In the morning, we see our overnight spot for the first time in daylight and it's not as bad as we thought. Located on the outskirts of a small village, there are clean toilets as usual, a picnic table under a big tree, and a few chickens that curiously peek into the camper. After breakfast, we explore the village and it's very quaint. There is a grocery store and a café where half the village gathers. Unfortunately, everything is quite rundown and the people don't seem very welcoming. So we turn around and continue driving. Today, we want to get some work done for the blog, so we head to the next library - it's in Kerikeri, a small town in Northland. After a bit of searching, we find a free parking spot not too far outside the town and I drop off Alex at the library.
The place doesn't have much to offer except for the second-hand stores. Then I go back to the library and pick up Alex. We buy some groceries at PaknSave and continue to a spot right by the sea.
(Fun fact: All the shelves you see here are exclusively filled with different types of toast bread)
The approach is quite bumpy, but once we leave the last pothole behind, we park our van in the middle of a beautiful dune landscape, next to a kilometer-long sandy beach. Except for a few other campers that are well spread out on the huge area, there is nothing here. The toilet block with a shower is a bit further away, but that's okay, the place is uniquely beautiful. We take a walk along the beach, have coffee in the sun, and enjoy the surroundings.
In the evening, it becomes clear again how fascinating it is to be so far away from civilization. The night sky is breathtaking. Rarely have we seen so many stars and the Milky Way so clearly. We sleep in complete silence, only with the sound of the sea.
