Auckland to Raglan

February 22 – March 1

Long story short: our Ford van’s glory days were back when Rachel and I were still in elementary school. We limped our way to Auckland where we traded up from our oil guzzling Ford van to an over-the-top but totally awesome 4x4 turbo diesel van (owned and cared for by a mechanic, but we got an independent inspection just to be safe). He loved our old van and had the parts to make it like new again, so we ended up paying much less for our new van than expected.

During our brief layover in Auckland before heading south, we stopped off at some of the sites we missed during our initial blitz after landing in NZ two weeks prior. We caught the New Zealand symphony in the park along with 150,000 others on a beautiful summer night.


With no plan in mind, we headed south and decided that we’d better take the requisite surf lesson before the temperatures dropped too low with autumn approaching. We headed for Raglan (home of the best left-handed break in the world…which still means nothing to us) and as Lonely Planet predicted, we only expected to stay for one day but ended up staying for several because the laid-back and simple surf town was too friendly and inviting to leave after a day. The small town of Raglan sits quietly on the west coast of the north island and the residents seem to have a hard time fitting jobs into their busy schedule of surfing all morning and lounging at the cafes lining the main street.

We checked into a friendly RV/campground park that sat on the water with a black sand beach. Main street was a short walk across a bridge that passed over a small bay. After finding our campsite, we ran into the kitchen and quickly prepared a meal so we could watch the sun set while eating dinner on the beach. Our timing was perfect and we watched with several others as the sun dropped behind a small hilly peninsula.

In the morning, we headed to the Raglan Surfing School, which had prime real estate perched on top of a hill that looked out on to the classrooms – three of the most popular surfing beaches in New Zealand. First, they led us through dense forest to an old aluminum building with ratty couches set up in stadium seating. They quickly ran through the basics of surfing and had us practice the steps on our own boards. Rachel was delighted to find out that we’d be using foam boards instead of fiberglass boards. She started worrying the night before about falling and knocking her teeth out on the board. With her biggest fear relieved, she’d have no problem standing up.
After our short lesson, we all hopped in the van and drove down the beach for the real thing. We suited up in thick full body wetsuits, grabbed our boards, and headed out into the surf. Unfortunately, there were no hilarious stories about us struggling to stand up. We both got up after a few tries and spent the next couple hours learning how to turn and how to look cool while sitting on a surfboard in the ocean. (We have some videos of surfing, but still need to get cable to transfer)
Tired from paddling all morning, we spent the rest of the day relaxing in town and jumping off the bridge into the bay with the local 6th graders. Our next stop was Waitomo for the world famous glow worm caves.

On our way to Waitomo, we saw a sign for Bridal Veil Falls. Rachel had expressed concerns earlier about not seeing a waterfall yet, so we didn’t even bother to open up the guide book for any wise words. Not knowing what to expect, we walked down a thin path that followed a tranquil stream until the stream abruptly shot over a cliff and fell 180 feet to a pool below. Needless to say, it was a pretty special surprise and we spent about 30 minutes marveling at how much water was coming from the little stream and how it had found its route down.