Journal: Lake Walk and the Caravan Park

Friday the 13th, some consider it an unlucky day. I'm not very superstitious and I will walk under ladders but look first to see if it is safe... no paint pots!

I had my morning walk round our lake again this morning. The early morning temperature was 11C. and so I just had my pullover on. Towards the end of the walk I pass through the caravan park which belongs to the County Council. A pretty place on the lake edge with well kept trees and shrubs , the grass neatly mowed to lawn length.

The park is used regularly by tourists in camper vans or cycling as a nightly stopover and some stay a few days. Like many caravan parks there is a semi-permanent clientèle of all persuasions, a few homeless hiring a caravan, some working in the area during the week and then home at the weekends, some staying a few weeks or months and then moving on to pastures new.

Then there are the few are who are to all intent permanent with homemade awnings, floors and small gardens and patios. To these the council has turned a blind eye to the length of stay rules over the years. Recently these permanent and semi-permanents have been given their marching orders, a date set for next month, June. The council wants to redevelop the area; beautify it further in line with the lake walkway and park layout plan.

A number of the near permanents have old converted buses and some of the others, 28 foot dual wheeler caravans. When the local paper interviewed the permanents one said he had been permanent for 11 years. and this was his home. I know for a fact that at least one of the buses with permanent awning, patio and garden which sports a six foot tree-tomato tree laden with fruit has been resident here at least 15 years, since I began walking the area in 1990 and he looked very permanent even then.

Each morning as I pass through the park I wonder: will the old bus ever go again when the try and fire up its engine, will its wheels turn, are its tyres perished? Or will it have to be towed away or transported? A few other long-timers also probably fit into the tow away catagory, too. I wonder also where will they go? Who will have them? Their trauma presently must be intense.

Unlike the British Isles there are strict laws against squatting on private land or council owned land too, for that matter. Travellers would get short-shift with New Zealand laws. My mind boggles when I read of the antics of travellers in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Well I thought, I'm glad who I am, what I am and where I am. Any trauma I may have is negligible compared to some of these people.