From Gizzy, I stayed in Mt. Manganui, which is kinda like the Long Beach of NZ -- a seedy Riviera. .A shopkeeper said, "Yank, eh? I wouldn't have served you before December!" (ie, before Obama). This guy was a 2-tour kiwi Vietnam vet with the tats and rings to show.
I then went to Raglan, NZ's most famous surf spot. There are 3 left-hand points; there was junk swell my first day, then it went flat.
Raglan, the town, reminds me of Montezuma in Costa Rica. This is where beautiful beach people come to show skin, party and hook up. (What we jokingly referred to as "sex tourists" in Costa Rica.)
With the temp and humidity pushing 95, there there was a bug bloom -- literally tens of thousands of winged beetles crawling over everything. Locals say this happens a couple of times per year.
In the morning, the surf was flat, and the dude who borrowed my guitar the day before was nowhere to be found at any of the breaks.
I also tried to catch a chicken using an improvised deadfall trap, but those chicks were hip to the game. time to leave Rag.
I passed through Auckland yesterday, and I was like a celbrity at the hostel I stayed at for how long I'd been in NZ. I was barraged with questions from other visitors from places ranging from New Caledonia, to Sri Lanka, to Holland. The maps came out and many stories were told.
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