Andy woke up to the sound of rain around 11pm. The roof vent and two windows were open but the rain was short lived so he went back to sleep.

He woke up again to the sound of rain again around 2am. It was coming down harder than before and not knowing how long it had been raining, he climbed down the ladder and closed the vent and windows.

Just before he climbed down he had heard Ani lightly crying. When he went to go back up the ladder and into his bed, Andy noticed Ani sitting upright in her bed with her hands over her eyes.

He asked her what was the matter, to which she responded, “mama won’t give me bootie.”

Andy offered for Ani to sleep with dada, which she accepted.

Once interrupted, sleep didn’t come easy for Andy once more. He was up until 4am editing blog posts. While he was awake he heard Miles talking in his sleep. His speech was not intelligible but made him wonder what Miles was dreaming about.

Just before Andy fell asleep, he heard Laurie and Miles blissfully snoring away with Ani tucked in close to his side. These are some of the sweet moments of family life!

Checkout was at 10am but we enjoyed another slow morning. We did have hopes of getting to our camp earlier to enjoy the views and perhaps hike before the weather turned but it was nice to just enjoy each other and the quiet town.

To our surprise it took some convincing to get Miles out of the van to go to a bakery for breakfast. He is a total homebody. It is comforting that this van now feels like home. He has said many times “this feels like Idaho.” He’s also 5 and his knee-jerk reaction to everything is ‘no’ until he thinks about it. Funny enough Ani does this a lot as well, but she’s two.

When we reminded Miles what they sell at bakeries, his eyes lit up and he was on board.

The bakery was somewhat underwhelming but next door there was a cheese shop (with samples!) and a fun souvenir shop so the outing was still worthwhile.

We returned around 945am. Laurie took the kids and the bakery treats to a picnic table near the laundry, leaving Andy to clean up and pack things away before he could drive the short distance to the dump site.

Andy was dumping the tanks and filling up our fresh water at 1015am. Luckily nobody seemed to mind our late check out. Miles ran over to help and then recruited Ani after seeing there was mint growing nearby. Just so we’re clear, the mint was growing at the potable water filling station, not by the dump station (:

After dumping and filling we moved the van to an empty site near the showers in hopes of Andy and both kids taking showers before departing.

We may or may not have bribed them with candy if they showered. Miles would have likely showered anyway but was now totally on board and went in with Andy with no hesitation.

Ani took a bit more convincing but eventually she elected to shower with Mama. But in true Ani fashion, once both Laurie and Ani were naked, she changed her mind and wanted Dada. All credit to her though, she got in and even though she was glued to Andy the whole time, she took her shower and even seemed to enjoy it.

Andy took the time to talk to her and sing to her. He also went at her speed. He got her hair wet and scrubbed her body with soap and it all went well.

Andy feels what’s challenging about these showers, including the one in the campervan, is that they all have fixed heads. This is fine when you’re an adult, but as a kid the fixed head sprays water all over their faces and Ani especially does not like this.

Around 11am we finally hit the road. We wound through rolling hills and farmland, but with more trees in the landscape.

In the town of Fairlie we stopped for diesel, then went the to Alpine Alpaca farm where we all got to feed alpacas, ponys, two sheep and a horse.

Miles was apprehensive at first but after seeing Laurie feed the alpaca, he found his grove quickly. The ponys were too aggressive for him though.

Ani really liked the idea of feeding all of the animals but ultimately did not. She giggled long and hard though watching us feed them. She also loved Bobby the 3 month old lamb who weaseled his way through the fence and ran toward us numerous times.

Bobby was really cute and rather small. His mom died when he was 2 days old and the farm owners hand fed him so he is very fond of humans and loves to interact with them.

After 45 minutes of feeding the animals and enjoying the tranquil farm, we headed back on the road.

As we made our way to Lake Tekapo, the farmlands gave way to rolling hills with expansive mountain views. We were entering one of the darkest sky areas of the entire world.

Lake Tekapo is described by the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve as “one of the quietest spots on the planet yet one of the busiest night skies in the universe.”

Perhaps on the way back we will camp near here and have good weather for stargazing.

After about an hour of driving we stopped at Pines Beach on the shores of Lake Tekapo for lunch.

Along this section of the drive we were mesmerized by expansive fields of lupine – purple lupine, pink lupine and white lupine, all intermixed and on full display. There were a few pinkish red ones too sprinkled in. Laurie was loving the flowers.

At Pines Beach we sat on the rocks next to a patch of lupine and enjoyed leftover Indian food for lunch. The turquoise water of the lake and the cool breeze made for a memorable and picturesque dining experience.

The kiddos threw rocks in the water for a few minutes and then we left. After a short drive we stopped at Lake Pukaki with Mt. Cook and the stunning mountain range of Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park on full display.

Laurie spread some of her mom’s ashes (what the kiddos call fairy dust) at an overlook. It was a short stop with a strong headwind and with the kiddos asking for snacks we quickly got back in blue wave and ventured on.

We didn’t get very far because we chose to stop along the road so Laurie could go down to the lake by herself to spread some more of her mom’s ashes. The turquoise water, alpine tundra with wild rose bushes and lupine plus distant snow capped mountains felt like a perfect resting spot for Sue.

This would be our last stop. With 45 minutes left to drive we headed for camp. Ani closed her eyes again only 15 minutes before getting to camp.

She would have likely closed her eyes even earlier had they not been watching. We heard her crying shortly after we parked at camp. Andy noticed Miles doing something to her to cause her to wake up.

Laurie went to Ani and picked her up in hopes of consoling her and Andy looked for Miles who was hiding from us. This is usually a clear indicator that Miles did something he knows he shouldn’t have done.

We have a family rule that Miles knows all too well. You get in less trouble if you tell the truth.

After being reminded of our family rule, Miles admitted to pinching Ani until she woke up. We reminded Miles that it is important for us to let little kids sleep without disturbing them. And that we certainly should not be pinching one another.

We left our campervan to register for our stay, then went back to the camper and dilly dallied for an hour. Andy played with the kids and Laurie packed a backpack for our “hike” this evening.

Eventually around 645pm we finally left the van. It was a bit chilly and somewhat windy but the views were very pretty along the Hooker Valley trail.

The cacti along the trail with snow capped mountains not too far away was very baffling to Andy. New Zealand truly is a country like no other.

The trail was gentle and wide and very inviting for the kids to run, run, run. Seeing the joy in their eyes as they are out exploring, running, climbing, chasing and laughing fills our hearts with joy and reminds us why we are out here and why we choose to do this.

We rounded a corner to a lookout and felt the full brunt of the wind for the first time. The kids were shivering but refused to put on their warm puffy jackets that Laurie had thoughtfully packed for them.

They were ready to head back but Laurie really wanted a picture. A friendly couple offered to take our photo so we took them up on it, hoping the kids would smile more for a stranger than they do with us!

While returning the favor, Miles tried to photobomb the couple but fell and skinned his knee. He was crying hard and there was a little blood. Scuffs hurt more when they are bloody, at least that’s true for Miles.

We put a bandaid on Miles’ knee and carried them both back down the trail. Laurie had packed the trail magic in hopes of finally using it on this trip. She gradually got Ani into it but she was not a fan. Both kids prefer the feeling of our arms rather than straps.

We saw one bunny when walking up the trail and 4 bunnies on the return trip. These bunnies aren’t shy or skiddish.

Back at the van, Andy continued to play with the kids while Laurie warmed up the last of the soup and then made carrots and onions for Ani.

Andy wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and when they saw him eating that they wanted the same thing, except with butter instead of peanut butter.

The kids were eating, playing and laughing. We were having quite a nice evening together. And Ani was doing her balancing exercises that she’s been doing for the past few days on the armrests of the back seats.

Today though, she slipped almost immediately after putting her hands too far down on the armrest and went face first into the ground.

Andy picked her up thinking she may have hit her mouth, but it was her chin that as bleeding.

Ani was beside herself, crying hysterically. Laurie came over, took Ani who immediately wanted to nurse and applied pressure on the cut to stop it from bleeding.

Ani would nurse, then stop and cry, then nurse again, all the while Laurie tried to look at the cut while applying pressure.

Andy went in search of the first aid kit and Andy and Laurie were trying to formulate a plan but Miles kept wanting to talk to both of us.

Our sweet boy wanted to be helpful and tell us from his perspective what had happened. We calmly tried to tell him that this was serious and we had to concentrate on Ani, then he could tell us what happened.

We thought of little things he could do but he rejected them all, only wanting to talk to us. This was certainly his way to dealing with the stress of the situation but it wasn’t helpful in the moment.

Ani calmed down after about 10 minutes. Given that the cut was small and didn’t seem too deep, it was 9pm on a Saturday and the closest hospital was over 3 hours away, we used steri strips to pinch the cut closed and covered it with 2 bandaids.

Miles grabbed his headlight to shine light on the cut while Ani layed down on the bed on her back and Andy put on Ms. Rachel to distract her. Laurie did a good job bandaging up Ani’s wound.

We let the kids watch a bit more so they could do be at ease and we used the time to decompress and thank each other for staying calm during the whole ordeal. We are grateful Ani didn’t hurt herself any worse and that she seems to be in good spirits now.

We are all exhausted and ready for bed. Hopefully we all sleep well, especially Ani.