Advertisement
Published: July 18th 2006
Before I left the States, I contacted a person selling a van on-line. I arranged to meet Pip at the airport when I arrived. I met Pip and checked out the van. It looked like it was exactly what I wanted so I took it for a test drive. That was an experience. Within 10 minutes of being in New Zealand, I was driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car. When there is traffic on the road, it's easy but when I turn onto an empty road I still have to remind myself which side of the road to be on.
As soon as I had paid for the van, I went straight to Raglan. I arrived on a beautiful day and there were actually waves. So, I surfed Manu Bay and then I surfed again at Whale Bay. For those of you that don't know Raglan has 3 Left point breaks. Indicators, Whale Bay and Manu Bay. Manu Bay is the wave from Endless Summer. After 2 good, uncrowded sessions, I just went into town for dinner and crashed out in my van at the campground.
Saturday started off as
a huge inconvenience. I checked the surf early and decided to do a few things in town before I went surfing. I tried to get some groceries and the grocery store didn't take traveler checks so I bought a few things with all the cash I had left. Then I went to the gas station. They don't take traveler checks either. They told me to go into Hamilton which is the "big city" 40 minutes outside of Raglan. I go into Hamilton and no banks are open and there are no check cashing places. I was beginning to get really stressed out. I went into another grocery store and they gave me directions to a bank that is open on Saturdays. So it ended up taking me over 3 hours to cash in some traveler checks but it was over with and I had money in my pocket. I had a much deserved surf at a beach break 20 minutes outside Raglan called Ruapuke Beach. To get to Ruapuke, you have to go through Te Toto Gouge Reserve. The road is windy and narrow but it's a really beautiful drive. After I got out of the water, I met 2
mini-Manu Bay
Manu Bay 6/30 really nice Australians Christian and Beth. After chatting for a while they invite me to join them for dinner. On a camping stove, they made a lamb curry that was excellent. After dinner we went back to the campground and got cleaned up. Once a month the Raglan Music Club which consists of a bunch of the local musicians and they have a concert in town. Christian, Beth and I went and saw 5 or 6 different musicians/bands get on stage. Each act plays like 4 songs or about 20 minutes. Most of the acts were good.
Christian and Beth cooked me breakfast the next morning. I must have looked like a lost puppy because they really took care of me. I guess its that traveling mentality that it all comes back around. We went for a surf at Manu Bay which was the smallest day since I got there. After we got out of the water, I met Mike from Mission Beach who rented a R.V. and was in New Zealand on holiday for 2 weeks. We had both heard of a good swell that was supposed to hit the East Side of the island on Monday and
mini-Indicators
Indicators 7/01 decided to team up. The campground let me park my van there for a week and didn't even charge me. So I threw my stuff in Mike's R.V. and we were off to Gisbourne.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0315s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
j kulass
non-member comment
tourist
That sign is there , young William, to warn you dumb American tourists of when you come over here to surf for hours, some guys knowing that you are probably in the water and couldnt catch them if you tried, will rob your stuff out or your ride and jet.