Its raining and its raining

Not really swimming weather
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Well the original plan was to head for Ohope Beach as Steve had great visions of fishing in the harbour there.  He had had good authority that the fishing was excellent in the harbour and has been going on about Ohope for about 2 weeks now.

But the rain steps in.  We see a car in a ditch, hear about a cyclone on the radio, the power is out in Rotorua, and fishing is definitely out of the question.  So we decide instead to head upto Tauranga direct, and give Ohope a miss.  Steve is visibly disapointed. Ahhh I hear you all say!  I'm not so disapointed as the campsite at Ohope wasnt the best, and wasnt much there for Matthew to do.

managed to escape the kids

View from the Mount
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At Tauranga we have fish and chips at a place a local recommended to us when we last stopped here.  It is absolutely delicious and at under 5 quid for the three of us (Matthew likes his fish), it is an absolute bargain.  You can even select you fish from the fresh fish counter and get that cooked up if you want.  Great place.

We park on a campground Mount Maunganui, and its from here I am writing this now.  There is an excellent internet connection here, and its cheap, and its available at the next campsite, so I will be on email to you all hopefully over the next couple of days.  At the present time Lloyd is asleep on the "shelf", Steve is asleep down in the main cabin, and Matthew is quietly playing beside me with a puzzle.  I can see the ocean outside the window and it doesnt look too friendly, although the surfers seem to like it.  The rain is terrible, and looks set to continue for the next 2 days.  We will go to the i-Site tomorrow and try to find some indoor activities to do, maybe take Matthew swimming.

March 30th - Friday

All night it rained, and most of the day today. The papers are full of stories of flooding further up the coast, and more rain is forecast for the weekend.  Great!!  Matthew was also not in his best mood today, I think he has caught the cold from the kid in MacDonalds the other day (oh I so saw that one coming!!!).  We were going to go swimming, but on arrival at the swimming pool he threw such a wobbly we decided that it wasnt such a good idea.

We also went to the indoor adventure playground, but couldnt get a parking space, obviously everyone else had the same idea.  It didnt look too great either from the outside so dont think we missed much.

So we hit the shops, finding an indoor shopping mall near to the campsite.  Nothing like an english shopping mall, the closest to it in england would be the Royals in Southend, though the Royals is larger.  But one of the best we have seen in New Zealand nonetheless.

I buy some clothes for Fiji - I hadnt bought any formal clothes and realised I would need this in Fiji.  Steve is adament he is going to dinner in Fiji in jeans and a t-shirt, which is not ideal, but his decision.  I'll just sit at another table!  To be honest we are probably going to stand out like a sore thumb on the resort anyhow, what with me breastfeeding Lloyd and Matthew throwing screaming fits at random intervals!

I had my hair cut today.  Was very strange as was in the shopping mall, just walked in and they did it there and then.  The strange part was that had no wash bowls, was a bit like being in a barbers.  But other women were coming in, all with nicely groomed hair, so maybe that type of hairdresser is common in NZ.  The girl who cut my hair also seemed very young, but I suspect this may be just me being in denial about how old I am!  I noticed afterwards that the grey hairs are creeping through, also quite worrying!  Matthew is growing his hair long, I quite like it long, although first thing in the morning it can look a bit dodgy.

I managed to escape the kids this afternoon.  Amazing experience! Steve went for a walk along the beach, returning to tell me to go see what he had just seen (some waves or something).  I used this as an excuse to disappear for just over an hour and walk up Mount Maunganui!  Was great fun, 232 metres high or something like that.  I really enjoyed myself, felt like a person once more, not just a mother.  Steve was pretty surprised when I told him where I had been, and slightly stressed on my return.  I think it was good for him to experience what it's like trying to look after 2 kids in a motorhome.  Apparantly LLoyd had woken Matthew up, then Matthew woke Lloyd up!

Our routine is now definitely in place.  After 6pm we all start winding down, and the kids are usually asleep before 7.30pm now.  Is wonderful to have some time for ourselves.  Tonight I went to the shower whilst Steve got Matthew to sleep, only to return to find Steve asleep also!  I have left him for time-being, nice to get a break from him aswell!!

Tomorrow we plan to try to go swimming again, if Matthew is up to it.  Then we are just going to potter around I think, do some jobs that need doing before we leave NZ.  If it is raining NZ becomes a very miserable place to be, as most activities for us are outdoors. Steve is also eager to fish off the Bay of Plenty here, so have to wait for better weather for him.  I'm quite happy here as have an internet connection.  I've been online 7 hours so far in last 2 days, so shows you what I'm upto in the evening! Still havent caught up with all the emails though, so apologies if I havent mailed you.  Will get to it shortly.