raglan weekend

So Dan made it to the country, bad back and all, on 6 April. Josh flew to Auckland with his parents at the end of our South Island adventure to meet up with Dan and tiki tour around a bit (that's what they call sightseeing!).
So when I got done with work on Friday, I met them in Raglan, which is a little town on the west coast. The weather was gorgeous the entire weekend, which was great except there wasn't much surf! Oh, well. Guess we'll just have to go back!
Raglan's a great little hippie, artsy, dreadlocked surfer sort of place. There were more than one persons with--get this--mullet dreads. No joke. Now that's really a party in the back.
Here are the boys in the campervan. Her name was Queenie. They had lots of good adventures together.
And then we explored a bit of Raglan...fun mural on a wall...

The fun bridge over the river to more sandy beaches...

Just before the bridge was this little set of stairs. Into the water. Why? I don't really know. Would boats dock here? Is it really possible? I don't know. Regardless, it looks cool.

Getting a tasty snack after we wandered beaches...

Josh booked us a stay in a ecolodge, called Solscape, where the cabin are actually 14 recycled, authentic NZ railway cars. It was very Boxcar Children. If you've never read the Boxcar Children, you really must.

And here's some funky little building that's currently being built.

The Ecolodge also had fun animals hanging around, including chickens and this sheep that didn't run when you went near it! This is a first. Who knew sheep liked to be petted? (Well, this one anyway--though Dan claims that he's the animal whisperer and that's how the sheep came over to us.)

After wandering around the beaches and peeking into the cool artsy shops in town, we drove out to Bridal Veil Falls. I think it was like 130meters tall. But it falls quite gracefully and looks all lacy and pretty like a veil. Obviously.

Yes! Work those gluts!

Tree fern!

And then we did some more hanging out on the beach. On Sunday there was a great market that had crafty things and food and all sort of yumminess.

Surfing and the sunset.

...and then washing off while using a towel to protect all the kiddies from seeing things they're not supposed to. (Before meeting Josh, I did not even realize that it was really an option to be naked under a wet suit.)
Exploring tidal pools with cute crabs.

The cool feather-like plants...these are everywhere, I should really learn what they're called!

And then we had a lovely lunch before I had to head back to Hawera, and the boys continued on their adventure.

And of course I had to stop and take a picture or two as I left...here's one leaving the Raglan area with Mt Karioi. Very fun.