Breathtaking Beaches

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.