Where are we now?

We have moved on from the family small holding after four very pleasant and relaxed days.  Before we arrived, I was a little worried about the family dog and how he would react to a strange cat on his property.  Noodle would come and look at Gemma through the closed screen door.  Then one morning Robin had the screen door open, Gemma was on her lead, and the two met nose to nose!  I was amazed that nothing untoward happened.  It may well have been a different story if Gemma was outside the safety of the caravan door.

First meeting between Gemma and Noodle

After meandering up and down hills on a minor road, it was then straight up SH1 passing through Waiouru.  It was clear that the school holidays were in full force as the carpark in the Waiouru Army Museum was full to bursting.  Kids were everywhere, climbing over the tanks in front of the museum to their hearts content.  A little further along the Desert Road we got a reasonable photo of Mt Ruapehu.

Mt Ruapehu

And to the right of Ruapehu was Mt Ngauruhoe, which featured as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films.

Mt Ngauruhoe, Mt Doom

We were heading for Lake Maraetai, at Mangakino, a freedom camping spot for a change, we don't often stay at these.  The first area we checked out was full of campers and day trippers, no room for our long caravan here.  Before we moved on to another area I stopped to take a photo of this interesting set up.  How about is cute little tear drop caravan!

Parked at the lake side

We found another area not too far away with plenty of room for us to get set up.  But…….. on arrival when I was moving Gemma from the car to the caravan we were set upon by the  neighbour’s off lead little dog!  That's one of the reasons we don't do freedom camping, people don't care that their dogs run free into other peoples camp sites.  And the reply when I mentioned that we had a cat and could they please keep their dog under control?  “Oh”, she said, “Our dog is trained not to chase cats, and we can’t find the lead”.   No wonder I get upset!  Just as well we are only staying for one night.

Lake Maraetai

I've taken both my knitting and stitching bags away with me, but so far haven't much to show at all.  Before we left home I made sure I had completed the heels on my 4ply blue socks.  As a  very average knitter, I think whoever worked out how to design and shape heels must have been very clever indeed!  With that done, it’s all plain knitting till I reach the toe shaping.

Blue socks so far

We will be heading further north each day, we like to keep our drives short while towing if we can.  There is a family 60th birthday to attend on New Year's Eve, which should be fun.