We had a great stay at Waikite Valley Thermal Pools, using all of the facilities they provided to the fullest. We soaked in the pools three times, even in the morning before starting to pack our things. They had checkout at noon, which is two hours later than what we've used to and we stayed until then trying to dry our clothes with our car's 2000W heater. We had hand-washed them the night before and left them in the provided drying room, but come morning they weren't particularly dry yet. It might have something to do with the 98 degrees Celsius boiling river running next to us, the entire place was covered in fog until about 11 a.m.

After we finally left the place we returned to SH5 and drove to Rotorua. We stopped at a Countdown supermarket there and were immediately confronted by the distinct smell of rotten eggs. The odor kept getting worse as we approached the assumed source at Kuirau park. The area is filled with geothermal curiosities, some of which can be found in the free public park, which we enjoyed a lot. They had boiling mud pools, steaming holes in the ground and even a foot soak tub that I shared with about fifty Chinese people. The area was surprisingly large and in the end we felt like we'd made the right choice not paying for any of the many "thermal wonderlands" showcasing similar bubbling pools. Granted, they might have been grander, but who cares, this we got for free!

We made our way out of Rotorua with only minor difficulty (we lost hope and made a U-turn to ask directions from a gas station, only to make another U-turn to head back in our original direction) and continued north on SH36. We were heading to the Hot Water Beach near Whitianga, but having started so late it was hardly possible to drive there in just one day. Getting around here is slow, I get that they can't make the roads straight as they do need to slither their way through some very hilly areas, but did they have to make the roads go through every single little town? The maximum speed limit here is 100 km/h, but as one drives through towns it drops to 50 km/h. That added to all those sharp "recommended speed 15 km/h" turns and the ridiculous amount of road works they have makes for some pretty slow driving. They also thought of another way to slow us down by making the road to Tauranga a toll-road. Takitimu Drive, a straight continuation of SH36, would have cost us $2 to take. I understand that going around it through Cameron Road in the east might have cost us more in gasoline, but we didn't know if they had the kinds of electronic tolls they have in Australia, or if we could have paid with cash. There are no good free wifis available, so paying for electronic tolls would be troublesome. Also, we freaked out a little at the sight of the toll road and just steered away from it not stopping to go over the options.

After making it around Tauranga we headed north on the SH2 still hoping to make it to some free campsite somewhere near the Hot Water Beach. It proved impossible though as we hit a developing storm approaching Waihi. Our Mighty Igel, a raised Toyota Hiace, shook in a manner that made us stop at the local i-Site to ask about places to spend the night. At 5.10 p.m. we had just missed the closing time but there was a guy inside cleaning the place who opened the door and asked if he could help us. We asked about freedom camping and he gave us a surprisingly long list of places, one being just behind the corner on the parking lot of a Baptist church. We checked it out and thought little of it, there were no signs prohibiting camping there but c'mon, it was the parking lot to a church. We checked out another spot, at Victoria Park, where there was a public toilet and a dump station, but no signs prohibiting or allowing freedom camping. By then the wind had gotten so strong that the car shook vigorously standing still so we decided to stay anyway. Freedom camping in the wrong spot in New Zealand could earn you a hefty $200 fine so we were taking a little bit of a risk. However, as the sticker on our car window says, you're always supposed to ask the local i-Site or similar if a site is OK for freedom camping or not. We had gotten the idea about staying there from the i-Site. True, the person giving the advice might have been responsible for mainly the cleaning part of the visitor center, but still, it would have made for a strong argument in our favor should we have had to explain our presence. We spent the evening in stealth mode just in case, making sure there was no light leaking through our curtains and avoiding venturing outside.

No-one bothered us during the night though and we were able to continue on without paying any fines. The weather had cleared substantially, as had the Victoria Park where there was not a fallen autumn leaf in sight anymore. The wind had blown them all far away. We got an early start at just before 7.30 a.m. and headed north on SH25. This brought us to our destination at about 9 a.m. when we found ourselves at the "pay and display" parking lot next to the beach. Pay? Us? We doubled back a little bit on the road and parked at the Surf Beach instead, where there was free parking but no overnighting. On the way there we picked up a small shovel from the local café for the hiring price of $5 plus a $20 deposit. The point of the Hot Water Beach is that you're supposed to wait until low tide, get your shovel (or spade) and dig a hole that fills up with hot water for some soaking. You can do this from two hours prior to low tide to two hours after it. On the day we were there low tide was at 1.41 p.m. (thanks Mom for texting that for us). We were ready to go at about 9.30 a.m. which was a little early. We took our time having a second breakfast. When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in New Zealand, do as the Hobbits.

We took our 'wee shovel to the beach at about 11 a.m. and found it to be almost empty. The waves were coming in pretty forcefully, but this being the Pacific it was still quite calm. Be that as it may, whenever anyone tried to dig any holes they would be washed over pretty quickly. There was one guy in particular who was doing a hell of a job at feeding the waves with half-built sand walls. He got some help eventually and the three of them were able to manage a wall that held back most of the sea, but only after some very hard work. We were patiently waiting for the tide to go down before finding a place for ourselves. However, we quickly realized that finding hot water wouldn't be as easy as we'd been led to believe. The guy "in charge" of the rapidly growing sand wall kept informing everyone who came near enough to hear that there was only two streams of hot water running beneath the sand. The pool he and his disciples were building was on one of them, the other was still underneath the waves.

This presented us and everyone else who came there with a big problem. The angry guy building his wall would drive away anyone trying to dig a hole between him and the sea, rightfully claiming that doing so would make the wall collapse in the hole. But seriously, the pool he was creating was about a quarter of the size of a badminton field, which to me seemed a little excessive. To anyone who came near now, quite a few people actually, he would explain that the water was too hot to bathe in and using a wide pool provided cooling water from the other end. The pool he and his disciples, a growing number also, were creating was going to be for everyone to use. By everyone he apparently meant the around fifty people gathered there with more flowing in all the time. After hours of work the great communal pool was still only about ankle deep and filled with, guess what, cold water. It needed to be dug deeper in order to get to the hot water below…

To make a very long story short, no-one enjoyed the beach that day. The hard pressed crew of the ever angrier guy shoveled away while others, like us, tried to find other sources of hot water. Besides the occupied one and the one getting all the waves, there were none to be found. We did get to soak our feet in the hot water running beneath the sand in front of the manmade wall, but that was it. The disappointment was clear on a lot of faces surrounding us, we weren't the only ones who had driven a long way for a whole lot of nothing. The day was beautiful, but still a Tuesday in May, not the best tourist season, and still the place was crowded. Even without the angry guy and his recruits there wouldn't have been enough hot water for everyone to enjoy, but with them shoveling away absolutely no-one could find a spot to soak in. People who had arrived moments earlier were turning and leaving. We did too, even before the tide quite reached its lowest point. There was no point in staying, the only suitable stream was overrun with fanatics trying to create a "communal pool". If everyone had just dug a small hole, soaked a while and moved on at least some could have gotten something out of it. Some like us, because we were there at 9.30!

More than a little disappointed we returned to the car and drove to Cathedral Cove some six kilometers north. There we saw many familiar faces that had shared the Hot Water Beach with us before giving up. The Cathedral Cove was great, a big tunnel through the white rock surrounding the beach. We enjoyed it quite a bit, still obsessing about the failure of the Hot Water Beach however. Later we were happy to discover that the carpark at the entrance to the Cathedral Cove walkway (supposedly 45 minutes one way, we made it in 20) allowed free camping with self-contained vehicles. A little low on fresh water (we hadn't filled the 20 liter tank that day but we still had our separate 10 liter one almost full) we decided to stay and make arrangements for our hotel in Auckland. We tried calling some places in their freecall numbers with our free SIM-card. In the end we ended up texting my Mom again, asking her to arrange it for us.

We usually don't rely so much on our parents' support, but seriously, there is a definite lack of free wifi in New Zealand. Where it is available it's usually limited, sometimes to just 15 minutes. With always a bunch of things to check making bookings for accommodation is difficult in such a short time. Sometimes wifi is available for a charge, like 40 megabytes for $4 on the Interislander ferry. We don't like to pay that much for camping! It's a problem…

On the last full day of our road trip we returned to SH25 and decided to head north instead of south, which would have been the shorter way to Auckland. The road took us all the way around the peninsula to places like Coromandel town, where we stopped for lunch and a hair wash. Sini washed up next to the dump station with the provided fresh water and our trusty bucket. I remained in the belief that if one's hair is too short to grab it will not get dirty during a few days neglect. After the long pit stop we continued following the coast southwards, stopping in Thames at the Pack 'n Save. During the trip we hadn't used the New Zealand camping app (Camping NZ) we had on our phones very much because it required internet connection to work properly. Some information was available offline though and we were able to find one last free campsite. We drove towards Miranda, never really finding the town itself, but locating Ray's Rest Reserve easily enough. It was apparently a very good spot for bird watching with migratory birds stopping at the very shallow bay. The campsite was huge and littered with big motorhomes and trailers, but our Mighty Igel fit in nicely. There was no toilet so it was only allowed for self-contained vehicles and the maximum length of stay was two nights. We liked it a lot and not just because it was free. The shallow bay was drained as we arrived in low tide and filled up bringing the waves in during the night. The rolling waters pushed seashells before them, piling them up in thick matts along the moving shoreline. It was all very beautiful, in its own way. We slept soundly in the campervan for one last night, already a little sad about having to let it go. The road trip had been great and New Zealand would have been very different to us without it. All good things must come to an end eventually though…