A Quick Update

While it has been a couple of weeks since we last updated the blog, we have been quite busy with the final preparations for our Australian adventure.  It is now only 22 days before we fly out to Brisbane but have to have the motorhome in Auckland on the 13 June to be loaded aboard the ship for its journey to Brisbane.

All the documentation in terms of the motorhome and ourselves has been completed on both sides of the Tasman so it is now just a matter of deciding what to take with us to last the two years. Everyone who has done a similar trip before us is saying just ‘shorts and t shirts’ will do the trick but we are well aware that nighttime in some parts of Australia gets quite cold even in summer.

After much debate we have decided not to take the bikes with us. The feedback we got from people who had taken theirs was that they only rode them a couple of times a month. The bikes spent most of the time on the back of the motorhome or the caravan.  To that, we have recently purchased in second hand Suzuki Jimny jeep in Brisbane which we will tow behind the motorhome to access those ‘hard to get to places’. Many thanks John and Donna in Brisbane who helped to make this happen.

Dearne at Waikite Valley Thermal Pools
Rotorua

The weekend weather in Whangamata has been atrocious so we packed up the motorhome on Saturday and headed off to the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools. The park is on the Rotorua – Taupo highway (about 24km from Rotorua) and 6km inland from the main road. It is a brilliant complex comprising 6 pools of natural geothermal water each at a different temperature.  There is a licensed café on site (we had venison burgers for dinner) and a campsite that takes about 12 motorhomes and a few tents. The camp is dog friendly and bookings are essential. We arrived at about 3.30pm on Saturday and they were turning motorhomes away from 5pm as the site was full.  We will definitely return in the future.

Take care all and we will update the blog again later in the week.