Day 4 - 6: Rain with some sun

11.02.18 - 13.02.18: Huntly - Hamilton - Rotorua

After a night with more or less sleep, we were relatively fit in the morning. Today is the first fasting day in New Zealand. This time not difficult after hours of feasting on the plane. Since it has been raining more or less since our arrival, we have already looked for a campsite that we knew and started driving. We stocked up again at Pick and Save. This time I took a picture to show you the huge shelves:

So, now we had an umbrella as the weather was not going to get any better. We continued on to Huntly. We are still tired and need a hot shower. The campsite should be familiar to regular readers.

#Toast#Pukeko@Nadine :o) This campsite was our last one before departure in 2015 and is now our first (nonfree) campsite.

First a walk, when you've been sitting for hours, your back doesn't thank you. Here's another picture of the competition, the legendary Countdown:

Phil went on strike and either wanted a burger or a flat white. Both have about the same amount of calories :o). He then got his flat white. On the way back, Sandra wanted to visit a birthing house. Well then, let's do it. The lady greeted us warmly and showed us all the rooms. It was sparsely furnished. She also told us that Hamilton has two beautiful birthing houses.

Not much else happened, we slept for another 12 hours (with an hourly interruption at five o'clock, when our body thought it was landing in Dubai or something. Fu... jetlag).

The sun greeted us in the morning. This with a 100% chance of rain. With our immense experience, we planned the following:

Don't buy toast bread that can feed a family of six for a week (it doesn't exist). Take two soggy rolls, a campsite with electricity, and a toaster. We already know that the converters with 400-600W can't handle it on minimum.

So we unpacked the toaster for breakfast, dunked the rolls in, and: nothing happened. We already knew that there was a battery with a charger under the bench seat. But since we assumed that the outlets were directly connected to the power supply (they only work when external power is plugged in), this should have worked. Oh well, the fuse was blown. After several attempts, we gave up. But then, with great pride, we came up with the idea of taking the toaster to the kitchen to finally have some damn crispy bread that you can eat. We think the toaster is broken, because the outlets in the kitchen didn't work either. And yes, before you ask Nadine, the switches on the outlet were on ;). Probably another blown fuse, as the microwave, which I had plugged in for testing purposes, also had no power after the toast disaster. The bottom line is, we had delicious jam with soggy bread.

Well, lucky for us, there was a great voltmeter that didn't move despite 240V. We've been there before. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a simple toggle switch. So let's call the hotline. a man directed Phil through the switches and plugs, but nothing worked. Using the motor, the charge level was at 12.4V at least. It would only be a matter of time before the battery runs out. Since we wanted to go to Hamilton, the man arranged for a mechanic. After 5 minutes, our first phone call was to Australia. (Apollo Camper Australia - beware [Tripadvisor]). Nevertheless, the man was quite friendly and wanted to send us an address in Hamilton via SMS.

After Swiss punctuality, we left the campsite towards Hamilton. In Hamilton, we visited the iSite for the Great Walks. At the same time, we wanted to know if there are rugby games in the lower league. Like last time: whenever we are not on site or were not there or will not be there, the games take place. We will probably plan our next NZL vacation according to the game schedule. But then All Black inc. Well, the lady referred us to the DOC, how quickly one forgets how it works. The DOC lady referred us to the internet, as this is only an office for administration. Well... we wanted to find the nice café from last time. We then found another nice café where we had burgers and salad. NZ logic.

Unintentionally, we parked 500m next to the birthing house. So we went there and took a look. Very friendly reception and we were allowed to take pictures

Off we went to the mechanic. We had to wait about two hours. Then we had a new charger. The mechanic's comment: the old charger is a cheap piece of shit. Fortunately, it went relatively quickly. We just hope that the landlord doesn't come up with the idea of keeping the money for it.

It's a beautiful district camping for free.

Then the rain came, a lot of rain. Soon too much rain. The van was soon in the lake. Well, the planned hike the next day literally went down the drain. What a shame. We continued towards Rotorua with the order of café, beer, and burger.

There we inquired about a thermal bath for tomorrow. Now we're back on a free campsite (Boyes Beach Reserve at Lake Okareka) with a lake... and rain.

By the way, after long consideration, we decided to only visit the North Island. Otherwise, we would just be driving around like crazy and burning $. (The ferry alone costs about $660 round trip, driving 400km costs about $100). Also because the weather is not getting much better and we would like to do the Great Walks.

Tomorrow afternoon we will drive towards Lake Waikaremoana and do the Great Walk Waikaremoana from Thursday to Saturday. Like last time: If we don't call on Saturday evening or at the latest Sunday evening, contact the DOC http://www.doc.govt.nz/, thank you.