It took much longer to pack and get the house ready for our house sitter who is looking after the 7 sheep, new lamb, the chooks (chickens for all you that don’t speak real english) and the two cats… This mean that we didn’t get away at luch time like we had planned but ended up leaving at about 7pm. We had planned on spending the first night of our adventures at my mother’s but as we left so late we stopped about 1/2 way there at a free-camping spot in Matamata. When we picked up the camper the grey-water was about 1/2 full, so while at this camp I made used of the dump-station there. [https://no.lastname.nz/pictrs/image/b2cf9a7f-ab68-4f1a-9903-0daa1e36b09b.jpeg] We then went hand had birthday lunch for the wife with my mother - a good opportunity to catch up and for the kids to see Nana. We then headed to our first ‘real’ stop, Hot and Cold creek. This is a natural hot-springs that wells up where two streams meet. A great place to relax and unwind on on the Winter Solstice on Matariki weekend (a New Zealand holiday marking the Māori new year) [https://no.lastname.nz/pictrs/image/590acab6-7b0d-4aa5-af8c-81a99fb72081.jpeg] [https://no.lastname.nz/pictrs/image/3a68b184-fa50-44f2-9e66-86f53c0e62a8.jpeg] It was then a short drive to Taupo to camp at Huka falls [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huka_Falls] The children have these thoughts: The water was relaxing and they are tired.