We were all pretty exhausted after all the activity of the previous day.  And it’s not generally possible to take a complete holiday from the usual activities of life.

Yes, that is the park laundry. A couple of loads of washing and drying later, we had clean clothes again. So much for my admonition of ‘don’t put things in the wash after just one wear: think carefully about whether it is really dirty or whether you can wear it again’! Clare did a superb job of taking that into consideration but she was the only one. Sigh.

While I was ensconced in the laundry the rest of the family headed off in the light rain to dig a hot water hole at the edge of the lake. They figured that they would be wet either way! Lots of fun was had, and some energy expended. By the time they had finished the hot mineral pools at the park had been refilled (the water is changed daily) and it wasn’t long before we were enjoying the warmth and the minerals. There are three mineral pools at the park, all at slightly different temperatures. Only one of them was cool enough for me!

And to point out some sewing content – both Clare’s and my bathers (and Stella’s, although you can’t see them under her rashie) were made by me. While the females of the family were enjoying the hot water, the male of the family was having fun with mussels cooked in the park hangi. He is the only one who enjoys shellfish, so we left him to it. Apparently these fresh NZ mussels were the best he’d ever tasted!

My goodness, we really do need to give him selfie lessons. So the afternoon was spent between the mineral pools, the swimming pool (that was just Stella – too cold for the rest of us) and the cabin couch with a book.

So, things were all very relaxing. Until I went for a walk, intending to take another look at the bubbling mud. And took a step on a sloping pathway and promptly turned my ankle under me hard and landed on the ground hard.

Many thanks to Rotorua Hospital for looking after me so promptly, taking x-rays and confirming that it was not broken but was a bad sprain.  I’ve injured this ankle a few times now, always in a similar way – it’s definitely dodgy.  I will need to plan some serious physio to strengthen it once we return home.  In the meantime I have pain relief, tubigrip and will need to take things a little slowly and ask the rest of the family to wait on me until it is feeling better.  Not what anyone wants to happen while on holiday, but it could have been much worse.  The upside was that I finished reading a book while waiting in the emergency department!