Through de tunnel...

I remember when I first visited New Zealand, in 2006, my map filled up with pen marks showing where the best hikes, mountains, bars and pubs, glaciers, fjords, parks, boat trips and surfing beaches were.

Five years later my map is now simply marked with little crosses showing where all the playgrounds are.

We've been to a bloody heap of playgrounds since we got here:

• the little one behind Pat's (bark chippings, no swings, space to perform 'the underdad' on the slide)
• one in Castor Bay (sand, again no swings, but a double slide)
• a bigger one in Silverdale near Kris and Pete's place (bark chippings, swings and a big climbing-boat-thing)
• and a great one in Brown's Bay, next to a little skate ramp (rubbery floor, swings, a big wobbly wooden walkway and lots of tubes, slides and tunnels).

But yesterday we went to the best one yet, in Onepoto Domain - spread out over a large area in the basin of an old volcano, with a little toddler park right next to the car park and paths through the bush gradually revealing a wobbly walkway over swampy ground, a toddler flying fox, a high wooden tower with an enclosed slide on it - 'dark tunnel' - and a long track for the kids to ride their little bikes and scooters round, complete with road markings and a little chicane and stuff. Really safe and fun and big enough to absorb lots of energetic little people.

Me and Rach enjoyed a temporary rush of freedom and positivity that amazingly lasted almost until Leo was back in the car.