Day 41

Waking up early by the sun, Jack had porridge while I had cereal. Esther was tired and sore so we left her to nap while we went to Demolition World. A very big and interesting site full of old garage turned into houses for a town. It was a little creepy in some parts but mostly surprising and fun to explore. Plenty of baby chickens were running around, very cute. We were just watching out for the donkeys and the lama who seemed not to friendly. We spent a long time exploring before driving back to our “favourite” car park for lunch. While we had wraps, a lady drove accidentally into a tree behind us. That was a bit scary but all her family and her were fine (sad for their brand new car! AND THE TREE). Esther was still at the campsite so we called for our new request last night (the cottage) but no one answered the phone. It was our first time we didn’t have a hotel at least every week and a half, and we also had a new friend with us. Quite disappointed, I gave up on searching and was worried as I was running out of clothes. We decided to go to our first laundromat and spent part of the afternoon washing bed and all our wet and dirty clothes. Esther showed up right on time to give us some laundry powder as no shops were around. While waiting for washing Jack went and did some gardening across the road.

The sun was bright and hot, we tried to hang our towels on a clothes line tied between trees, but we ended up finishing everything in the massive dryer. Not to cheap but still better than a hotel and it actually didn’t wreck and of our (her) clothes! Jack also got chips and wedges to share, waking up Esther who decided to nap while we ran around doing laundry. Back in the middle of the town, we all went to the library to use the wifi. We decided to plan ahead this time and book a hotel for the week coming up in Dunedin. Finally, we found a place and Jack and them to request it. It wasn’t booked yet and the lady would send her confirmation later.  With clean  clothes once again, we went to pak-n-save stocking up for the future trip and fueled up the cars. I managed to finally pay our previous fine online (from Queenstown) before the expiry date. We bought food to make a good batch of bolognese sauce and pasta with some coleslaw as an entree.

At Queens park, we saw again the birds before dusk. The white talking cockatoo actually let us pat him! The green parakeets were also very cheeky and cute. The Keas were out and visible but still not interested by us. We played again in the playground with Esther while lots of kids were around. Surely sand flies had a good dinner as I was in shorts like others. We had few exchanges with Frisbee before starting to cook our nice meal. Very good dinner we had all together! After washing up, I finally for an email to confirm our booking! Good news! Then we went to the library again to watch few Youtube videos even if it was already 10pm. Esther went the other way, looking for spark wifi to get some news from her family at midnight. We went back to the campsite again, not the best we had but we thought it was too late to drive to Fortrose at night. Pretty tired, we slept waiting for Esther to join us…

Entree Written By Marianne