We left Taupo NZMCA camp and meandered up to Ngongotaha NZMCA camp just north of Rotorua. The journey was uneventful with the weather and the roads making it an enjoyable trip. We established camp on the upper level with a view of the lake.
We were visited by John and Diane Lang who travelled from Putaruru for the afternoon just to catch up. John worked at IBT our old company for many years and we have stayed in touch since closure of the company in 2007. The park has a small off lead dog-park where Mac and Rose enjoyed the freedom.
Sunday we biked into Rotorua and did the scenic route around the lake front and then to the thermal area. We stopped at a local Ngongotaha café. It was quite apparent the cash being injected into Ngongotaha by the campers from the camp ground was considerable.
We continued our travels on Monday traveling up SH22 through Matamata and stopped at Pukekohe A & P show grounds. The parking area is well set up and is very pet friendly.
The reason we stopped over was that I was not sure the rig would fit in the driveway at home. Never leave anything until the last minute. A bit like buying a treadmill only to find it would not fit in the door. Hmmm that actually did happen
After the traffic settled down on Tuesday I ventured out by myself into the Auckland Car Park commonly miss labelled as a motorway. Arriving home I had Wade assist in removing a small retaining wall and cutting out a steel gate post plus a couple of trees. This realigned the drive way and was all set to bring the rig home Wednesday.
The travel to the shore via the north western motorway and the tunnel was an anti-climax with all the typical idiots either having slept in or had already gone to work. All the prep work on the driveway proved to be correct and the rig was parked with three attempts to back her into the dedicated parking spot. With the slide outs extended there was still 150 – 200 mm spare all the way around. The only drama being the solar is shaded for most of the day by the trees.
Now the work begins to finish all the jobs around the house by the end of March as well as fit the awnings to the 5th wheel and then on the road again.
