Raglan

RAGLAN, NEW ZEALAND

28.01.2013 - 30.01.2013 24 °C
View NZ on karencook's travel map.

So Steve and I had the brilliant to head to Raglan for the weekend. The "weekend" that is. As in Steve's weekend. Which is usually Sunday-Monday but this week just happened to be Monday-Tuesday. He had worked Sunday night because it was a long weekend so he had Tuesday night off in lieu of it. I on the other hand, just happened to have Sunday, Monday AND Tuesday off out of sheer randomness. I had decided to make the most out of this unwanted time off and go see somewhere I hadn't been before. My thoughts were Hokianga/Opanoni. Not too far away – only about an hour and a half drive over to the west coast and supposed to be absolutely stunning.
At some point I found out Steve had Tuesday off and invited him to come along, thinking it would be more fun to go with someone and it would be nice to actually spend some real time together. He of course wanted to go somewhere that he had never been before and he especially wanted to get the hell out of Northland so we tossed around the idea of Waiheke Island or Raglan with Raglan winning due only to the cost of the car ferry/barge to Waiheke.
So Monday morning we hopped in the car. Well, I hopped, Steve was still half asleep and therefore wasn't very hoppy yet. Traffic was somewhat annoying what with the holidayers all heading back south to Auckland and there were loads of police on the roads. So the rive kind of dragged on. After we got south of Auckland we (Steve) decided we should take the scenic route. Definitely my biggest regret of the trip. Or even of all my time in New Zealand. Most annoying road ever. I hate not being able to drive fast. Although the landscapes on this route were amazingly beautiful, it was the worst drive ever. The road was sooooo windy and long. I could rarely go over 40 and thought we would never come out the other end. And there were NO opportunities for us to meet back up with the freeway and take it instead. So the scenic route ended up involving me trying to drive about two and a half times the speed limit and screeching the tires on every turn getting angrier and more frustrated with each one, and Steve holding on and constantly telling me to slow down. So we spent that whole road fighting. I NEVER thought we would see Raglan. It was supposedly a 4.5ish hours drive from Paihia on the MAIN roads but we managed to turn it in to about a 6-6.5 hours journey.
When we finally arrived we checked out the town

– which took all of 2 minutes walking, and then headed off in search of a place to stay. We ended up with a campsite at Solscape and Steve put up the tent while I too off to the beach for a swim and to catch the last rays of the day. Steve showed p later with some beers and we just relaxed on the beach for awhile. Later on we headed back to Solscape to shower and then headed into town for dinner. only to find out that amazingly things in Raglan close even earlier than they do in Paihia. So we ended up with a only one place to choose from, which I guess isn't really a choice at all. It was the place Steve had been leaning toward earlier so it was all good. It was a Cambodian restaurant, which turned out to be pretty much the same as Thai. It was goo though, so no complaints. The next day we spent part of in town chilling out, drinking coffee and Steve got a haircut. The rest of the day was spent at the beach, swimming, body surfing on my inflateable jandle and getting nasty sunburns. That last one was more Steve than me. We attempted to head into town earlier so we would have more food options. And we decided on Vinnie's. Which was a flailing restaurant we had seen on a restaurant makeover show months and months previously. Cool little place. Decent food. But absolutely dead other than Steve and I. Then next morning it was coffees and hitting the road. Stuck to the freeway and it was a much better drive. Made it home in time for both of us to go to work. Yay!
Raglan