New Zealand – Day 6 – Monday, February 27th, 2017

+26 Mostly sunny light winds

So, I drove up to the tyre store at 7:40 a.m. (why was I up that early) got the tyre out of the trunk and rolled it up to the owner.  He promptly took it apart, declared it dead and offered me a new one at a reasonable price.  I approved and he put the deal together and installed the tyre. I paid the reasonable price and drove away but I thought if that were to occur at home not only would it take longer than 20 minutes it likely would have cost more as well.

So, the other thing that came of this as we drove around the rest of the day frequenting other small towns with stores that had the word tire in the title is that we certainly did not have to worry about flat in New Zealand as they have an industry to cover that. While I was in that little shop I checked out the racks where they stored the tyres and lo and behold tons of the same brand and model were available for the next tourist with a flat.  It appears that a lot of rental cars have the same brand and model installed on them so the stores shelve them and make a killing on a problem made by the guys who re-seal the roads all around the country.

The highlights of this leg were the drive and views to Matauri Bay plus several other bays along the way all just beautiful.  We also made the drive down a dusty washboard road like the ones in Saskatchewan to check out the Kauri Cliffs golf course.  Of course, they would not believe that we of all people would have a booking for a round let alone a lunch reservation, so we did not get past the gate.  Supposedly a round of golf is $500.  At least they could install asphalt on the road to make rejection smoother on departure.

Ended the day in Keikeri. Stayed in another small owner-operated motor hotel.  The couple in the unit next to us were from Victoria, B.C.  This was their fifth trip to New Zealand.  They have never had a flat tire but have had to change a few windshields.