The night was quite restless, it stormed and rained the whole time, so we woke up early. Even on a short trip to the toilet, we got soaking wet. And even though we were expecting unsettled weather and it's not particularly warm inside the camper where wet clothes don't dry easily, it's still annoying. We warm up the remaining pancakes from yesterday for breakfast, drink tea, and appreciate how cozy our camper is. Brave as we are, we speculate that the weather will change and drive to Cathedral Cove. When we arrive at the parking lot, it's pouring down and as we examine the information board, we realize that we would have to walk for at least an hour to admire the cave on the beach. As impressive as it must be, the weather is too uncomfortable for us to take it on and waiting here nearby to see if the weather might improve in the next few days also seems pointless. Despite this realization, we still try a detour to the Hot Sand Beach a few kilometers away. Here, you can dig holes and come across hot springs that are right below the beach. We had hoped that someone had already dug a hole that we could quickly sit in, but all the other people still here are just looking at the otherwise relatively unspectacular beach from their car or under a roof. So we abandon the tourist program here and continue to the next place. Once again, it's located by the sea and when we arrive, the weather is not as good as the last few days, but there is a brief break in the rain and we walk along the coast on a circular path, passing the first fields we've seen so far in New Zealand (otherwise only pastures for livestock), along a river, and back along the road.
Once we reach the beach again, the water has receded so far that a huge mudflat landscape lies in front of us. We don't follow the example of the children who walk barefoot through the mud and instead sink into it with our hiking boots. We observe many birds and come across a stranded mini shark, which can't have been here for long, as it still looks good and hasn't been eaten much.
Glad that we had a break from the rain and got some fresh air, we make ourselves comfortable inside the camper with coffee and tea, write a bit, play, and listen to Harry Potter. In the evening, it's a bit spooky for me for the first time because we are the only campers here and a group of quite loud men are racing. Luckily, we can lock the camper from the inside, and after a few episodes of Scrubs, I am calm enough to sleep peacefully.
