Camping with the kids
We’ve been camping a couple of times before (Pounawea and Purakanui Bay) but the biggest problem had been the amount of space available in our car. With two adults, three kids and the gear that goes with it we were pretty packed, to the point where it was almost impractical (our car has a small boot). We’ve since alleviated that problem by getting my Dad’s trailer back on the road for a year so when the urge strikes we can hitch up the trailer and off we go.
These Christmas holidays we were planning on camping somewhere but in the end Linus, Ada and I went off for a night to the Trotters Gorge DOC campsite. Linus had been pretty excited about camping since New Year’s Eve when he helped me put up the tent at the Whare Flat Folk Festival.
Highlights:
- Great weather – we hardly needed our sleeping bags
- A bush walk that lasted almost two hours (we meant to do the 20 minute walk but Linus and Ada were so keen)
- Small caves full of weta - there would have easily been a hundred on the ceiling of the caves
- Pancakes with Bacon, Banana and Maple Syrup in the morning
- Paddling in the stream and rescuing bugs (mostly hoverflies and night beetles)
- Heaps of kererū (Linus reckons he counted 12, I reckon he’s pretty close)
- Heaps of great photos taken by Linus and Ada around the campsite (and heaps more not so great ones)
So now that we’ve had a bit of practice putting the tent up we reckon we can get it up in about 10 minutes. Pretty slick!
