Our rugged road trip came to a halt when one of the van’s tires went flat. Thankfully, the rental came with a spare and all the necessary tools. I changed the tire while Sara looked through the rental paperwork to read the fine print. With the doughnut installed and not clear instructions from the rental paperwork (except to call them prior to proceeding with any repairs), we headed back towards civilization to find a phone. We found one outside of a tour company and I talked with Spaceship Rentals who only advised us to either get the tire fixed or get a new tire.

We continued driving further into civilization and arrived in a town right at five o’clock. We pulled into to the first auto repair center (which happened to be a tire shop) just as their doors were closing. The manager was nice enough to take a look at our flat tire. Turns out the the sidewall was split and couldn’t be repaired so we had to buy a completely new tire! Twenty minutes and $130 later we were back in business.

It was too late to go anywhere else so Sara found a nice campsite right outside of town (Te Kuiti). It was a beautiful park with a babbling brook and best of all it was free! We regrouped and came up with a new plan since the road trip was a bust.

The next morning we got on the road early and headed back towards the coast to view seaside rock formations in Tongaporutu. When we got to the beach, it was high tide which meant the beach was inaccessible. To pass the time, we walked to a viewpoint called MacKenzie’s Bluff to watch and listen to the water crashing against the rocks. The water thundered up the cliff side as it crashed and flowed through the passageways.

As the tide started to ebb, we quickly hurried back to the beach access. Our first stop was the Three Sisters rock formations. One of the sisters had collapsed recently but the scenery was no less dramatic.

We continued south to find a beach waterfall at Whitecliffs. Time was of the essence because it was also only passable within two hours of low tide. As we walked along the beach, I kept watching the water level making sure it wasn’t going to sneak up and trap us against the cliff face. We found the beach waterfall but it was just a trickle from the lack of rain. We took our time to enjoy the beautiful secluded beach.

After a full day exploring the beaches, we found budget campsite in Waitara that was next to another beautiful beach and even had free hot showers!

That morning we were awoken early to more bites from our little bedbug friends (at least we got an early start to the day). We drove down to New Plymouth for a quick hike up Paritutu Rock. The climb was steep but chains anchored in the rock helped ease the ascent. At the top, we had great views of the coastline and could see the beaches we visited the day prior.

When we got back to the car, we realized that we had forgotten to pay for the campsite plus it was Easter (shame on us)! On our way back to pay, we got side tracked by a brewery we saw along the side of the road, Mikes Brewery. We enjoyed a taster of their beers but had to stop ourselves from trying more because we were on a mission to pay for last night’s campsite!

When I went into the camp office to pay, the owner didn’t even realize we had stayed the night. After a bit of confusion as to why I was trying to give her money, she accepted and was very thankful that we came back. After settling our debts, we got back on the road to drive to our next destination: Mount Teranaki.