Tuesday, May 4th We were woken by the arrival of a group of people at 6am. Stubborn refusal on our part to accept this reality allowed us to snooze till 8am. Sleeping in a parking lot is definitely not in anyway peaceful. Also, we were starting to feel a little like dirty street children, so we decided to go somewhere were we won't stand out so much. Some place with animals and the occasional other camper. And so it was that after breakfast we set off back to Ambury Farm RP. We'd not spent much time there, it's nice and peaceful, there's animals and only the occasional other camper. On the way we stopped for a few supplies and managed to get most of our hiking food too. Before reaching the park we spotted a nice ... read more

Wednesday, April 28th We decided to move a bit further south, for no other reason than to do something. Our few pieces of clothing were also in need of a wash so we thought we'd drive down to Orere point and see if the holiday park there would let us do our washing there. We said goodbye to Ginger and went to fill up our water tank before hitting the road. While Ferdi was filling the tank Talita spotted the kitten and gave her the rest of the tuna. We wanted to keep her, but we didn't cause we couldn't catch her. We took a leisurely drive down to Orere Point. We hadn't intended to stay the night, but they wouldn't allow us to wash our clothes if we didn't. We booked in and decided to ... read more

Thursday, April 22nd The day dawned overcast and rainy in Orewa. We spent most of the morning in the van making use of the good internet connection to do a few online duties before having a late, but very delicious breakfast. Before leaving Orewa we stopped to pick up a few supplies, then headed north a few kilometers to the Wenderholm Regional Park. As we drove down the access road to the park we were taken by the beautiful autumn leaves blazing orange and yellow on the trees lining the road. We booked ourselves in, using an easy and effective telephone/envelope system. You pick up the telephone, a ranger answers, you give your details, put your cash in an envelope and drop it in the drop-box. You’re given the code for the combination-lock to the campground ... read more

Friday, April 16th The day before yesterday, while driving to Whatipu, the left front brakes started to make a noise, so after breakfast Ferdi tried to see how much pad was left on the brakes. He couldn't see the pads without taking the wheel off so we thought we'd better have it checked out by a guy with the right tools. We left Piha just after 10am and headed into west Auckland. As we drove we noticed that the handbrake light kept coming on when we headed down hill and in our experience that meant we were running low on Brake Fluid so we stopped at the first garage we saw to top up. They had a workshop in the back and said they could also have a look at our brakes. We had to wait ... read more

Saturday, April 10th Our stomachs were feeling much better but we suffered from terrible dehydration headaches. Mel prepared an awesome breakfast and then we washed all our bedding and towels to get rid of any lingering germs. While Team Smit was out shopping we cleaned the house. Then Talita made date squares while Ferdi went shopping for a way to charge that second battery that Graeme had so kindly given us. He found the perfect solution in a Battery Isolator. This little device is installed between the two batteries and allows both to be charged by the van's alternator while isolating the main battery, thereby protecting it from being depleted by things like the fridge and inverter. Back home Ferdi had to do some contortioning to get the isolator installed, but managed to get it done ... read more