We killed three birds with one stone with this trip. We left Napier 1 day after the coldest snap in 15 years, virtually all the way from Napier to Taupo there was heavy snow and it was pretty chilly.
Firstly, the Thetford part for my toilet arrived from overseas, so Brent at Central RV called to arrange a time to replace it. This work was successfully done after we returned from Omokoroa and before we went to the Chateau.
Secondly, I wanted to do a bit of a shake-down trip in our new Niesmann & Bischoff Flair 8000i CFB motorhome, so we went from Taupo to north of Tauranga to Omokoroa, where a friend lives, we had been invited to see the house they had just had built. We parked in their driveway overnight.
Lastly, but best part of all, our son and his family gave us a fantastic gift for our 40th Wedding Anniversary (who knew we would make this milestone?). His gift was a special night at The Chateau at Tongariro, about 100kms south west of Taupo. The included dinner was really fantastic. The stay there was really enjoyable.
We parked our motorhome in the car park, but by 9pm it was so cold ice had already formed on the windscreen, so I switched the central heating on, set to 15oC so nothing would freeze. In the morning it was minus 2 outside and bitterly cold, but it was a glorious blue-sky day. None of the water pipes or tanks had frozen.
As soon as we had breakfast, also included in the package we received as a gift, we caught a shuttle bus up to the Whakapapa ski resort, not to ski but simply to take some photos and enjoy the view. On the way back down we passed a 4WD ute that had rolled after skidding on some black ice. I'm glad I didn't drive our RV to the top, although it would probably have been OK.
We took an alternate route back to Napier, further south to Ohakune, Waiouru, Feilding and then on the highway back to Napier via Hastings. A trip of just over 1,200kms and I am glad to say the motorhome performed very well indeed and we are super impressed with the thermal insulation.
