Earlybirds, Spilt Milk and Blueberries

Having already planned to get up at 5am to be on the road early for our big journey up country, it felt like a bit of a rude awakening when that turned into a 4.30am wake up call when Mylo fell out of bed. (He’s still getting used to no sides on the cot, and despite the soft landing on a duvet inner, it still gives him a bit of a fright!)

The best way to settle any night waking episodes like this usually involves a quick drink of milk, a cuddle and then straight back to bed without engaging in too much conversation or turning on lights around the house. Except this morning, in my early morning haze, I clearly didn’t put the lid back on the drink bottle properly and me and Mylo wore half the contents of the milk as soon as he tipped it up to drink it. So a complete change of PJ’s and sleeping bag was required, nothing like completely waking up a child you want to go back to sleep for a while…sigh!

So there was little point in going back to bed so we got up and at em, and were away just before 6am. Apart from a few random meltdowns in the car by the lil guy who decided he wanted cuddles (impossible when in a moving vehicle), it was pretty uneventful.

Except for the glorious weather giving us a stunning view of the central plateau as we drove ever northward.

And the great coffee and leg stretch in Ohakune.

Two sleepy souls decided to close their eyes for half an hour so we skipped our second stop and drove on through. Before we knew it, we were at Hamilton Airport saying hi to Poppa who was in the middle of his Super Shuttle shift. It was the fastest trip up we've ever done, making it in 6 hours 15 including the stop! And there was no speeding either I might add!

After a quick stop at Punnet Café (the scene of my recent photos in Uno Magazine fame), we headed home and back out again to pick some blueberries. Another tick for the Summer Bucket List! The blueberry rows were sodden and we quickly ditched our shoes and wandered barefoot through the rows, squelching through watery grass, sometimes halfway to our knees in places. It was surprisingly therapeutic padding through the warm water, almost like a foot massage.

And we came home with four full containers of blueberries, the little guy having consumed nearly his body weight in fruit which made for an interesting nappy change the next day!

Yay...the summer holiday has begun!