We woke up in our seaside accommodation at 8 am and fixed ourselves some breakfast. Shortly after the nearby camper vans had left, we were getting ready to leave, but first, we were going to use the dump station. This was our first emptying of the grey water tank and the toilet waste cassette. It was quite simple. The grey water was emptied using a tube that we connected to the car. The toilet waste cassette had a good design that allows for easy emptying and cleaning.
We rolled out from the campsite and drove along the coast in Wellington to an area close to Oriental Beach, from where we walked up to Mount Victoria. It was many stairs and hilly tracks which lead up to Mount Victoria, and “Mount” felt like a well-deserved prefix to Victoria indeed. The view from the top was nice, but due to clouds, we could not see very far. But we think we could see our car from up there.
When we got down, we managed to get back to our car right before the parking maid got around to our parking lot. This was good as we arrived five minutes late for our parking ticket. We drove out from Wellington and started making our way north on Highway one. Before we got too far, we drove into a shopping area to go to a Noel Leeming store, which sells electronics. But Burger King became prioritised, so we went in for lunch first. We got some suggestions from the woman behind the counter when we asked for student deals, even though they weren’t student deals the deals she suggested were within a good price range, and we were sold.
Stomachs full we headed into the Noel Leeming store and bought a phone charger for the 12V carjack, as our phones had been running low on power while driving. We plugged it in, and it was working as we drove back onto highway one. On the roads there was a lot of traffic, there was congestion multiple times, and we started discussing how to re-plan the NZ highway system. Although experiencing queues at some point is probably to be expected on a road trip.
We took another pause to refuel on our way, but otherwise, we drove straight to our next camp site, Whakapapa Holiday Park. As we were getting close to the camp site, rain started hitting our windscreen. The campsite itself was a bit muddy due to the rain but seemed alright otherwise. It’s located in the middle of Tongariro National Park, which has several volcanoes and seismic activity. But the weather forecast didn’t look good, so the plan on hiking tomorrow morning had to be cancelled, and we decided on heading straight to our next destination.
Gustav discovered that the cramped toilet in the van is actually rotatable, which means that you can use it without training to become a contortionist. That’s good news although we wouldn’t have minded realising that earlier than day 5.
Time for bed! – G&L
