Raglan 5th - 8th April

Surf's up dude! We've just arrived at NZ's surf central - a place called Raglan. What's more the backpackers we're staying in is surf central's, central ! The place is full of pro's from all round the world. There's a lot of kit + clothing being flashed around and you suspect some of them are being sponsored. Israelis, Japanese, Swedes, Dutch, German, Yanks .. they're all here. Some of them haven't been anywhere else for weeks. All they do is eat, breath, talk, sniff and poo surfing. The rest of their lives are in limbo. You can see how easy it would be to fall into this kind of lifestyle. Very easy going. Most of the time everyone sits around looking at the weather - waiting for the perfect wave. Only about two hours a day is actually spent surfing. You're so knackered after that it takes the next 24 hours to recover. Despite looking really hard - it's not that difficult to get started .. we were both standing up after our first lesson. Admittedly the waves were tiddlers - but all the same the snaps make us look quite cool. The next day we rented our own boards - mainly so we could stick them on the roof of the car for photos. There are definitely going to be a few trips to Newquay when we get back - so much fun especially when you get hold of a slightly bigger wave than ones you're used to.