raglan: a very new zealand halloween

um, where to begin? first of all, bare with me as i´m using a spanish keyboard at the moment (all those accent keys are in the wrong places)...

the last post left off as i was spending the night in auckland before heading southwest to the surf town of raglan, in search of... something new. what i found in raglan was a mix of new and familiar and really, too much fun!

i booked myself on the 8am bus from auckland to hamilton which necesitated packing up and leaving the hostel early and hauling the worldly possessions (i´m traveling with a backpack and small roller) from the hostel to the bus depot, about 6 blocks up hill. the bus to hamilton was about an hour and a half ride and uneventful other than staring in somewhat shock at the young mother sitting across the isle from me who proceeded to feed her 2 year old daughter several varieties of candy for the duration of the trip... at just past 8 in the morning.

in hamilton i had several hours to kill before the 3'40 bus to raglan so i stuffed my bags in a locker and decided to have a walk around. the bus depot in hamilton is on the west side of the river and that area is mainly populated by a stadium and several shopping centers, cafes, pubs, etc. while the east side of hamilton is quite nice and houses the university, the hamilton gardens and the hospital, in addition to the nicer neighborhoods full of charming little homes with picket fences. i strolled along the river walkway, had lunch at a great little cafe called metropolitan and went to the local art house/gallery before heading back to the station.

the bus to raglan, is actually more like a school bus than a city bus. the bus pulled up to the station and 50 high schoolers got on along with 2 other backpackers and some quite elderly couples. the bus driver was older than dirt (and drove the whole way with only 1 of his hands on the wheel). the ride from hamilton to raglan was another windy 40 minutes west, through countryside and trees and past many, many sheep (of course). once in raglan i asked the driver which stop i should get off at if i was heading to the solscape backpackers - he laughed and said the library but that the stop is no where near the backpackers... i asked if it was a far walk... he laughed again and said yes - there would be no walking. 'you might be able to hitch a ride' said the bus driver. 'alrighty, i´ll give it a go,' said i. so, i popped into the first shop, a sort of surf themed boutique and asked for directions (if i was going to hitch i should sure as hell know where i was trying to hitch to) and lucky me, i asked joshua and his girlfriend whitney. my good luck would have it that they were closing up the shop in about 15 minutes and would be happy to give me a lift (the backpackers is 6km outside of town which would be about an hour, hour and a half walk with bags) as they were headed in that direction anyway. i was beyond grateful and took them up on the offer -they were both super nice and actually were born and raised in the part of wellington that i had stayed previously (mo - they live just down the street from your place in melrose) and he was studying international relations at the university in hamilton and she was working in the shop in raglan for the winter.

off we went to the solscape eco-retreat, which i had booked ahead for friday and saturday nights when i had been in auckland. the description online did not do the place justice (or advise how far out of town the place actually was - making it slightly difficult to manage without a car). solscape sits on a hill, overlooking the ocean, a 15 minute trek down to the beach. the backpackers itself is made up of 15 someodd old train cars that have been converted into bunkhouses, a few teepees and several campsites, with a common building that is on solar power in the center (with showers, toilets, kitchen and woodburning stove for all to enjoy). i checked in and managed to have my own room for the first night (but would be joined for the second). in the kitchen i found the normal buzz of dinner time but for the FIRST time since i arrived i heard that all to familiar american accent!!! i was not the only kid from the us of a... there were 4 of us, plus a bus load of teenage canadian boys, a girl from china, a girl from germany, several aussies, a dude from uruguay, a guy from chile and a gal from the uk. turns out everyone was there to surf and relax and most of the folks had been there for quite a while (several weeks or more). although i was the newbie and was only there for the weekend, i was welcomed right in and felt right at home.

saturday morning i chatted with reception, in addition to being an unconventional backpackers/hostel, they also take wwoofers to work in the hostel, tend the gardens, do building, etc. so i got the application to come back in august after the other wwoofing i have already lined up. at breakfast i met summer (china) and anna (germany) who were heading out of town via the market and had a car, and offered me a ride. so i went into raglan with them and we hit it off well and we got coffees on the sidewalk and talked about travel and work (they both work at the yha in auckland) and making friends, etc. once they were on their way i decided to have a look about town - went over to the information center and asked about some of the treks in town, poked into some shops and found the best little organic market where i stocked up for the weekend. it had been quite nice out when i left but of course, in true new zealand fashion, it began pouring for a good chunk of an hour - and i had left my jacket up at the backpackers... so i found the library and read out the rain. once it let up, if figured it was time to try and make it back up the hill to solscape, and parked myself on the corner and stuck out my thumb... the third car picked me and my groceries up, driven by a very nice older man (not scary) who worked for the fishery department and needed to check the water out beyond solscape. not 2 minutes down the road and the sky opened up and started pouring again, so there i was testing that good luck, and it not letting me down.

back at solscape, i unpacked the groceries, met the new roommate, brawny from adelaide, and set on making dinner. dani, from vermont/new hampshire who sorta lives at solscape with her fiance nelson, was busy making herself a wonder woman costume for the evening... apparently it was halloween (i had no idea). dani and katie (a 9 week solscape wwoofer from wisconsin) had decided that to celebrate the coming of winter in the southern hemisphere that a halloween party should be thrown. originally the locale was going to be down on the beach below solscape but with rain in the forecast the party was moved into town at their friend john´s house... and everyone was invited - costumes were mandatory. with only a few hours to figure something out my roommate and i looked into our bags, and eachother´s bags, and managed to pull off a gypsy (me) and a german farm girl (brawny) and we joined in the fun. in attendance from solscape were wonder woman, amazon woman, the mad hatter, roller derby girl, purple people eater, baby, starsky and hutch and an afganistan bomber... knowing the time frame and the available props made all of this quite impressive. the party was fun, the house was awesome, the people were very friendly and quite fun to talk to. by somehow i ended up playing the role of the dd (on the wrong side of the road) and managed to drive a well-loved station wagon full of 8 drunkards in costume from the house party to the yacht club (dance club) where we shut the place down, and then back up to solscape where we fired up the kitchen for the 3am snacks.

on sunday, i put on the wetsuit and got myself in the water to do what they do in raglan, which is surf. i signed up for a lesson (because of those confidence issues i have) and managed to catch a few waves (and yes, stand up) in the swirly-whirly-stormy tazman sea. the water was much warmer than i had imagined and once the rain stopped and the wind died down it wasn´t half bad. back at solscape i asked reception what the chances were of me getting to cambridge from raglan before noon on monday - reply: excellent, no problem. so i booked another night in the caboose. sunday afternoon continued with rain-sun-rain-sun and resulted in about 100 games of ultimate canadian jenga (played where you can only remove outside blocks) and ultimate scrabble (played without a board and sort of played by yourself to see how many words you can make on your own, starting with 7 tiles and grabbing another 2 when any player has used all of their tiles).

monday morning: the bus from raglan to hamilton left from the library at 7, which meant i could be on the bus from hamilton to cambridge at 10:30. i got up at 5:30am and sorted my stuf out to be on the road, with my thumb out at 6:15am. being monday morning and on the road that connects a lot of the farms to the town of raglan, i was told i should have no problem making it on that 7am bus (6km away). cars passed by, i waved my thumb at them, i flashed my headlamp at them, i smiled... no one wanted to pick me up. i started walking, i got laughed at by several cows... i got some waves. no ride. finally, at 7:10am, the luck gods shined down on me again in the form of larissa, a midwifery student at the university in hamilton, and she PICKED ME UP and offered me a ride alllllll the way to hamilton! i couldn´t believe it. she was happy to have company, she was also 28, and had traveled a lot in her life (originally from brazil). i couldn´t not have been any happier and we chatted the whole way and beat the bus to hamilton that i was suppose to be on!

and thus ended my first stay in raglan - but i guarantee it won´t be the last as it was so quiet and calming and the ocean was so incredibly beautiful and the people were so friendly... and i´m feeling the urge to hitch-hike again (you never know who you will meet!)!!!

next post: the osmond farm and my first wwoofing experience!