch in these parts), which consisted of venison sausage, potatoes and salad. We were also served ‘evening tea’ (yup, you guessed it, dinner) and the next day, I’m still stuffed. So we have gone from rationing our food closely as the holiday weekend most stores are closed, to feeling like stuffed piggies!