Tag Archives: playground

Part 16 – Queenstown, the affluent city

Today, at 9.30am, a workshop would check out Timmy’s problem. Finally! We got up early and drove to Queenstown. We stopped at one lookout on the top of the hills, motor running, to look down on Queenstown from above. But mostly, we just needed to park Timmy at the workshop and hope for the best.

Once parked, we walked into the inner city to sort out what we’re actually going to do now. Queenstown, Queenstown is the city where you need money. I mean, yes, things are expensive, but mostly you need money to do any of the cool things on offer here. Wanna go bungy jumping? Wanna go on a jet boat through the canyon? How about paragliding? Or a tiger submarine on the lake? Maybe take the steamer over the lake? Need a drink at the ice bar? A helicopter ride? All of these things sound like fun and they all are bloody expensive.

After all the stress of driving Timmy for the last couple of days, Flo got to decide while we had lunch. He decided that we would take the gondola up the mountain. YAY! And then, he and Number 3 would go down the mountain in a go cart. *shrugs* Okay then. It was all good and well until he decided to book 6 go cart laps for me as well. To say the least, I was not amused and also terrified. BUT…going down the laps 6 times…it started to be fun at some point. 🙂 I didn’t partake in of the racing the rest of my family engaged in. It was by far the most loved activity for Number 3. He LOVED it! He beat Flo in two of the races they had. And Flo drives a mean wheel, you know.

Afterwards, I got my sweet treat at Patagonia chocolates. That was my “must happen” in Queenstown. We took Flo’s coffee to the playground and hung out. Word about Timmy got to us: The alternator was broken, the new part could be shipped in for tomorrow. YAY! Timmy will be okay tomorrow!

This information made our very expensive campground stay tonight feel less bad. Also, the campground turned out to be AMAZING. It was by far our favourite campground. Super nice views, great facilities and a GAME ROOM with an ARCADE GAME for the kids. I think Number 3 will move to Queenstown if he ever has enough money for it.

On Thursday, Timmy had his operation at 11 am. It was scheduled to take 3 hours after which we would be free to go whereever we wanted to go again. This time, we took it slow. We spent as much time on the amazing campground as we could (latest check out was 10am), then dropped off Timmy. Today, we hung out at the lakefront of Lake Wakatipu and used the playground some more. We also used the time to go into the doc visitor’s center where the knowledgable lady suggested a walk along the route to Glenorchy for us and the kids. It sounded good so after getting a fully repaired Timmy back, we made our way to Glenorchy and stopped at Bob’s Cove for a walk. Picnic Point was a great lookout.

For tonight, Flo had booked a doc site at Kinloch, which is around the top of the lake from Glenorchy. The whole route down there is such a scenic drive, only the last 10km of gravel are in such a bad condition that I wasn’t sure we’d make it to the campsite. But we made it and it was a lovely place to spend the night.

Part 10 – Double the Fun Week

Faced with the tough choice of another week of school vs. a week of daytrips with me, Number 3 chose the latter. Not for lack of fun at school, but more out of fear of missing out. Nina did go all out this week, working basically nine to five.

It was quite the spectacular week, all in all. We ended up with all sorts of activities. A best-of-the-past walking tour, including the cable car, botanical gardens and CBD. One and a half days of Te Papa, including stalking mum over her work-coffee. A chill day with movie and snuggles.

But probably the highlight was renting an e-bike and one kids’ bike for Number 3 (sadly, he was still too small for even the smallest of the kids’ e-bikes) and going on an epic 30km ride along the eastern shoreline and over Mount Vic.

For convenience and to have a place for me to get a nap in during the day, we ended up taking Timmy into town on most of those days. Parking at Te Papa was both central and very convenient, and we were more flexible on when to leave and head back.

Part 2 – Pre-Lauch

As I am lying here, in the back of Timmy the Motorhome with a view of the beach, there is no other way than feeling our trip has just now entered Chapter 1 proper. The last week could be considered prolog, but in life – everything counts, nothing is extra. So let me tell you a bit about the rest of our first week in New Zealand.

We arrived on Thursday morning, as evidenced in our first post. By Saturday, we had pretty much settled in: All paperwork done, accounts reactivated and a motorhome purchase completed. Shoutout to Hennie, who was very supportive and patient with his personal “scammer” buying a pretty expensive vehicle for the most part remotely from Germany.

Sunday was a slow day for all of us, most of all me with the obligatory plane-pest now all the way at the fever stage. Nina: The kids and I still spent some time in Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Center on this Sunday.

So as Monday came round, it was time to direct our focus towards this place. Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. We decided to use the day to make good on Number 3’s birthday present and took the bus to MOTAT – the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland. He absorbed every minute of it, from opening time at 10am till the doors closed. The Agent of Entropy was less impressed but got distracted enough by some craft opportunity as part of the Auckland Anniversary Day weekend program. Her real highlight was the daring deeds to be had on the playground afterwards.

Tuesday was all preparations, getting Timmy ready for the road. It never ceases to amaze us that the unwritten NZ tradition when trading used goods seems to be that the buyer will clean. Nina: I on the other hand used the morning to get acquainted with the laudromat to do some proper washing of everything.

I was a bit high on isopropyl alcohol and glue (from fixing some sag in the headliner in the luton) when we met friends Elle and Nick in the afternoon. As perfect coincidence had it, Elle works at the Auckland Maritime Museum, so Number 3 got to see the Black Magic and America’s Cup replica first hand.

It was brilliant to catch up with old friends after 10 years. Things change, things stay the same, but everyone has a distinct memory of the covid years.

And so Wednesday came around. Nina’s first day at work and the reason (among others) why we are in New Zealand in the first place. So while she got real work done, thanks to amazing support from the Auckland Art Gallery staff, I got to play stay-at-home dad and took the little ones on a day hike up Maungawhau (Mt. Eden). The cafe up there was the perfect lunch spot. In my view, the view from the caldera beat spending over 100$ on the SkyTower any day. The Agent thought less so for all the walking up and down hill it entailed.

And so, we end our settled ways, sleep one more night at our AirB&B with Timmy ready to go tomorrow …

Even after a brief shower, the trampoline remained their favourite “toy”

Day 20 – The weirdest melange

It had rained the whole night. The damp meadow that we sat upon had turned into a muddy bog. Yuck, is the word that comes to mind. Flo took out the first chair to set up for breakfast, looked at the mud, looked at me shaking my head and said “hang on a minute”. Luckily, he found a wooden picnic spot with table, benches and roof about 100 meters from our tent. Right next to the playground in fact. It was such a relief that we didn’t have to put all our stuff into the mud and then clean it before putting it back into the car. J We had to carry things there but they did not get muddy. In fact, while Flo was wearing his jandals, he suggested that I should just stay barefoot as I’d ruin any pair of shoes that I’d put on anyways. I did. It’s been a long time since I put my feet in the mud like that. 😀 I had a bigger problem with the slugs though…barefoot.

Good bye to you too – I hope the next one is as nice …

Anyhow, we ate and then started to pack. The Agent of Entropy decided to bring more entropy to the table. She sat down in the mud, splashing both her hands in the puddles, looking like a little piglet before I could even get to her. Oh well. She stayed that way until we were finished with packing. Then, I took her to the showers to clean my feet and her.

Finally, finally, a bit later than we’d wanted to, we were on the road. Since we picked the next campground close to Düsseldorf, we had a shortish day in the car. Maybe 3.5-4 hours of driving. We aimed to get to the campground around 3ish. From there, we picked a lunch spot that was in a good location, time-wise and in terms of the kilometres we’d already done. It turned out to be a rest stop on a bridge so both sides of the autobahn could access it. One more fast food stop it is then. This one didn’t even have the vegetarian option that we (even Flo) usually go for, just fries and chilli cheese nuggets. (Flo: yeah, PBWopper – now eating junk does not have to come with a side of tortured animal any longer :D)

A rather disappointing lunch and some time on the playground later, we got back into the car. We still had a way to go. I tried calling the campground but their reception was closed from lunchtime till 3pm. So we just drove to the Kerstgenshof campground. There were quite a lot of people in the parking lot, probably all waiting for the reception to open. Flo managed to be second in line and we got a campsite with electricity.

we can do basically the same, right? Thats AoEs attitude to playgrounds with Number 3

Setting up, actually just stopping there, we realized we’d have unusual neighbours. Almost all of the people in this row were families with kids or retirees with their campervans. Not our neighbours. They had a beer pong table in front, three tents pitched on one campsite and a speaker in every corner of their site to listen to bad music. I was not quite happy with it until Flo made me aware that my attitude was in line with all the retirees who openly glared at the younger people. I mean, yes their music was not good but not even overly loud. Yes, their conversation was tiring but we’ve all been young. We probably wouldn’t have chosen a kid-friendly nature camp to party for a weekend though.

We went on a walk to the playground until it started raining and then hid in the facilities, showering the kids and so circumvented a lot of their out-of-line-ness. Back at the camp, we had dinner listening to their music but once we started getting the kids ready for bed, they also packed up their things and left. In fact, that was the last thing I heard from them. They managed to return sometime during the night without waking us up. I had dreaded the night (and potential wake ups and grumpy kid) and now was seriously impressed.

Day 1 – Again?

… have you not just been on a holiday? That was the most common response to us telling people that we were leaving once more with the roof tent. I mean, really, my hands are tied, aren’t they? First, our parental leave trip got cut short so cruely. Then, there is the fact that we have no daycare available for the whole next three weeks. Should I have dropped it all on Nina?

Besides, we have a chance for redemption, in a way. Fully vaccinated as we both are now and the numbers way down, we acuatally can go to Sweden this time! So here we are again.

Packing and cleaning took us all morning so by the time we were actually ready to leave, the Agent had fallen asleep in her high chair with Fabian as a cushion

Minor issues so far: My 10th rib is still mending from a fracture (strain injury from coughing for two weeks, don’t ask) and Sweden is kind of far away and really big for a European country.

The rib seems to be fine enough – let’s see how it goes after a night in the tent, but I am off painkillers for a week now.

The distance lead us to a rare choice for us: just leg it – onto the motorway for 2 days to maximise our time spent in Sweden proper. Not even Copenhagen is on the list, at least on our way there. We rarely do, prefering to take in the distance and scenery changes as we move about. But what can you do, three weeks is just not a lot of time, especially for our style of travel.

With that out of the way, there is not much more to say about today. We were a bit slow in our packing – but adding up a teething Agent of Entropy, a broken rib and a bit of house cleaning to do, it just was what it was. We left around 11 am, with one last stop before we could hit the motorway.

After that, just a lot of driving. The long morning packing had exhausted both of the hobbits enought that they slept through most of the first 200km. We did start with some charging frustration right away, even though we specifically picked a fast-charging provider that had worked for us in the past. No luck this time, though. The less than helpful support hotline suggested we could try the twice as expensive direct pay option. Whatever, 15€ lost to bad customer service – at least the charging speed was good. Will have to follow up what might have gone wrong there, though … ahh … teething pains.

Speaking of – the AoE slept or rested even after our lunch stop. Number 3 stayed awake but was a real good sport and kept his spirits up for the remaining 189km. At least the camp turned out to be super cool when we turned up at almost 5pm. Especially nice for something literally 2 minutes off the motorway. Green, shaded and with enough for the wee ones to keep themselves entertained for the rest of the evening. One more hard push and then we are game to turn off the motorway and start traveling …

Day 4 – Old friends in new places

Our original plan was to leave for Italy today but when yesterday turned out to be…substandard, we decided to stay the whole day at Christine’s place to relax and catch up with one of our oldest friends. Luckily, Christine, Torsten and their little one were able to host us longer than they had expected. J

The day started off with Flo making pancakes for everyone (such a treat!) and they were devoured in record time. To be fair, we haven’t had enough sleep as the catching up part started yesterday evening which stretched into the night and then our two rascals were awake from 5.50am onwards when the Agent of Entropy crashed into the wooden train set with gusto and woke us up with a start. The best thing to do to remedy some of the effects of a night with not enough hours of shut-eye was to immediately plan our second breakfast. At 8pm, Flo, Christine and the Agent of Entropy left for the bakery to buy more baked goods for our indulging shenanigans.

Second breakfast started around 9.20am and after so much yummy food we all agreed to go on a walk before taking advantage of the more relaxed Swiss Corona rules and eat out for lunch. As it is with kids though, it took forever to get three of them ready to leave so by the time we were outside we had about 40 minutes left before the aforementioned kids would demand lunch. -.-

Our walk was postponed until after even more food and we headed straight to the restaurant in the next village up. Neither Christine nor Torsten had been there before so it was nice to explore something new with our hosts. This part (or maybe many parts) of Switzerland are very rural so we passed sheep and chickens and a picturesque fountain on the way. All three kids absolutely loved it.

The restauarant…what can I say?…it’s been almost a year since we went out for food. It was a celebration in itself to be able to do this again. Also, the food was delicious, the place kid-friendly (Number 3 had a Pizza Batman and a scoopf of mango ice cream) and our outside seating had just the right combination of sunshine and shade.

On the way back, we then had to hurry to be home in time to get the kids to bed for their midday nap. Well, two out of three kids had to nap. We still took the scenic route home with time for cows, a tractor and all things Swiss. It was a bit of a task to get the kids to calm down enough to sleep but once the Agent of Entropy slept there even was time to play a boardgame with Number 3.

In the late afternoon we went to the playground where much fun was had.

Back home we opted for more food followed vy a much earlier bedtime. J Tomorrow, we’ll head off to Italy…with a detour (back to Germany o.ô) to refresh our rapid Covid tests first.

Day 51 – Avoiding revolutions

Once again, we started the day with a bit of indecision about the immediate next steps: Stay and spend our rest day here? Move on? No rest day but super short days instead? It actually took us all of 10 minutes of pulling off our chateau camp (so no rest day today) to make up our minds.

I briefly brought up the option of visiting Versailles. Paris we wanted to avoid for several reasons, but maybe a one-day sightseeing stop the day after tomorrow? In the end, we decided against it – the weather was the biggest factor – I had seen it once in the rain, only a sunny day would do for making a detour worth it. Plus, avoiding Paris’ traffic and potential Gilets Jaunes disruptions was definitely a factor.

Lacking a good target in the area we wanted to end up in tonight, we took sort of the best path avoiding Paris on a northern route and aimed for a “regular” campground with good google ratings.

We were really quite pleasantly surprised by the route we ended up on. It really had this road trip feel to it, where making distance is sort of first priority, but the landscape zooming past is part of the experience. Rural France can be quite enchanting. The N-routes took us past most villages, but through enough that it had far less of the sterile feel of toll motorways.

A great but slightly too sunny lunch spot was easily found just by the road – a little artificial lake. Same goes for our coffee break at 2, just stopping in a picturesque village square and dropping into the local café for a bit of a booster and some local colour.

barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it

The campground was nothing to write home about – but it had a picnic table ready for us, saving some time. The real event of the evening was the thunderstorm hitting us right after arrival, with just enough time to set up the tent and get the storm cover, literally seconds before a good old summer storm hit us. Number 3 was a little scared in the beginning but it got better fairly quickly while we all cuddled in the tent.

It even got a bit sunny after that and Number 3 managed to wear through two sets of clothing jumping into puddles and exploring before the sun came out again. He finished his day off with a round on the playground, impressing us once more with his motor skills and fearlessness. Early bed time it was for us. With little happening today, it still felt like a good day. Just the three of us, in tune with the road and ourselves.

“I can sit everywhere now!” – “yeah, but breakfast is back here …”
bye bye, almost cliché France
tree lined driveway leading up to the place — trés posh!
“I’m hungr .. zzzZZZzzz”
Bigger Chateau diplomacy
Picnic tables are superb climbing terrain …
who the boss here?
Stuff happening in the skies
cool tower in cool town, names are all a blur
first time we tested out the storm cover – did it’s job!
exploring in puddles
barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it
he used the bobble thingies for the first time on this trip – now he has them figured out
“you call this an obstacle?”
“ok, this is a bit scary now”
“no, never mind … wheeee”
he sat down in the end … RIP pants #2