Powerless

It was a damp and cloudy morning which we were expecting so no surprises there. The Tour guide was up before sunrise because she had this insane idea of watching 👀 it come above the horizon. Because it was cool in the van she thought to turn on the heater. However, things weren't right as its indicator lamp started flashing. I had seen this occur on one previous occasion but couldn't remember why. Next thing that happened was that the light she had going turned off. Then I remembered...our house battery was flat! No power 😕. We had charged both bike batteries up yesterday afternoon and that whacked our house battery so that when we went to bed it was showing 40% charged. No problem I thought 🤔 as they can go down to 20% safely. Somehow, we lost the remaining 40% overnight.
We were blessed to have some water in the kettle and a small drinking bottle with some in so a wash and a cup of tea and coffee ☕️ was still possible...just.
The plan had been to stay another night where we were but with no sun and drizzle, solar charging was a pipe dream.
Camping grounds charge a small ransom to stay but the Tour guide found a farm POP site only about 20kms away from where we were, heading towards Auckland in Mangatawhiri. It is a beautiful 😍 site and provides all amenities including power for only $15 per night. That is great value and it is very quiet 🤫 with only the sounds of various birds 🐦. We are now at 50% charged so heading in the right direction. The lesson learned was that charging the bike batteries when not getting full solar charging is not a good idea! 😳
The Tour guide didn't get to see the sunrise because of the heavy cloud base and drizzle 🫪😭Read more