The kids and Laurie slept nearly 12 hours. Andy was awake at 5 am and mapped out a walking route for the day.

It got hot fast! By 11 am it felt like it was 80 degrees out! Which it was. The day prior and the following day were to be in the upper 60s, but today was 15 degrees warmer. And for us having come from late fall where it was in the 40s during the day and 20s at night, it felt like mid summer.

We planned to start our day by exploring the library but walking past Margaret Mahy playground we saw water. We spent about an hour running through the splash pad (Miles and Laurie) and stomping in the water.

After a snack we ventured to the library. The Duranga Library has a great kid floor with pits of legos and duploes. The air conditioning felt great and after a pretend meal of duplo “cupcakes” and driving around in a spacecraft, we walked a block to Mashawe Mediterranean BBQ for lunch.

Talk about a find! We LOVED the food and hope to return again before we leave New Zealand. While we feasted on shawarma, and wraps, the kids watched for the Tram which came every 10-15 minutes.

After lunch we had our first New Zealand ice cream which was also really good.

Our intention was to walk to a different grocery store but with the heat and time of day, both kids were tired and asking to be carried, so instead of waiting out another meltdown we went home to rest.

Unsurprisingly, when home the kids got a second wind and Laurie was the only one who took a nap.

Around 4 pm we took an Uber and spent 90 minutes walking through the aisles of Pak n Save (one of New Zealand’s largest grocery store chains) trying to figure out what we needed, not what the kids wanted.

As with all travel, it takes time to figure out the logistics – where to buy produce, do you weigh it and sticker the produce yourself, will we need salt and pepper? This all becomes even more of a challenge with kids constantly asking for candy and cookies and all other things that look sweet and they usually don’t see at home.

We made it out without too much frustration and returned home for the night.

The kids ate some mac n cheese and sausage while Andy and Laurie finished a chicken shawarma from lunch. Laurie played trains, cars and colored rocket ships with the kids while Andy tried over and over to set up the SIM card in Laurie’s phone.

We showered and went to sleep around 9, excited to see our campervan the next morning.