Rain rip dirt traffic bliss

Disaster. I was bending over my suitcase this morning when Kevin pointed out that the bottom of my much-used, much-loved, and ONLY jeans had worn through, and there was now a hole. Jemima thought this was hilarious; me, less so. We were leaving to collect the motorhome within the hour; jeans were necessary for this trip! So I rushed out into the rain (rain!) for some urgent shopping. But what do you know, opposite there was a shop called Just Jeans...

Problem solved, we took a taxi to the collection point through some terrible traffic, and terrible weather. Things weren't much better at the motorhome office. We have rather got used to Beatrix, a lovely, comfortable, modern motorhome. Unfortunately, Beatrix this was not, even before a year's hard use as a rental vehicle, and it hadn't been cleaned to the standard you might expect. After some quibbling and haggling, especially trying to find a suitable car seat for Jemima, we eventually set off on our NZ adventure. 

After a prosaic first stop at the supermarket, as is the way of motorhoming (along with every other starting-off motorhomer - the German couple at the check out next to me had two trolleys full!); and then a battle with more of Auckland's traffic, we were finally on the open road. Not a particularly big road, but definitely through big country: open acres of green fenced farmland with cows grazing peacefully, with mountains silhouetted in the distance, and, very sparsely, single story houses that looked like they were called ranches. The sun was finally out; we were finally on our way; New Zealand was looking beautiful; the world was looking up.

And then we reached our chosen destination for the night - a Family Holiday Park next door to hot springs in a place called Miranda - friendly, clean, pretty, with two trampolines to be played on! Once we'd settled in, Jemima and I headed straight for the pool - a long-promised request, otherwise I may have resisted - it was still quite breezy and I thought it might be a bit cold. But no, this was like being in a giant bath - 35 degrees apparently, heated by scaldingly hot water jets from the hot spring, bubbling up from little holes in the floor (as I found out when my toes got burned). But it was absolutely gorgeous, despite the slightly sulphurous smell. We wallowed like happy hippos.

Back to the motorhome, still slightly stinky, and Kevin took Jemima to bounce while I made dinner. (She did her usual making friends, to the extent that she ended up going back to two sisters' chalet, where they all watched TV in bed together.) Greek salad, ham, nice bread - a stalwart motorhome meal; and to our new beds - Kevin and I tried out the over cab bed, and Jemima's was made up below. The motorhome may not quite be what we're used to, but the motorhoming life is as good as ever - and if New Zealand continues to offer glorious views, friendly welcomes (and hot spring pools), it's going to be a good trip.

Back in the motorhome:

 

 

Farmland views:

 

Our new home (pre-swim):

 

The hot spring pool:

 

Auckland to Miranda: