Today doesn’t start as I had planned. As soon as I drive away from the camping, I feel that something is not right with my car. I stop and see that I’ve got a flat tire. After saying some words I won’t repeat here, I drive back to the camping. Fortunately the camping owner is already awake and comes outside. He happens to have a pump for car tires and gets enough air in the tire to get me to the next town. At the town there is a garage which is already open at 7.30am and a friendly guy fixes my tire in less than ten minutes. The damage, 20NZD. I’m really thankful and glad that I was so close to a town and that the people here helped me so good.

I drive a bit further and stop in the next town for a coffee and something I haven’t seen before, a long donut. It’s the same as a donut, but then straight. That gives the day a good start after all.

The rest of the day I keep driving with one more stop at a nice beach. The destination of today is Waitoma, where the Waitoma caves are. I arrive just in time for the last tour of the day. First we walk through beautiful caves with some glow worms and then we take a boat on an underground river to a place with more than 10.000 glow worms. It absolutely amazing to see. I’m glad I drove so long to get to this place, it’s really spectacular.

By the time the tour is ended it’s getting dark outside and I drive to a nearby camping place. I make a quick stop at a supermarket to get groceries for breakfast tomorrow and then drive to the Mangaokewa scenic reserve where I’ll stay tonight. First free camping place of this trip, so I’m happy. It’s in the middle of a forest next to a small river. Except for the flowing water it’s completely quiet, a nice peaceful place to stay for the night.