Day 8: Auckland to Taupo: The Unexpected Ending

This morning was the last with the Sadliers. They kindly offered to take all the kids to play soccer while Rob and I went grocery shopping and finished packing up. It was such a treat to get to walk the aisles together, spying familiar brands along with so many new ones. Our morning departure plan ended up being an early afternoon one; really none of us wanted to leave after having so much fun there the past five days. We are leaving with ¾ of us now battling a minor head cold, so hoping the snotty phase passes soon.

We originally planned to head to Rotorua, which is known for its thermal features. However, we heard it was less impressive than Yellowstone and smelled like rotten eggs (and that smell could last on your clothes for days). The smell thing was really the deciding factor, since we are living out of our suitcases now. Instead, we set off for Taupo.

We stopped to stretch our legs in Tirau, where the gimmick is these large corrugated metal animals, and we have to admit it was pretty cool. Thus far, Cows have dominated the roadside landscape, with some sheep sightings and a farm with a couple of pigs and the cutest piglets we have ever seen.

Taupo is the location of the McDonald’s attached to an old DC-3 airplane. We relaxed for 30 minutes watching a game show on TV, which made us realize we don’t watch live TV very often. There was a news commercial reporting a shooting at a church and armed robbery at a dairy (convenience store), so the boys had lots of questions on our walk to dinner and we tried to balance the concern of what happened with the reality of it happening to us in this town. You can actually eat in the airplane, but unfortunately it closes at 5 p.m. so we had McDonald’s in the standard eating area. We walked around town a bit to the pharmacy to get Rob some decongestant before heading back to the hotel.

With hopes of kicking these colds and catching up on sleep we were all in bed pretty early. Nicholas reminded us he still wasn’t a fan of the U shaped room which had 2 twin beds by the front door, a bathroom in the middle and then a queen bed on the other side. A small hallway with a kitchenette connected them all. It didn’t help that our room was fairly isolated, at the end of a long, dark hallway.

Knowing their concerns after seeing the news commercial and the layout of the room Rob and I had agreed if any kid woke up in the night we would trade with them and one of us would go sleep in the twin bed to help settle them.

At 1:30 am Nicholas came to our bed saying he heard noises in the hallway, so we had him come to our bed while I headed out to his. I was there only a few seconds before I heard the door latch rattling intermittently. It seemed odd, so I looked out the window to the hallway and didn’t see anything. It kept going, so I woke Rob up to take a look, too. I then decided to look out the other side of the window towards the door just before Rob wanted to open the door to see what was making the noise. This is when I saw a man at our door, trying to get into our room.

Instantly the memory of Amanda talking about gangs in NZ popped into my head. Rob and I started banging on the door as loud as we could to get the person to leave and to get the attention of others to get help. Despite that, the rattling of the door continued. I quickly grabbed my phone to call 111 to get the police (thank you Amanda for writing this all in your helpful tips doc!). The man wouldn’t leave despite our banging and continued to try to open the door for several more minutes, which made us especially nervous because the door had only a single key lock (no deadbolt, no swing bar, no chain). He then started striking blows on the door from the other side.

Rob thought to call the front desk, and right at that time, another person arrived in the hallway. I didn’t know if they were together or if he was there to help us. He said “I got it bro” and talked the man away from our door and down the hall. It turns out he was the manager who was awoken by the noise (and answered Rob’s phone call right after). A little later, which seemed like forever, the police arrived, and Rob gave his info to them. I slept in the queen bed with both boys the rest of the night and Rob took one of the twin beds by the door. Nicholas didn’t settle again until after 3 a.m. and he just wanted to be held and comforted all night.

With hindsight, this was probably a drunk person who persistently tried to open the same door 20+ minutes despite their key not working and the people on the other side banging loudly trying to get him to go away. We keep reminding the kids that is how stupid you can get when you drink too much. Rob really regrets not trying to yell at the guy that he was at the wrong door, not barricading the door with one of the twin beds, and not calling the front desk right away, but the combination of having just woken up and the adrenaline made for some suboptimal decisions. I wish I would have had this logical reasoning when it was happening, as we are now challenged with Nicholas being able to fall asleep and stay asleep in his bed every night since (and rightfully so).