So last night with no heat. I slept in my fleece and a down vest and was fine. Perhaps this was aided by my cold meds. The kids had three or four blankets piled on, and we’re fine. Poor Ty was loaded up with fleece, a beanie, and his coat with the hood up but still couldn’t get warm. At one point he noticed the temp was -3 Celsius = 26 Fahrenheit. So we definitely woke up seeing our breath inside the RV and frost on the ground. But aside from Ty we all slept great. Even if I was woken up at one point by the cows licking the RV. 😆
It was a simple breakfast since we couldn’t get the propane to work on the stove. Yogurt and cereal for all!
We drove just down the road. So beautiful!
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Then stopped for a brisk walk at Rotopounamu Lake. The trees have been incredible everywhere we’ve driven so far. So many different varieties. We played hide and seek along the trail and the kids wanted to start a business building perches for birds. No matter how cold it is outside, or how sick we may feel, it’s always nice to get outside.
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After our morning walk, we plugged the kids into an audiobook and headed north to Taupo.
Ty had read about an RV Park with thermal heated pools, a swim up bar, playgrounds, and movies at night. So after all our issues with the RVs heater, we wanted to plug in for the night or two. This place would be madness during high season but now there are only a handful of other campers here. We also have a giant bouncy pillow right outside our door. Wonderful!! We pulled into the campsite in the afternoon. We had lunch and called family, since this was our first time on WiFi in days.
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We decided to check out Crater of the Moon Park. This was such a neat experience. The thermal clouds were everywhere. Fun to experience as adults and to explain the process to kids. It was an easy 45 min walk, they even had strollers you could borrow. Have I mentioned how kind, and friendly every New Zealander has been?!
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After Crater of the Moon, we drove into Tuapo. Hit up the grocery store, and then walked to find dinner. It was about 4:30pm and half the restaurants were closed. The other half were closing at 5! And here we thought we were going for the early bird dinner. We came across an amazing burger take away. Came back to the RV Park and ate our meal as they parted some hokey Jackie Chan movie by the pool. Ty played some Uno with the kids and I was trying not to fall asleep at 7:30. I’m blaming the cold and jet lag.
