Raglan and Waitomo

After the first night in Auckland I managed to meet up with a Canadian mining engineer named Daniel. He was staying with a couchsurfer in Auckland that was nice enough to let him borrow a car for a month. I am not comfortable driving on the left side of the road so he will likely be doing most of the driving:



For our first day of driving we went to Raglan: a small surfing town with nice little shops and great beaches. We stayed with an older woman (couchsurfer) that allowed us (and two other Aussie couchsurfers) to pop our tents in her backyard. She cooked us dinner and good times were had by all. Here are some photos from her back yard, the town, and the beach:


Daniel has a "green" tent that didn't come with poles. It's meant to be erected using sticks:

I will be sleeping in my own tent.

Before I came here I had no idea what kiwi cuisine was all about. I still don't really know, but there seem to be these pies everywhere. Like chicken pot pies, but with all kinds of different fillings. We got a bacon and egg pie. It was kind of weird, definitely not healthy, but still pretty good:



Right now we are in Waitomo waiting to go black water rafting. Not because the water is black, but because your raft goes through dark caves with glow worms. Afterwards we will find somewhere to camp (Daniel has already collected his sticks for the evening) and probably continue on to Taupo tomorrow. Either way we will be in Wellington by Saturday night and taking the ferry over to Picton early Sunday morning. Until next time...