Oh dear...this was not what we expected in the motorhome!

Saw two Kingfishers this morning, I have always predicted that seeing these lovely birds means we would have a good day. I have since decided that maybe they bring us bad omens instead!

The day started dull and every bit the Aotearoa way, The island of the long white cloud. We headed off toward Hamilton along the scenic route, a good 45 minutes longer than taking the SH1 but oh so very picturesque. 

Stopping at a picnic spot to check our directions, well, one can see this spot hasn't been used for a while.

Hardly anything on the roads, as is the New Zealand way, but we did encounter a couple of escapees!

We needed to find a dump facility. Not just to empty the loo but because we had decided to completely drain the water tank and refill with fresh water.

When we picked up the motor home a full tank of water was provided but right from the start I disliked the taint of the water. Not for drinking as I didn't like to risk that (bottle water was bought) but the boiling of the water for tea and coffee had a strange taste, We topped up the water tank yesterday and the taste seemed to get worse. Anyway, we started the emptying process and when almost the tank was empty the water started running white. A very strong diesel smell came from it and then the realisation,,, someone had put diesel in the water tank by mistake! OMG, now we were in a pickle. Ian was straight on the phone to the hire company who broke the bad news that there would be no one to help us until the 6th due to it being the holiday period! The suggestion was to refill the tank and use the water for washing only, buy bottles of water for tea and coffee making and drinking. Okay, we had one problem with that. The water at the dump point was not for drinking and to fill the tank with contaminated water would probably have made things worse. So we headed off to where we could get fresh water, attached the hose and started the fill. Partway through I tried to turn on the taps. The water pump was running but no water was coming out of the taps, in other words, we were now in deep sh*t!!
 So the tale has got an ending but not one we hoped for. We found a Bunnings (B&Q), Ian bought a screwdriver and took the pump apart. He cleaned all the crap and diesel from within, put it back together and...blast...it still didn't work. So we are now without water other than bottled water for the foreseeable future.  Only three more days to wait until we can get a service engineer to check it out. Thank goodness for our supply of beer and wine. At least it will be something to drink!

Our stop for the night,

Lake Ngaroto

And wildlife,

Leech??

Heron

Pukeko

Swallow

Cicadas