Surf's Up

Trip Start Nov 01, 2006
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Trip End Mar 26, 2007


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Thursday, January 18, 2007

First stop on the North Island was the little seaside village of Raglan. It's not a major destination on the tourist trail or anything but Edel thought it sounded nice and would be a good place to hit on the journey south and take in a bit of Kiwi beach culture. Since I had read or done nothing about New Zealand and was happy to let her organise the trip (it was her holiday and at this stage into the travelling organisation and planning is well beyond me) so I was cool with that. Turned out to be a lovely little spot. Just a village really but with a relaxed surfer vibe, some good cafes and apparently the best left-handed break in the world! The hostel we were in was nice and everyone seemed to be there for that famous left-handed break or at least were willing to spend a few hours trying to stand up on the board. The first day we had a little cycle round but the rolling hills around this part of the North Island compounded with the lack of working gears on the hostel bikes soon put the brakes on our biking amitions Nice helmet!
Nice helmet!
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The following day we toyed with the idea of a surf lesson but reckoned we'd get more out of just sticking to the bodyboards (seeing as I was king of the waves in Ocean City, MD back in '97!). The waves were actually breaking a little early and I don't think the left-handed break was suiting my more right-handed style but having said that we both caught half a dozen good ones before calling it a day. At this point we both fell foul of the hole in the ozone layer down this side of the world and even though it wasn't that sunny we managed to get proper devils heads which attracted a bit of comment in shops and restaurants for the next day or two! Given my tight schedule (just 16 days in NZ) it was then time to move on... ever Southwards.
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