Wednesday

Ah, but the sleeping was good last night! The difference a block of velour-coated air makes to your back and head! In fact, it was so good that despite the early morning heat that smothered the tent, Alex did not wake up for two hours after I had woken up and I practically starved waiting for him to unfurl from his sleeping bag cocoon. I have, logically, analysed his sleeping style as being not unlike that of a duckling, thus his affiniation with the feathered natives.
After a beautiful breakfast of apple porridge, hot chocolate and nutella filled rolls (you can eat well on a budget!), we decided on a visit to SplashPlanet. Now, part of this campsites attraction is that it offers massive discounts on pre-bought tickets to SplashPlanet. It was a hot, sunny day, we thought, why not go to a swimming pool?
This was more than a swimming pool! There was a never-ending river, about five different slides and rides involving floats and tubes and loads of dry activities too. It was a water-theme park! So we arrived, full of excitement, changed into swimming gear and queued up for our first activity 'Formula Fun'. Obviously, this involved karting around a track in full on racing regalia. It was great, I had an electric blue vehicle, Alex was in a red one (ferrari, don't you know). We zoomed around the track, vying with the other four drivers on corners and skidding tyres on the straight. Alex overtook me on a hill, the sneaky boy and took the lead away from me!
After our dry car adventure, we decided to brace ourselves for the cool water of the pool, the sudden and unstoppable way - on a giant, double loop tube down a large twisty waterslide! We lugged our tube up the steps and boarded, then pushed off, into the unknown! Surfice to say, it was chilly at the other end, but a brilliant ride! We practically fell off the tube after one vertical turn.
We took the daylight skyride (an open tube high above the park) and then the dark skyride (literally pitch black. I almost did an unexpected loop the loop when I took a corner I couldn't see on the uber-slippery mat I was riding). Then, we swooshed into the Never-Ending River, grabbed a couple of thick foam floats and then did magic carpet impressions as we floated around the park's circumference on the fast-flowing water.
We did many repeats of the slides, exhausting ourselves with the steps up. Then we took a break to go and sit in the hot pools, although these were not nearly as hot as we were expecting (having been in the real thing) and rather noisy due to all the small kids. We vacated the hot pools in favour of the indoor slide, the 'Master Blaster' which was vertiginously twisting and all in the dark as well! I almost scooted over the edge when it opened out and the corner turned too vigerously.
We gathered our stuff from the lockers and dried off in the sunshine (about five minutes, done and dried) and then headed back to the campsite to rustle up some dinner. Just as we finished eating, Dion, the guy from the kitchen the other day, turned up and we had a lengthy conversation about New Zealand and so on. He is a native, from up in the Northland and so generous! He has given me a book on Maori language and offered Alex a bag of mince from the freezer so he doesn't starve on vege rations.
By the end of the convo, we were pretty hungry again, so we made some soup and toast and are just relaxing in the lounge now, trying to get some work done and do the research that we love so much. Hmm.
Maybe the beautiful cats will show up again, as they did last night. They are very vocal. Two are black with white whiskers, one plush with a plume for his tail, the other skinny with a chunk out of her ear. The other is giant, poofy, white and grey and aloof.
Lets hope the weather sticks - the forecast is for rain tomorrow (Doh) but the West coast has had (and I quote from the weather lady) 1119 lightning strikes today! Eeep! Also a note about the TV - has anyone at home seen the new Heinekin advert, with the walk-in wardrobes? Hilarious!!!