Day 322: Saturday Market — Taupo Playground and Shopping — Family Pétanque Battle
Six weeks from today we leave Hawaii to fly home. Eeeeek!
A couple days ago we saw a sign for a “Saturday Market” in Taupo. We headed over this morning after homeschool.
It wasn’t anything too special. Just a cute little community market. We got some free stuff:
Free pats of Luther.
Some free chocolate samples… (and then bought some)
Some free kombucha (meh)…
A free lesson on how to make a tweety bird song by putting water in these clay figurines and blowing them as hard as you can (and then bought two birds, knowing our ears would regret the decision).
We would have had lunch but the food didn’t look great so we moved on, walking about 10 minutes to nearby Taupo Playground.
The big kids jungle gym was under construction but Willa and James still had fun climbing, swinging and spinning. And digging in the dirt.
I walked across the street to grab some takeaway food at the Bodyfuel Cafe. Neither Willa nor James ate much, which might account for a couple afternoon meltdowns. Stay tuned!
There was a little tourist train running past the playground every 5 minutes or so. We bought tickets and got three loops around this little track. Kids loved it.
“The Merino Downunder” shop across the street got Margaret’s attention so we started walking back towards the car, browsing in shops along the way.
We had a half-mission to find Willa a lightweight puffer jacket like James’s and after checking out 3 or 4 stores actually found a great one at Torpedo 7 for 50% off.
In the car on the way home James pulled the jacket away from Willa just to get a reaction. It worked, she squeezed his belly and he burst into tears. Margaret gave Willa 5 minutes (off iPad time on travel days) and that sent the normally well behaved and now ashamed Willa into a Category 4 meltdown. It was a really fun afternoon and yet we were pulling into our driveway with both kids in tears. I assume most parents can relate.
Back at the house we eventually found our composure and the pétanque set and headed up to the crushed shell court at the community center across the street. Margaret used a technique of throwing the ball really high. I started saying she was, “dropping bombs!” James eventually started saying the same thing but mixed up the words one time, saying, “mommy is boppin’ droms.” Of course we all thought it was hilarious and I started saying that Margaret was “boppin’ droms” when it was her turn. About 10 minutes later James burst into tears because he thought we were making fun of him. Never know when the jokester will start taking things personally! We should have checked with him that it was ok to use that phrase and we all apologized. Poor guy.
Willa and I fought back a furious comeback attempt by Margaret and James and were victorious. When it was finally over James burst into tears again. This is actually very unlike him these days — we play so many games that he knows he’s supposed to shake hands and be gracious no matter what. Get this boy some dinner!
Margaret made some pasta with chicken and veggies. Weather was beautiful so we all ate outside together.
A fun and relaxing day despite the meltdowns!
MISC:
New Zealand, like Australia, has so many rules and regulations.
We saw this sign sticking out of a tiny, mildly sloped grass hill.
This sign had a bunch of rules — and recommendations.
James was intrigued and liked trying to translate them. Picture of a picnic table: “You are allowed to sit.”
