Worst Blog Ever

We woke up pretty early today; around 6:00 am, on account of going to bed so early yesterday as well as the fact that Daylight saving had ended as of last night.  We had quick breakfast of muffins and coffee that we had brought with us as supplies.  Then, after a quick shower, we headed off to a couple of the beaches we had heard about.  The first one we got to was Manu beach which was already packed with people due to a surfing competition that was happening.

After watching the competition from far up above, we continued to Whale beach.  Whale beach was also packed with surfers, not for a competition, but simply for the tasty waves.  Both of these beaches were only beaches in the sense that water met shore; neither one of them were sandy beaches, just large waves and huge rocks.



We headed back in the opposite direction and watched a bit more of the surfing competition while letting the dogs out for a walk near the water.  From Manu beach we could see a huge sandy beach not far away.  After the dogs did their duty (giggle...duty!), we drove to find the sandy beach.  We took a narrow road leading into some residential housing, but we also saw a scenic reserve trail that headed down to the beach.

Wow, what a beach!  It was long, sandy, lots-o-waves, but not such huge surf that you couldn't go swimming.  And a huge plus was that dogs were welcome!  Kristie and I grabbed a corner of beach, near a large rock, and just enjoyed the sunny weather and playing in the water with the pups.  After a couple hours, we started getting hungry, so we came back to the home-stay for the left over pizza we had for dinner last night.

Not long after eating lunch, we headed out again to a place called bridal veil falls, a place about 15 KM from our home-stay.  Unfortunately, upon arrival, we saw that they didn't allow dogs, so we didn't get a chance to see what all the fuss was about.  Luckily, the drive was absolutely gorgeous, and we have another chance to check it out on our return trip in a week's time.  Although we didn't get to see the falls, we stopped at a wind farm lookout and enjoyed a locally roasted coffee.

We dropped the dogs off at the home-stay and then went to explore the shops in Raglan.  We found some funky art shops, and some other stores as well as scoped out some restaurants we thought we might like for dinner.  We stopped at a cafe called ??? where we enjoyed a lovely iced chocolate drink and a walnut brownie...Both were absolutely yummers!

We headed back to the home-stay to pick up the dogs for another walk along the great beach.  At this time, the tide had receded quite a bit, so we were able to take a really long walk that wouldn't have been as easy if the tide were in.  Finally, after the walk, we headed back into town to get a meal of Indian takeaway from a little place called Nameste.

Now, after eating, a shower, and packed up for our early road trip tomorrow, we can settle down to watch an episode of House.

Note: You can view all of our photos here: Picasa Web Album.