Back to the West...

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Wednesday 20th... We set off from Hahei just after 8am & drove over to the West coast passing through several places on the way including Paeroa (famous for its spring water from which they make Lemon & Paeroa!) & Hamilton where Rocky Horror Picture Show was first conceived! At the site of the Embassy theatre (where Richard O’Brien worked as a barber!) which showed the B-movie double features credited by O’Brien as the inspiration for RHS, there now stands a stature of Riff Raff!
At Raglan we stopped for lunch & shopping before heading out of town to the hostel - a lovely place on the side of a mountain that supposidly looks like women lying down! A few people went off to surf school whilst the rest of us settled into our rooms & I headed out alone for a walk up the mountain. There was a circular walk that was meant to take an hour but I spent a lot of time stopping to take photos & try to spot birds! I detoured off the circular walk about half way around as there was a more interesting looking track going up the mountain... so I followed it. After going up several very muddy slopes I eventually found the top of that section (not the highest peak) & enjoyed the view before turning around & heading back down. Was a good walk in spite of a drop or two of rain part way round, during which I hid under the fern trees!

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