GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #32

It's been a long time between drinks campers!!
Here we go with yet another chapter in the life and times of Hawkeye, aka 'Willie' in the Wanderlust Wagon, or the Geriatric Gypsy Gigolo.
Since the last time I talked to you I have been hibernating at an idyllic slice of heaven - Maitai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula, about 35 kilometres east of Kaitaia.

No pot of gold at the end of this rainbow!

Instead, these crosses serve as a stark reminder of a boating tragedy in the bay.

Big news of recent times is that I have sold my apartment in Parnell, Auckland and I am now officially 'Of No Fixed Abode'.

I have been looking out for likely properties that might suit me once I retire from the road.

Although my financial resources are somewhat limited, here are some attractive options that my budget will stretch to.

A couple more months in the north island and then off to the mainland for summer and autumn.

Thanks for watching.

Good luck to all your families.

GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #31

Hi De Hi Campers.
Here we are again, off on another adventure.
This is the beginning of the third journey around the country.
It seemed appropriate to start again at the northern tip, so here I am at Cape Reinga explaining to my fellow adventurer, Rowan (Stanley) Forbes, which way is up.

The Houhora Hotel lays claim to being the northern most drinking establishment in the land.
It was compulsory for Stanley and I to stop and sample their wares.

Stanley was determined to explore the waterways of the Far North and courageously launched his rubber duck at the notoriously dangerous Houhora Heads.

The rubber duck proved to be a somewhat cumbersome piece of exploration paraphernalia, and filled up most of the passage way of the Bus With No Name.
Each stop necessitated extricating the bloody thing from the bus and then stuffing it back in again each time we set off.

A nostalgic return to The Hokianga yielded this historic little gem at Kohukohu. Stanley is standing on Kohukohu’s world famous stone bridge that was built in 1866 from Sydney sandstone brought as ballast in early timber ships.

Second phase of the Far North adventure was to participate in the 90 Mile Beach Lion Red Snapper Classic fishing competition.

Dan Watson fancied his chances of winning the big prize, so each day before dawn for 5 days we drove along the beach in Wat’s 4WD searching for a likely fishing spot.

Fish that won the prizes were all caught before sunrise each morning - we couldn’t even catch cold!

Exploring was much more fun than standing waist deep in surging breakers, so we drove up the beach and out to the highway via the Te Paki stream.
Wat is texting Coastguard our GPS co-ordinates in case we get marooned in the stream.

We successfully navigated the treacherous Te Paki stream, so good reason to celebrate at the Houhora pub.

After all this frantic activity it was time for a bit of R & R at the Far North’s best kept secret location – Maitai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula.

The plan is to winter over in the north, and then think about the south island again in spring.

Thanks for watching.

Good luck to all your families.

GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #25

Welcome to the first update for 2009.
Xmas and New Year have come and gone and now it’s on with the journey.
We woke up on Xmas Day at the Nelson orchard where we had been working.
Santa hadn’t caught up with our temporary address so Dan and I exchanged gifts.
Breakfast of cherries from Geraldine started the day’s festivities.

A kiwi Xmas at the beach was on the agenda so off to Golden Bay.
From Takaka we headed to the coast through the hole in the rock at Pohara.

Just over the hill is a neat little beach called Ligar Bay.
Back in December 1642 Abel Tasman lost a few of his crew at this bay when some local Maori bros threw them in a big pot and cooked them.

Xmas Day tradition has me preparing a ham for the main meal of the day.
Basting a small ham with rum and sweet chilli sauce turned out to be a great success.
The more observant amongst you will have noticed the halo that appropriately adorns my head!



We shared our Xmas meal with a couple we worked with at the apple orchard.
Jason is an Aussie and Tracey hails from Canada.
Neither of them had previously experienced a Xmas Day at the beach.

Dan the pyromaniac rounded out our evening with yet another fire.


We drifted up the Golden Bay coast and stopped at Farewell Spit.
This is sunrise at Puponga.


In this shot one of the subjects is a lazy fat blubbery mammal - the other is a seal.


This place ranks highly as one of the best beaches in the country.
We are at Wharariki Beach just around the corner from Cape Farewell.

It is said that all good things must come to an end, and so too for our Father and Son adventure.
Five months, 7000 kilometres, a lot of our country, great company, great places, great fun, treasured memories.
What more can a man ask for?
Our last supper was at the Smokehouse Café on the inlet at Mapua in Tasman Bay.

Dan has remained in Nelson for the summer doing seasonal orchard work.
I am back in the north island to do some serious golfing and fishing in the far north.

Hope your new year is going to be a great one.

Good luck to all your families.

GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #24

Compliments of the Festive Season.
The last journal ended with some unseasonal snow in Cardrona, before we headed into the Haast Pass. Road engineers must have expected some vehicles to suffer brake failure at the steepest point in the Pass and then become ‘runaway vehicles’. They cleverly built a runoff area for all such loose cannons. I hope that every driver of an out-of-control juggernaut knows just where the escape route is……here is the official ‘Runaway Vehicle Ramp’………….to oblivion?

Just south of the glaciers is this impressive bridge over the Karangarua River.

Intrepid explorers at Fox Glacier.

Another highlight of our journey was spending Election Night at the Blackball Hilton Hotel. Blackball is the historic home of the NZ Labour movement, and to be in the local boozer when the vote went ‘right’ was a unique experience!

This old local was a miner in the Blackball coalmine and was explaining how this lantern replaced canaries in the mines to detect deadly gases in the shafts.

Hawks Crag, in the Lower Buller Gorge, where the highway narrows to a single lane under imposing overhanging rock was a compulsory photo stop.

The global fiscal melt down finally caught up with Dan and I, and forced us to significantly modify our lifestyle. Impending financial ruin necessitated getting a job! Toiling for the minimum wage thinning apple trees in Bronte, Nelson is bloody hard yakka.

Just down the road from where we are working in the Bronte, Nelson apple orchard is the quaintly named town of Hope. I’m looking to see if I can secure a property in the village so that I can pedantically state that “I live in Hope”!

November was moustache month and this was my effort towards ‘Movember’.


Dan and I are not exactly sure where we will be on Xmas Day, but if the weather is right a local beach tops the list.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and trust that your New Year will be a happy and prosperous one.

Good luck to all your families.
Thanks for watching.
See ya back here in 2009.

GYPSY GIGOLO JOURNAL #23

Welcome to the brand new home of the Gypsy Gigolo Journal.
The old blog address of www.hawkeye.iblog.co.nz may still work for a short while.
The demise of my old blog site was spookily prophesied in Hymn 36!


Otago is steeped in gold-mining history and Golden Point, near Macraes Flat, has some of the old mining equipment maintained in working order. This rock crusher reduced the size of the larger bits of ore before it went in to the battery.


Miners’ accommodation was usually very spartan. This hut can only be described as luxurious with two windows, a coal range and space for a bed, a table and a chair.


A hundred years ago the miners spent a lot of time frequenting the drinking establishments in Macraes. Nowadays the only pub still standing curiously shares its name with my erstwhile adventuring partner Rowan (Stanley) Forbes.


The south island puts a lot of style into even its more mundane infrastructures like bridges and viaducts. This bridge over the Taieri River at Hyde is a good example.



The railway line in Central Otago from Middlemarch to Clyde existed for almost 100 years. The powers that be ripped it out during the 1990’s and in 2000 opened the Otago Central Rail Trail. The 150km trail is suitable for cycling, walking or horse-riding. In keeping with this journey’s motto of keeping a healthy body and mind it was mandatory that I ride the Trail.

Because the Trail was once a railway there are no steep climbs.

Dan’s birthday was on Hallowe’en and we celebrated with a lunch at Cromwell.

Picturesque Moke Lake is about 15kms out of Queenstown and is home to the Ben Lomond Station. Plenty of brown trout visible in the very clear water, but not a single angler managed to net one whilst I was there.

November is the month when your mind drifts into fast-forward mode with thoughts of Christmas and a long hot summer. Snow on Guy Fawkes’ Day is a bloody huge wake-up call regarding the fickleness of spring weather! We had decided to drive over the Crown Range from Queenstown to Wanaka and this was the scene just outside of Cardrona.

I hope this new blog site, operated by Google, has a longer life than my old one.

To leave a comment you need to click on the word comments at the bottom of this posting. You will be asked to set up a 'Google account'.

Thanks for watching.

Good luck to all your families.