Time for Another

Next stop on the trip was from Rotorua to Tauranga.    The Sat Nav took us here to RV Service Centre.  Look was was waiting for us.

Our new Leisureline caravan, ordered at the recent Motorhome Show when  we went to in Hamilton about a month ago.  We attended the show with no intention of updating our caravan, but…….this one was calling our name.  With the paperwork tidied up, we then began the task of transferring our belongings from one van to the other.  Our legs really knew they had a workout, up and down the steps as we trudged from the old van to the new van, dodging showers as we did trip after trip.  Finally things were put into cupboards and drawer – we can make the final decision on moving things around later on.  The last thing to do was take armfuls of bedding over  – with the bed made up it looked like home.

Wonder how many trips we did from the old to the new?

Finally we were done and we left the RV Centre with good wishes ringing in our ears, a bottle of bubbly popped in our fridge, and a free night organized for us at Papamoa Motor Camp.  Spending the first night in the new van close by gave us the chance to make sure things were working well. This is a lovely camp, with great facilities, and right on the beach.  It’s sure to be full to the brim with campers over the Christmas holidays.

Papamoa Beach

Gemma wasn’t at all disturbed by the new van.  The bedding was the same, so she soon decided to settle down and have a snooze.  A sniff around here and there and she soon found her feeding bowls, and her dirt box.  Nothing to it, she spent some time looking at birds out the windows, had her tea, cuddled up with us for a while, everything was fine in her world.

 

Happy in the new van

The next morning we returned to the RV Centre as arranged to have a grab handle installed which the factory had forgotten to do.  Robin was not happy with the way the rear view camera was working, this was discussed at length and we are waiting on a satisfactory fix.  Time to hit the road again, stopping at Lake Rotoiti for lunch.  This lake is extremely popular with anglers wishing to try their luck in catching either a brown or rainbow trout – or maybe one of each.    

Lunch stop at Lake Rotoiti

You know Taupo is very close when we cross over this pretty little bridge by the Prawn Farm.

Almost at Taupo

And before too long we were pulling into the NZMCA Park at Taupo Airport again – yes, were we here only a few days ago, but it is a handy place to stay on trips up and down the country.  The drive down had been a little tense with wind gusts making towing difficult from time to time.  Then a news item told us that Tauranga was the windiest place in the country today – yes, we could believe that.

Back at Taupo Airport again

A new van deserves a new Log Book, as we like to record the distances we travel each trip.  In the five years we had our previous van, we traveled almost 30,000kms.  That’s a lot of trips away around our beautiful country.