Surfing in Raglan
Trip Start
Oct 16, 2008
1
15
20
Trip End
Dec 18, 2008
Raglan, North Island, New Zealand
Friday, October 31, 2008
We got in the car at a little past 11, and began our journey. I was the first to drive and it felt good to be back behnd the wheel again...driving on the wrong side of the road, haha. The drive took us a little over 3 hours. We made a stop for lunch and some more pies, which I'm growing quite fond of. The weather during our trip was perfect once again.
The town of Raglan only has one main road going into and out of it. The town itself is very small and only has two main roads, but it is a HUGE surf town. There were more surfshops than restaurants in this place. All of the buildings are very low key and the people here are very friendly as well. I'm not sure what the population of Raglan is, but its small.
After arriving, we went to the local surfshop to check the prices on renting boards and wetsuits. They wanted 50 dollars for half a day per person including everyting. Andy and I thought that we could do better so we kept on looking. Finally, we ran into someone who told us that the cheapest place to rent boards was at the local hostel down the road. We arrived and found (what I believe is) the coolest hostel in New Zealand. The hostel is located right near the beach and all around the place there were hammocks hanging, about 12 in all. I wished that I would have spent a night there...maybe next time. The guy we met was really helpful in getting us decent boards and suits. We then strapped our boards to the car and headed to the beach which was only 5 minutes up the road.
When we arrived, there were a few surfers in the water already and one guy was kite surfing. Shortly after our arrival a surf school showed up with about 15 people in it. The weather at the beach was beautiful, but the water was COLD...probably about 60 degress, thank god we had the wet suits. We spent about 2 hours at the beach trying to surf. I only was able to stand up a handful of times. Andy was able to stand up much easier...he spent a lot of time surfing in New Zealand during his last trip here. After about two hours, the waves started to turn to mush due the the changing of the tides. I got momentarily caught in a rip tide, but I eventually was able to swim out of it...I guess it was mother natures way of letting me know who's boss. By this time it was 5pm, so Andy and I decided to head back in to town to have a feed (thats what New Zealanders call eating). After a quick bite, we went to check out another surf spot just a little up the road from where we were. We had to hurry because it was getting dark. Once we arrived, we had a sanity check and still decided it was a good idea to put on our cold wet suits again and try this surfing thing once more. The waves looked pretty good while we were watching...but it was crazy, as soon as we got in the water, the waves suddenly died. We spent about 20 minutes hoping that the waves would pick up again, but we were not so fortunate.
We arrived back at the hostel shortly after dark to return our surfboards and gear. Everyone at the hostel was dressed up for halloween. I completely for got that it was halloween, my favorite holiday, and I wished that I had remembered to bring a costume along. Andy and I tried to think of quick costumes that we could throw together, but we had no extra clothes along....so to our dismay, after returning our stuff, we headed back to Tauranga without going to a halloween party.
The drive back was really easy. Just outside of Tauranga, there is a large mountain range that we had to cross in our car. At night, on top of the mountain, while driving, I saw more stars than I think I ever have in my entire life. I tried to take a picture of them....with no luck.
The end.
