We were supposed to stay the night with a host in the town of Otaki, NZ, but our host had to leave town suddenly to look after her father who had become ill.
So at around 7:00 or 8:00pm that night, we had to find a new place to stay. This would be the very first time on this trip that we would have to line up same-day accommodations.
You may not want to try this on the South Island during the busy summer tourist season, simply because many of the communities near key South Island sights are quite small and often don't have that many places to stay (this is particularly true if you want to limit yourself to budget accommodations at hostels or backpacker lodges). For example, if we hadn't lined up accommodations a day or two ahead of time in Franz Joseph Glacier or in Anakiwa, we would probably be sleeping in the car those nights.
But up here on the North Island it was no big deal at all. We drove for about 50km to the nearest sizeable town, Palmerston North, NZ, and quickly found a nice, clean and spacious motel room for only NZ$100 (about US$55).
And in the meantime, we had the chance to spend the afternoon and evening wandering around two of the several little beach towns on the lower west coast of the North Island.
Peka Peka Beach and Otaki Beach are tiny little communities less than two hours' drive north of Wellington, filled with modest little homes and blessed with easily accessible (and nearly deserted) beaches.
In the USA, it is impossible to find beach towns like this. The modest homes would have been replaced by monster mansions (or worse, high-rise hotels), and the quietest beach towns would attract so many people seeking quiet that they'd no longer be quiet any more.
But New Zealand's paradises aren't ruined by too many people. After all, this country has a population of only four million on a land mass roughly the size of Oregon. That's the advantage of living on two huge and hard-to-reach islands.
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