The child in you must...

The child in you doesn't have to do anything at all. Sometimes, it wants to do things, and sometimes it’s just the right day for it, especially since you have a long road trip ahead that you can sweeten with breaks. We're driving from Tongariro National Park to Wellington. Since our driver knows the route almost by heart, we can make some stops to let our inner silliness shine through.

My inner child wanted to:

Dance by the roadside before departure and guide the truck driver onto the shoulder.

At the first stop, pose with the giant carrot statue and then swing and climb on the playground, pushing the Flying Fox to its limit.

In Taihape (the gumboot capital of New Zealand with a large gumboot statue), wear the leopard gumboot and throw it the farthest in a throwing competition (which, of course, I failed to do). But it wasn't the official Gum Boot Festival; that's only in March.

At the lunch stop, eat ice cream for lunch and then run through the corrugated iron maze, hiding from each other.

Simply understand everything ambiguously.

In Wellington, climb around at the viewpoint and in front of the city sign.

Sometimes argue with my adult self, which tended to say 'Yes, but' or 'No' too often. My inner child says 'YES'. And that is the right word for this day.

Buy our group’s rooster a pair of pink heart-shaped sunglasses as a farewell. His inner child wanted to wear them all evening. Mine was very happy about that.