Travel Tuesday: Raglan, New Zealand

In the months leading up to our trip, my mom introduced me to a photographer, local to the Auckland area. Roger helped me focus and narrow down our destinations to a more realistic itinerary. 

The day we arrived, Roger was a saint and met us at the airport on Waitangi day before 6am. He drove us around Auckland showing us a few sights and helped us re-adjust to driving on the left side of the road. 

He treated us with a bag of New Zealand goodies including Pineapple Lumps, Whittaker's chocolate, Jaffas, and some sort of carbonated apple/orange soda. We polished off the entire bag of Pineapple Lumps in less than a day! 

On our drive from Auckland to Raglan, we tried Tip Top ice cream in Pokeno. They had some crazy flavors: orange chocolate chip, candy floss, tiger time, and hokey pokey. I decided I didn’t like hokey pokey (tiny balls of honeycomb toffee), but I did love the amount of scoops they offered - 12 scoops for $14 NZD. 

Thrift shops are called “opportunity shops” in New Zealand. I just love this spin on thrifting. It definitely is an opportunity for a great deal.

Ansgar describes Raglan as your favorite surf shop that exploded into a town.  When asked if they have sharks, an employee replied “we have heaps of sharks.” Gotta love the kiwi phrases. 

Ansgar went surfing at Manu bay where they have the longest left wave. Raglan is well known as a great place for surfing goofy. It was less of a tourist stop and much more a surfing requirement, as it was featured in the movie The Endless Summer. 

We had to try the real fruit ice cream (they're really into this in New Zealand). They made it each order with a funnel cone that held the frozen yogurt with a screw auger that forces it through. The end result looked like soft serve ice cream with fruit speckles.

On our way out of Raglan we drove to see Bridalveil falls. The height of the falls and vegetation were jaw dropping beautiful. Although the hike down to the base was only 10 minutes, I managed to get sunburned on my chest. It's a light burn but a valuable reminder to lather up, even for a quick walk.