Icing on the cake for our couple of days in Raglan was hooking up with Lynne again – (mate recently ex-London UK – as opposed to Ranana (London) on the Whanganui River Road).
After a fairly long drive from New Plymouth, arrived in Raglan. En route stopped off at the beautiful Bridal Veil Falls just outside Raglan town. We’d done a fair old number of NZ waterfalls by now, Bridal Falls definitely makes the top 3. Not just for the falls either. The short walk through bush to reach them from the main road is pretty good too.
In fact we loved it there so much we returned the next day with Lynne (who had driven down from Auckland to meet us).
Raglan town itself is pretty cool and cruisy. Small on the outside but there’s lots of mooching around the little shops to be had. Raglan Kopua was our campsite for the duration.
Beach next to Raglan Kopua campsite
Large and busy with a good range of accommodation from tent pitches to self contained appartments. Lovely setting. A favourite pastime for locals and tourists alike seemed to be dive bombing off the bridge. Entertaining to watch, foolish for us to try… so we didn’t.
Went for a drive up Mt Karioi which was shrouded in mist for the duration of our stay. Nevertheless, the view, or most of the time, the aura of the from the road winding round the mountain was breath taking.
We did get the occasional glimpse of the view below which no doubt is even more awesome on a clear, sunny day.
Out the other side of the mountain, we passed Ruapuke Motor Camp – looks like an idyllic spot if we’re fortunate enough to get out to these parts another time.
Very sad to say our next stop is Auckland and then home.