Blogs from Raglan, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

Of the myriad things I will bring home with my from New Zealand, none is more surprising than a newly discovered addicition. For those who know me well, my sensitivity to foreign substances in my body is no big secret. If you've ever been hungover with me--or driven from Charleston to Ohio on study drugs with me--then you know that my temple of a body is very easily invaded by varying jihadist substances. Hmm, that didn't sound right. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I think I'm addicted to caffeine. Espresso, to be more specific. Let me give you an example. Today I left what has become one of my favorite places in this whole bluegreen planet. Raglan, home of left hand breaks, beautiful bush, birds, fish, and farmland, is the first and now ... read more

We spent a fine weekend at the beachside resort town of Raglan where we hooked up with another touring medical family (a neuroradiologist and his family from Arkansas who are currently living and working in Tauranga Bay). We actually “met” through our travel blog. While most of conversations involved the positive aspects of our experience, we were also able to share some of our “frustrations”. Talking about our common experiences with another North American family was somehow cathartic, whether it was the joys of low electricity prices and large dryers, or the bewilderment of making windows without insect screens. Avery and I spent Sunday afternoon surfing. Avery was a natural - riding a wave all the way in on her second try. I suspect that her snow boarding experience was an asset. My surfing was much ... read more

hello all! after writing a big long blog last night, i hit publish and the computer crashed and my blog was lost...so here goes again, and hopefully this one will work...we've had a busy couple of weeks since i last wrote. we spent 10 days on the south island, visiting some great places. first up was christchurch, which reminded me a bit of england. it was pretty but not spectacular like i had been expecting. we didn't have much time there, so just walked around the city a bit and got a feel for the place. from there we drove up to akaroa, a french town on the west coast, which is set on top of an old volcano. the drive up was a nightmare, bad weather coupled with winding roads with a sheer drop off ... read more

Here I am. South of Auckland and chilling out on beaches and swimming in the ocean daily. The weather has been awesome, and I love being a beach bum. I could spend a long time just hanging out on all the different beaches south of Auckland. The first one was in a town called Haihae and was the mostest bestest beach I have ever seen....even better then the ones in Newfoundland...go figure. Long white sandy beaches with awesome waves to play around in. We stayed at a little hostel right near the water and had beach parties during the night. I went kayaking and that was fun, lots of big swells, so I got very wet. After that we headed to a surf town called raglan. I havent done any surfing but I have eben playing ... read more

We woke in our lovely room, got ready and then headed to the beach ready for our walk to Cathedral Cove. It was a 1hr 30 min return journey up and down some steep slopes but it was soo worth it when we got there. As you can see from the pictures it named that because the white arch looks like a Catherdral arch - just incase you hadn't caught on! Once the pictures had been took we thought it would only be rude if we didn't swim in the sea (it's soooo cold here) and then after a sneaky 45 min sunbathing session (not that it helpded!) we headed back to our Lucy. After a bit of debating we decided to head to the Surfing Town of Raglan on the East Coast, which meant zig-zagging ... read more