Monsoon

Yesterday was a bad day. One of those days that tries you.
We slept for longer than usual, obviously subconsciously aware of the day ahead. Anyway, we set off from Waitomo at 10am, having looked around the local museum to learn about glow worms (!) and, brilliantly, gone to see the angora rabbits being sheared. These rabbits are huge, with a good 8 inches of soft, pure white fluff to dig your fingers into.
I heartedly wished I had stolen one later, as it would have provided much needed warmth.
Anyways, we set off on the 160km drive to Rotorua. It continued to rain, as it had done so all morning, getting stronger and heavier with every half hour. The inside of the car was steaming up, there was water everywhere...it was slow going. We pulled over with 65km to go to our destination and cooked up some lunch from the back of the car, using the trunk roof as shelter from the immense amounts of water cascading out of the sky.
Ready to get going again, we got in, tidied up and buckled up. The car would not start.
The battery was dead, the lights were on, the entire 30 minutes we had been sat there had destroyed our chances of getting away again. The water kept on coming.
We asked the friendly Canadian couple parked up a short distance away if they had any jump cables, and despite their best efforts and kind nature, that was a no-go. We called the AA.
After a very long and tedious phone call, in which they quizzed us on every aspect of the car and our location, they agreed to send someone out. We were both soaked through, and freezing cold.
The AA guy turned up pretty snappily but the battery gave up the ghost with its final spark of life...leaving us stuck in a steadily more lake-like field and with the electric window stuck in open mode. We rigged up a towel to keep the worst of the water out and sat around waiting for a brainwave.
Thankfully, the spaceship is equipped with two batteries, one for the driving and one for the inside lights and DVD player. The AA guy had been jump starting the spare one, not the dead one, hence no engine working. Once the engine was running, (but us not actually realising that this was the case - AA guy thought we just had a mentally wired up car) we were advised to drive to Rotorua, stop for no reason on pain of not being able to get going again, and find an electrician.
We realised the issue of the batteries, so did not need the electrician. Once parked up in the miserable gravel free camper place, we sorted the car, stowed all the wet stuff in a bag and tried to get warm and dry again. We even hosted our own fabulous cooking program, 'Cooking from the Boot' with your hosts, Alex and Emily! In the wind and rain, we concocted a giant amount of hot casserole type food which we have named 'Newt Stew' in honour of the car. Made up of kumara, apple, onion, rice, pasta, chilli beans and sauce, it was darn good and filled a hole.
Next came the coldest night ever, with us stowed under the duvet in trousers, socks, legwarmers, scarves, jumpers, hats and gloves. In the morning, it was still raining. Still is now as a matter of fact, and its 1.30pm!
I have never seen such amounts of water and all the natives we meet keep commenting on how this is the worst Spring in 20 years. Gah.

We smelt Rotorua before we saw it. Sulphurous fumes waft through the air, even when tamped down by rain. For those who don't know sulphur, that mean rotten egg smell...constantly, and stronger all the time. It is a grid system town, full of motels and neon. It looks like small-town America, as demonstrated by the many teen dramas played out on the TV in the UK. We are going to get our stuff together, try and sort out a way of charging up the gadgets, and hopefully, find some way to insure tonight is not as miserably cold.