Heading north to collect our home!

The message we had been awaiting finally arrived, “Your Arapaho is ready for collection”. Hooray! Thursday morning we were up early and on the road to Tauranga at 08.45hrs. We started out under an overcast sky but it improved the further North we got until it was clear blue skies upon arrival in Tauranga.

Mt Ruapehu was in hiding but we found Mt Ngauruhoe

Crossing the Desert Road from Waiouru to Taupo we were treated to a sight not often seen, a heavily snow covered Mount Ngaurahoe clear of any cloud with a backing of clear blue sky. Absolutely beautiful. Just below the mountain, which is a dormant volcano, we pulled over into a parking area for a quick picnic lunch. There was a mountain stream running past the picnic area with crystal clear water, lovely stuff.

Mt Ngauruhoe almost out of the cloud

We arrived at the yard of Castle European to find our baby parked with 3 other recently imported motorhomes. After a coffee and a chat Paul showed us the alterations and modifications made to bring it in line with New Zealand regulations. The biggest change was with the entertainment system as the English aerial and free to air tuner were useless in NZ. We have had a Wineguard satellite dish fitted on the roof with a NZ compatible tuner. The whole system has been set up so that a second TV with it’s own tuner can be used in the rear lounge independent of the original system.

Clear bubbling brook alongside the rest area where we stopped for lunch.

It was well after midnight before we were able to get to bed with only a small amount of gear being transferred from the car. Ah well, another day tomorrow.

New bridge over Waikato River on the bypass to Lake Taupo (we will go there on the way south)