News & Views
This area on the website is for you guys as well, don’t forget to send us some photos of where you get to and what you get up too. We would love to have some photos of motorhomes parked in the most adventurous spots you can find and try and send them through at a reasonably high res for better results on the site. Write a caption as well so we can tell the story as well as you do.
February 2012. BACK TO SCHOOL. The team at Wakerleys' would like to introduce a new temporary member, school teacher Murray Thompson. Murray has been awarded a Teacher Fellowship through the Royal Society of New Zealand and is very grateful to Grant and his team for accommodating him. The Teacher Fellowship programme provides opportunities for teachers to take leave from teaching for two terms to undertake professional development in the areas of Technology, Science or Maths.
Murray is a primary trained teacher and has taught Hard Materials Technology for nine years at Otumoetai Intermediate. Before training for teaching he qualified as a carpenter and worked in residential construction in the Tauranga area for 15 years and prior to that, worked on dairy farms in the western Bay of Plenty completing a Dairy Farm cadetship.
During his time at Wakerleys' Murray is interested in learning about the SolidWorks computer aided drawing (CAD) programme used in the design and build process. As motorhomes are built using predominantly hard materials, he also intends to gain a more in depth knowledge of a range of materials involved in the production process and how these are manipulated to achieve a high quality result.
It has been a steep learning curve to date but the new knowledge gained and problem solving has been rewarding. Murray is really looking forward to tapping into Grant's innovative approach to overcome the challenges ahead, and beyond that, to transfer various aspects of his new learning into his teaching programme.
December 2011. MARKETING. This year at Wakerley Motorhomes, we decided to increase our online presence and focus on reconstructing our website to include more information and keep it up to date as much as possible. We opted to use the services of Darren Woodward of Think Marketing who has been involved with the company since the very early days. Darren has been responsible for our new website and the setting up of our Facebook presence which both are now gaining traction. Just recently Darren was nominated and won an award for the work he does for Bayride Motorcycles. We would like to congratulate Darren for the award and we are pleased that he is part of the Wakerley Motorhomes team.
July 2011. FLOATING TREATMENT WETLANDS. Wakerley Motorhomes was approached by Kauri Park Nurseries (www.kauriparklimited.co.nz) to manufacture aluminium tethering cross members for a floating treatment wetland that was being installed into Lake Rotoehu.
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| Environmentally friendly Island | Young seedlings planted |
Kauri Park Nurseries have spent many years developing a complete floating treatment wetland system that uses native plants root systems, creating microbes that absorb the nutrients as the water flows past the wetlands. This technology has the possibility of having a major positive impact on waste water systems not only in New Zealand, but worldwide, as well as cleaning the water the wetlands have almost no impact on the environment as you can see in the photos.
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| Innovative design | Aluminium work |
This is truly a good news story for New Zealand, and proves once again how a New Zealand company leads the world with clever technology solving one the most significant problems the world faces.
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Wakerley Motorhomes was privileged to play a small part in this installation. 
April 2011. Grant, Lynette and Brett and all the team at Wakerley Motorhomes would like to express our thanks to all those Wakerley Motorhomers who attended our inaugaral WMH Festival. I (Brett) thought the venue was a very special one and for you all to make the effort to travel so far was very special to us all. To Russell and Veda, Thankyou so much for sharing with us your fantastic facility and I myself am looking forward to another opportunity to visit you down in the Catlins at Woodstock Lodge. For anyone travelling in that area you really need to call in and enjoy total peace and quiet. Check out their website at www.woodstocklodge.co.nz you wont find a better friendlier bunch anywhere.
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It certainly was a lot of fun and frivolity and the lodge and conference centre really meant we had a great party. Lots of time spent socialising and laughing and we certainly enjoyed the comraderie of it all. Grant and Lynette would like to make a special mention of thanks to Brian and Val Perry for their help in organising the festival and Val also put together a very special cake which a motorhome on it which will have its own build number and a photo on our wall. Another special mention must go to Ivan Sincock for his expertise in MCing the whole weekend for us and of course his time spent organising as well.
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When the team arrived back I was able to go through the photos that I was given while I was down there and I have selected a few to throw up here for now. I believe that Judith Bishop will be doing a DVD for us once they arrive back home sometime this year and I am hoping she may be happy to sell some to those who might like a copy. Feel free to drop me line and I will put together a list. I hope you all enjoyed yourself and we are awaiting your feedback as where when and how you would like to do the next one. Thats all from me for now but I look forward to all the tales from your endeavours and escapades in the South for 2011.
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The Wakerley Motorhomes Festival is fast approaching and all those attending should have received your information pack with details, map and programme included either by email or snail mail. If you haven't received anything please contact Lynette or Brett so we can organise to get this info to you ASAP. Remember if you have friends travelling with you down South and they would like to attend just call us and give us their details and we will send them a personal invite. We are looking forward to this occasion and we hope you are all ready for a hoedown as we have got some fantastic entertainers ready to put on quite a show and the venue is perfect for a good time. Look forward to seeing you all in the deep south and lets hope we are blessed with the weather!!!!
The Wakerley RVService Centre and Wakerley Motorhomes were fortunate enough to be able to sponsor the World Cup of Horses here at the Tauranga Race Course over 3rd to the 6th of February. This year they had the opening round at a special event at Mills Reef Winery on the evening of the 3rd and it was a stunning location and something the organisers will repeat I believe. We sponsored the Wakerley Motorhome 3 Star Pony Grand Prix with the winner being Melanie Weal riding Hopeful Illusion from Te Awamutu. 
Our thanks to the organisers and competitors and to all the other sponsors that make the event possible. Enjoy the photos and if you see Grant you can ask him how much fun it is to try to put a rossette on the bridle of a very active pony!!! And remember that we are servicing and repairing all RV's now and that incudes Horse Trucks, Horse Floats, Caravans, Fifth Wheels and Motorhomes! We will service or repair both New Zealand and and imported products and we are now importing products from overseas so we can find solutions to all your servicing and repair needs. Just give Clinton a call and let him Know your problem and let us find a solution!!!!!
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More fantastic feedback from John and Judith Bishop MH101 about their time on the West Coast, Kohaihai, the end of the South Island’s west coast road. Plan on taking a couple of hours without stops from Westport to do the 112km trip. The Karamea bluffs are a good grind, the view at the top well worth stopping to look at.
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Kohaihai is 16.5 km from Karamea and about half of this trip is over a flat metalled road. Kohaihai is just another beautiful DOC camping site, it is at the start of the Heaphy track. There are flush toilets and water and although quite a large grass area, very few level camping spots for large vehicles. There is also an abundance of hungry sandflies. It’s a truly magic ‘get away from it all’ place. Good sea fishing. The Oparara basin and caves are well worth a look, motorhomes are discouraged in the basin – the tourists are inclined to fall off the road. There are guided walking and kayaking trips available from Karamea and plenty of cycle tracks.
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Thanks to John and Judith Bishop MH NO 101 we have an newsy update for the Aoraki (Mt Cook) National Park.
Want a glimpse of Mt Cook, stay at the recently upgraded DOC White Horse Hill camp site tucked in under the mountains. It now has 50 level motorhome sites and flush toilets. There are plenty of short walks from the campsite and many tramping tracks for the fitter. The walk up from the Hooker Valley to the base of Mt Cook is easy and the scenery spectacular or take the Kea point walk up to the Mueller Glacier Moraine wall at dawn and watch the sunrise over Mt Cook. Its simply stunning! Come back and eat breakfast under the crisp blue sky with Mt Sefton as your back drop. if you decide to drive over to Tasman Valley check the road condition first, as it is an easy drive but it can be very rutted and uncomfortable.
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The Covi Supershow was a fantastic weekend and I think you will all agree that the standard of displays and product on display was the best we have seen in New Zealand and I was very pleased with the comments we received about the motorhomes we had on display. A big thankyou to all of the Wakerley Owners who called in to see us and made positive comments on our stand.
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