Last night's rain was heavy. It was so loud beating at the tent I'm not sure how I slept through most of the night. In the morning, I got up as soon as there was a break in the rain so I could dry off the tent the best I could and roll it up. I made breakfast and got ready to go. The office lady told me about some stops to make on my way south so I kept those in mind. The morning was sometimes wet, and sometimes sunny, they way New Zealand likes to do. I decided my next vacation is to the desert where rainfall is scarce.
About an hour away from Dargaville, I pulled into Sheepworld. It was a farm-like petting zoo, gift shop, cafe, and had sheep shearing demos. The demo wasn't for another hour so I just walked through the shop and the animal pins. I saw lambs, baby cows, miniature horses, llamas, donkeys, deer, bunnies, and the ducks and chickens were running all over. The cows were very sweet and so were the horses. The gift shop of course had everything you could want made out of wool.
I drove on. I was aiming for Helensville because that's where the campground lady told me there was a unique farm. She said the only animals it had were giraffes and that there were massive sculptures you could see from the road. I drove into Helensville but then checked google maps and it said this farm, the Gibbs Farm was 30 minutes before the town, so I had passed it. I didn't really have time to go back so I put it on my to-do list. I looked up pictures of the sculptures and I must see this place!
Back in Auckland, I cleaned up my car before I went to the car rental place so they could check out my cigarette lighter and hopefully fix it so I can actually charge my phone during the next two weeks. Apparently the two chargers I had, one even brand new, just weren't working. So that was that. I stopped at K-Mart for a bath towel (so I wouldn't have to use my small camping towel every time I took a shower) and flip flops (because blisters suck).
I drove the highway to a small town called Miranda. Shoutout to my best friend, Mirandah with an h :) I checked into the holiday park and before anything else, I took advantage of the thermal pool that was on their grounds. It was 38 degrees Celsius so that's about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was relaxing, despite the mild sulfur smell that hot springs create. I met a few older guys from Spain who were traveling with their wives. It was nice to be able to talk to them about their country since I was just there a month ago. I finished up at the pool then made dinner and "enjoyed" a wet and rainy night.
