and the second best things in life...

...are almost for free

it is almost official. with only one week to go, the most beautiful spot for camping so far is elected to be maitai bay on karikari peninsula, one hour north of kerikeri(!) and four hours north of auckland.
you can drive your camper van up the dune and you have a terrific view over this bay (http://www.honeheke.co.nz/images/custom/Matai-Bay-lg.jpg no, smart asses, the name is really maitai and not matai but the link maker got it all wrong).

it was mentioned somewhere before: d.o.c. or doc (department of conservation) runs camp sites in their most beautiful, rural areas. it's like national, state and provincial parks in australia, usa and canada respectively, but then more grass and less facilities. no electricity, no dump stations and no showers. but hey, you get dunes, birds, sea, views, tracks, vulcanoes and waterfalls instead. there's also usually only new zealanders. they run their camper van's water pump, water heater, stove and oven and even their fridge on gas. that's why the voute van (as has been written on the dirty rear window since a while) can only stay for two, maximum three days, the battery runs low on the second day. and a ride to town is not sufficient to recharge it.
it needs a boring commercial camp site to charge the battery overnight. they have their advantages too: hot showers, playground for mette ("glijbaan, mammie"), wireless internet to load the pictures, the microwave running for allardje's bottles (sorry mom, it's just easier), no views and next door neighbours sometimes as close as 3 meters.
and that for a whopping 50 nzd: 20 nzd per adult and 10 nzd for children of 2(!) and up.

after all the pro's and con's, the voute van chooses doc's. they charge 8 nzd per adult and children below 5 are free! and thank you, vodafone, that you do have coverage on the north island so that this text can get sent with only a hyperlink to a picture. the winning view as was reeeeeally experienced will get added by the time the microwave is working again.

ps mette's quotes part 2:
* wat doet daddy. smikkelen. (...2 uur later...) daddy is klaar met smikkelen/what's daddy doing. munching. (...2 hours later...) daddy's finished munching (ok, it was a sandwich with sundried tomato and olive chutney and cheese)
* als de eend groter is dan krijgt hij een trui/if the duck grows up he'll get a sweatshirt (after her usual phrase: if allard has teeth, he'll get food)
* (already asleep for 30 minutes) wat maakt auntie? chicken!/what's auntie cooking? chicken!
* ik vind water niet lekker. alleen maar sap/i don't like water. only just juice
* mette gaat naar het strand. taart maken. voor allard en voor de schildpad/mette goes to the beach. making a cake. for allard and for the turtle (the turtle is her potty. by the way, the potty hasn't worked out very well ever since the first few successes. she's sometimes even a bit scared to go sit on it. lateron tom and laurian realized she had gotten stung down there during one of the first times. they thought she had been sore from diaper rash but then a mosquito bump turned up)