There's a party to be had in Raglan

Todays journey really made me realise how different New Zealand is to Oz, we travelled across the entire north island in one day! Our next stop was the tiny coastal, surfing town of Raglan. Our hostel was actually set a little bit out of town, way up in the mountains (complete with no mobile signal!) The place had a really great vibe (god I do sound like a traveller now!) and loads to do.

A group of us set off for a walk in the bush, having decided that it was far too cold to go surfing! I quickly realised that this was'nt the easy option, and after scrambling up near vertical slopes, on my hands and knees at some points, for 1hour I was really questioning the wisdom of going for this walk. The others had zipped off ahead, not surprising considering they were all super fit (one is in the army, one goes fell running and the third is a surfer/diver/extreme sports enthusiast!) and I was left puffing and panting my way up the mountain. But I did finally reach the top, and the view was reward enough. Green fields in one direction and blue ocean in the other, it was simply breathtaking. Surprisingly the journey down took half the time, mainly because I did most of it on my butt!Also walked straight into a tree branch, resulting in a huge bump on my head and hysterics from everyone else!

walked straight into a tree branch, resulting in a huge bump on my head and hysterics from everyone else!

On our return to the hostel, we found preperations underway for a huge party. It turned out two of the staff were leaving and the hostel was organising a shin dig for them. And boy do these hippy, sufer, traveller types know how to party! After far too much punch, dancing and zip wiring in the dark, I finally left them too it at about 1.30am!

The following day, on route to our next stop, we stopped for our first activity, caving. I'm actually quite apprehensive about being underground so naturally went for the full adventure option combining abseiling, caving and canyoning, well what does'nt kill you only makes you stronger right! After getting kitted up in very attractive wetsuits and white wellies and a quick abseiling lesson, we headed down to the start of the cave system. I quickly realised that although the 5mm wetsuits would keep me relatively warm, it also meant I could barley lift my leg! Almost as soon as we got underground it was time for the first abseil, down a pitch dark waterfall. My heart was definately pounding as I swung out over the hole and had to under the lock on my rope to start walking down the rock face. The next abseil was not as scary but equally as hard, as it was following a full waterfall, so I was being pummelled from above by water in the dark trying to abseil down a slippery rock face in gum boots full of water! It was a really fun trip though, I got used to the dark and being underground and the geology was fantastic. Also, one cave was full of glow worms, did you know they are actually maggots! We craweled, wiggled, walked, scrambled, climbed and squeezed our way back to the surface! I was exhausted but really proud of myself!