At the
end of my week in Auckland I headed south to Hamilton, where my
aunt, uncle, and cousins live. The next few days were all about
meeting and catching up with family; my cousin Elgan and his fiance
Carly and family were over from Australia so there were lots of
people to meet! I also got to know my cousin Harriet's little girls;
Madeline, 3, and Violet, 8months. I became a firm favourite of
Maddi's (still am!) and for the most part go by the name 'Aunty
Jude', although there was a worrying few days at the beginning where
I was 'The That!!'. I'm glad that name didn't stick.
As I
didn't yet have my own transport sorted, I decided to do some
day-trips using my Aunt Carole's car – she had broken her wrist in
a kayaking incident and so was unable to use her car. My first day
trip away was to Raglan. Raglan is a small town sitting on the west
coast, and is internationally famous for it's surfing beaches –
great waves for surfing but treacherous waters for swimming. The
road to Raglan is very twisty and for the first time I was glad to be
driving an automatic rather than a manual – the bends and hills
would have made for a lot of gear changes! Along the rollercoaster
road I drove, enjoying the beautiful scenery all around me, when I
drove past a sign for a wind farm lookout point. Intrigued I slowed
and pulled into the view point. It struck me as quite funny that
with all the natural beauty surrounding me, this viewpoint turned out
to be an empty car-park with no information signs, and only a couple
of turbines in sight.
Once in
Raglan I started trying to suss out the parking situation – there
seemed to be lots of parking places, with either signs saying '60' or
'120' in front of them. I figured this most likely meant parking for
one or two hours was allowed, but went in to the tourist information
centre to check. The girl there confidently advised me that the '60'
and '120' meant 1 hour and 1 hour 20 minutes respectively; “what
else could they possibly mean!?” she declared. I suggested 120
minutes or 2 hours, rather than 1hour 20; “oh, I never thought of
it that way”, she said.
Raglan
isn't the biggest place, but it has a nice harbour and some very
interesting shops perfect for mooching about in, but dangerous for
your wallet. After some considerable time and effort I avoided any
expensive purchases and headed back to the car to drive down the
coast to visit the surfing beaches; Ocean Beach, Ngarunui Beach, Manu
Bay and Whale Bay. The views from the car were beautiful, and I
stopped regularly for short walks. At Ngarunui Beach I parked up
and headed down to the beach. The beach was deserted but for a
couple of lone surfers out on the waves and a guy in the distance
walking along the beach with a pack of about 8 greyhounds bounding
around him. I slipped my jandals (flip-flops) off and walked along
the black sand, allowing the water to wash over my feet. The beach
was stunning; a long stretch of undeveloped coast stretched out
before me, with the points of further land jutting out into the mist
in the far distance. I spent a peaceful hour walking, photographing
and enjoying the sea air, before heading back up the cliff to the
car.
On the
cliff-top I wandered through grasses, trees and native flax plants,
just coming into flower, to the Four Directions sculptures. These
four hinuera stone sculptures represent the four directions of the
compass; West the direction of the setting sun and Hectors dolphins,
North the direction of fire, the fire goddess Mahuika, South the
direction of Tane Mahuta, mother earth, and East the direction of the
rising sun, Tawhiri the wind god and the sky father Ranginui; and
were created by the local community with the guidance of a famed
Maori sculptor.
Ngarunui
Beach was definitely my favourite part of the day; the endless views
were breathtaking, and I stayed on the cliff-top a while longer
taking it all in, before heading back to Raglan for lunch (avocado
bagel – yum!) and heading back to Hamilton.
