Happy Birthday Asia!!!
Today we started on the road early in order to meet the detective in Taupo who fingerprinted our car. Yep, you heard us right: they actually looked for prints on our damaged car. He was amazed, as he had never seen someone use a crowbar on a door to get at the contents!! We became a tourist attraction as a few locals and some Asian tourists stopped by to watch our car being minutely examined by the local police. He did find something that may be blood and collected it. If it is blood, they may have a chance of catching the person(s) who damaged our car and stole our items. In the US, Dave always said, “We only catch the stupid ones.” This person may qualify for catching, as, instead of simply bashing in the window to get at our stuff, he had to work hard to pry open the door from several spots.
Finally, on the road again…or, around the corner where we purchased first, a new driving GPS unit, and then a new hiking GPS unit. And then, a $30NZD USB car charger. We are keeping the local economy going by buying so many electronics!! Lunch at a local Subway shop where the sandwiches are still 6 inch (instead of in centimeters) and a quick call to Mom, and we were back on the road to Pirongia.
Getting to our next stop early, and unable to check in, we decided to visit the Kiwi House. This is a bird refuge and rehabilitation center. We finally got to see a Kiwi bird, which, if you look really really, really hard, you can see him moving in the video. Kiwis only come out at night, so to show them during the day, they are in an unlit natural enclosure behind dark glass. We saw some other rare birds and, most importantly, relaxed and tried not to dwell on the earlier events. A nice trip down the road where we checked in and chatted with our lovely host. The evening was completed by walking down to the local pub and having dinner. Now it’s time to just relax and feel the cool breeze blowing into our room.
