National Park to Hamilton

It was a misty morning for travelling on Monday as we hooked up the caravan and left National Park, travelling past the famous Raurimu Spiral on the Main Trunk Railway.  We drove up SH4 past Taumaranui, sidled past the townships of Te Kuiti and Otorohanga, and stopped briefly at Pirongia, where we had previously stayed for several days.  Poor old Muffy wasn’t too happy with the road taking us up hill and down dale, and around all those corners – she spent the whole journey stoically lying across my knees with her head hanging down low.

Misty morning and Muffy’s reaction to travelling along windy roads

We drove past the handsome white Morman church at Temple View.  As well as massive roadworks happening in this area, there was an awful lot of building taking place, new housing and a huge concrete slab hall was being erected.

Church at Temple View

We stayed for a couple of nights in Hamilton at the Classic Car car park.  This is such a handy place to stay when we have to take our caravan back to Leisureline factory for a service or any other work required.  Geoff and Eileen arrived a day ahead of us and had work done on their caravan on Monday , and our small job was booked in for Tuesday.  Hamilton is well known for fog and mist, and we awoke on Tuesday to find the area enveloped in white out conditions. 

Misty morning in Hamilton, parked by Classic Car Museum

Our caravan was hooked back onto the car, and we drove through the busy Hamilton traffic to Leisureline factory.  The job was to replace the current gas cylinder cradle with a new model, making it so much easier to remove the bottle.  You know how it goes – the gas bottle usually runs out in the dead of night when it is pouring with rain.  Robin had to remove all sorts of screws to change the bottle, and now the job can be done with one flick of the wrist, rather like those cake tins.  Then the fibreglass cowl was bolted back in place and we were good to go.

Off with the old and on with the new

The new gas cradle bolted in place

.

While in Hamilton we also took a ride out to Waikato Bedding to collect our brand new mattress topper, made to measure to fit our caravan bed.  Made from memory foam and wool, it certainly makes a difference to a comfortable sleep in the van. 

And to show our appreciation of being able to stay at the Classics Car Museum, we made sure we had lunch there.  Obviously, there has been some problems with campers recently as a new sign has appeared in the diner.  It is such a shame when some people abuse the hospitality offered.

 

New sign in the diner

We enjoyed our American Hot Dogs and ice cream sodas