Raglan

Today is our third day in a row in Raglan, and Joe and I are worried we’ll never leave.  It’s charming as hell here, and we love the people we’ve met. At the hostel two nights ago, one of the attendants was a lovely girl from Michigan who spend three years in Santa Barbara studying at Brooks, so we had quite a bit in common to discuss.

Waking up yesterday, we headed to Manu Bay, a “legendary surf spot with the longest left in the world.”  It wasn’t.  So we headed a bit further along the on-and-off paved road to Whale Bay, where Joe and I headed out of the car and crawled along rocks to a really cool secluded beach.  I would have rather enjoyed a roll in the sand, but Joe kindly declined my offer and we headed back to town.

I purchased a fruit cake at the grocery store for $3.50, which was amazingly filling and cheap (food and drink here are disgustingly expensive). Then, taking our bagged spaghetti prepared the night before, we drove the long dirt road to Mt Karioi.

It was pouring, but we braved the elements, and the 2.5 hour trek to the top was rough, muddy, and fun as shit. We met an Auckland engineer named Cody on the way up, who was originally form Victoria, Canada.  We stuck with him the whole hike, and afterwards he recommended checking out a hot spring about 25 minutes out of town.

On the 28th minute out of town, I turn to Joe and say “I’m scared, is this guy going to rape us?”  However, we soon reach the springs and warm up in the delightful sulfur scented pools (note we were cold as balls, it was raining this whole time). It was awesome.

We then head back to Raglan with Cody, get some grub at a place called Vinnie’s, run by a guy from Brooklyn. The portions are smaller here and the food is more expensive, but good nevertheless.

On our way out of Vinnie’s, Cody engages an attractive blond in conversation, we find out she’s from Colorado, and I ask her to join us for some beers. There were too many beers to remember her name, so lets call her Daisy.

Daisy takes us to this awesome sports bar that has $12 pitchers (normally a beer is about $8 at the cheapest anywhere else).  Joe and I are pumped, and the Kui pitchers keep flowing.  Cody doesn’t mind buying more than his share of rounds, and Joe and I aren’t going to argue.

We talk to Daisy for a while, she is a freelance graphic designer who works part time at Vinnie’s and also helps clean up at a hostel to pay for her accommodation at Raglan (It seems common for travelers to come her in the summer and just find easy jobs like that, its busy season and Raglan is a very small town).  Daisy’s friend then enters, not even gonna try to remember her name, but Joe was into her and she seemed keen on him.

The bar scene here is jolly, the old Kiwi’s are hilarious, getting really heated into the Cricket match on TV and the billiards game in the room.  The night is capped by Joe finding some Danes and singing drinking songs with them, in Danish.  It was a beautiful, blonde sight to see.

Tired as hell when the bars finally close (it’s a 3 hour time difference), Joe and I just sleep in our comfy little car, and wake up in pouring rain. We were going to head east to the glowworm caves today, but decide to wait out the rain and stay one more day in cozy Raglan, which means we have to put up with one more day of people asking us “What the hell are you guys doing in Raglan?”