To Surf City ..Raglan on the west coast!

---

We did the walk at Haihei to cathedral Cove before we left in the morning which was bloody knackering - lots of hills but we took the pain uphill, enjoyed the relief downhill and said hello to everyone we saw! When you go walking in UK, everyone says hello to you , it's like being in a club so we decided to join! The older people are friendlier though but they have had more practice, so we are going to work towards our Walkers PHD! the views were amazing though. Lots of big rocks/mini islands in the sea off New Zealand!

Anyhow...moving on.... Cathedral Cove was lovely when we arrived! There's a natural archway in the wall which leads through to Cathedral Cove beach (hence the name) which looked cool. We had a swim in the sea which was freezing but refreshing! Didn't want to get out in the end! The waves were really big but the water was so clear it was great! We walked back to the hostel, chucked our stuff in the car and headed off to Raglan, surf city!

Lou fancied taking the wheel today so I put my feet up - literally - on the dash board, out the window.... - What? It's a road trip! We didn;t leave until 1.30pm so we stopped off in Paeroa for lunch which was nice, pinic in the park and then headed to Raglan. Had a little struggle again and sleeping int he car was on the agenda but Lou is not such a happy camper as I am! we have struck a deal that if we can only get accom that's 30 dollars or more then we will sleep in the car! ha ha! Anyhow we managed to find a hostel called Kaori Lodge in the National Park near Whale Bay. It was right in the forrest and was also cabin style, we could only get separate dorms though so the forst night away from Lou...aaahhhhhh!! ha ha!

The hostel was nice, quite far out though so by the time we checked int heir wasn;t really time to do anything other than cook and watch a bit of TV! we had to leave Juicy Lucy in the car park about a 15 min walk away but I am sure she made some friends!

---