We were lucky enough to finish our Hobbiton tour early in the day, and so decided to continue on to Raglan from Rotorua earlier that morning. We stayed in a larger campground just a 5 minute walk across the bridge to town, which was a cute little touristy locale for what seemed like lots of Hamilton weekenders. Overall the town had a nice vibe- a mix of surfer, yogi, tourist, and city escape.

We were lucky enough to meet up with a local family (introduced to us online from a mutual Canadian friend), who had 4 little girls under the age of 6. We popped over for a visit to their seaside home, which let the girls play with some new friends, and also enjoy a change of scenery and toys. Josh and Ry took out one of their kayaks for a paddle, and as Raglan sits on an inlet there is no shortage of exploration up or down the waterways. The tide, however, goes up and down 3 meters from zero, so one has to plan their journey according to the tides before setting out, otherwise one will be walking and carrying (or abandoning) their water transportation device!

We checked out all the local playgrounds on our “le park tour”, took the camper to one of the longest left surf breaks in the world, but it wasn’t going at the time, so instead we had a picnic at the edge of the deep blue rock lined shore.

One morning we tried out the strongest coffee (as attested by our new local friend) at Raglan Roasters, and that evening we enjoyed a cafe dinner on the patio with two wild children that didn’t want to sit still at the Bay View Motel (i think that’s the name… its a very historic looking building in the center of town). At least once they were eating, our tired monsters were too busy filling their hollow legs with food to be loud!

Three nights was enough here though, as the black sand beach wasn’t directly on the ocean, the wind blew a wee bit chilly, and the town was a tad tiny. We came, we saw, and now its time to take Ry to her glow worm caves in Waitomo.