Jordan's pacific travel blog

Raglan and Surf

After staying a night in Hamilton at the "Flying Hedgehog Backpackers" hostel, I took a city bus to Raglan, about 20 minutes straight west of Hamilton. Raglan was a busy, but small surftown on the coast. Here's the busy downtown street.

Real estate for New Zealand in general is not cheap. Raglan is no exception. Here's a little "bach" or a holiday home. It's not even oceanside property.

The Raglan surf school then picked me up, after I called from the information center in town. They are a ways out of town, and nestled into the oceanside of a small mountain, at Karioi lodge. (A hill if you ask me, but big in that area) The whole area is covered with trees and is very gorgeous. Real-estate must be un-imaginable!

There was one very long driveway through the trees. Probably a good 200-300 meters.

Unfortunately I had neglected to "confirm" my booking with the surf school, so because the dorms were full, I stayed in this 1938 camperized school-bus.

This was my bed.

I didn't succeed in getting a picture of me surfing, maybe I didn't try enough, but the whole school including the teachers were in the water for the full duration of the lesson. Next beach over is a world famous Manu Bay, with a very long left-hand break. Pros only. Anyway this is the beach I learned at. It was a huge very crowded beach.

This was the view from my bunk bus.

To tell you a bit about surfing; it was very fun! It is not a clean sport (like snowboarding) in comparison to most sports. You get wet, covered with sand, salty eyes, and crazy hair. But it was worth it! The first day I went out with the lesson, it was challenging to stand up on the board after catching a wave. The lesson was good, but my eyes burned horribly from the salt, because I made the mistake of rubbing them.

The next day I got out, and had a far better time. Now I could catch waves regularly, and instead of wading out, now I was paddling out farther past the breaking point.

When you get past the breaking point, you've got to wait, wait, and wait until a big/early wave arrives. So you paddle like crazy to get some momentum, and if you succeed the wave will push you right to shore. The moment you catch it, you've got to stand up and gain control of the board. Speed gives these boards stability, and you can lean and turn on them, much like wakeboarding.

The best thing about surfing is there are no continual costs (like lift tickets!) but the worse thing about surfing is the cost of equipment. I'm not sure how much wetsuits are, but they make the ocean bearable. A good surfboard will cost you upwards of $600! Rental at Raglan was $55 for a day. All I can say is, I'd love to live by the ocean with a surfboard. (And a wetsuit!)

February 5th and 6th.

Labels: Pacific Travel

posted by Jordan Olson @ 4:43 PM