We had a couple of days to ‘waste’ before we were due at Raglan for the New Year, so we booked ourselves into a couple of smaller hostels on the way down to recover after our Christmas in the Sun. The Sun was out so the trip was good and we arrived at Coastal Cow ready to relax, when we arrived there was another couple there already drinking the Wine; so we thought it rude not to join in. We all sat down on the Sun deck talking how the Sun was great and how ‘home’ was cold and getting colder, at this point the gent Terry asked where I was from and guess what? They were not only from the same city, Plymouth but they were only about a 10 min’ drive from us; so as you can guess yet AGAIN we were in the chatting and drinking mood for another night. ‘Small world’ as they say! Em has been talking about her hair cut for weeks now, so we took this chance to get her booked in; for $45 she had a wash, cut and blow dry not bad for £18 hey ladies? Well after her 45 min’ pampering we were off again to Helensville just NW of Auckland, not a lot here but a great location to get to the Black sand beaches of the West coast. We arrived at the hostel to find this most amazing 1880’s Hospital, that had been lovingly restored to the wooden building that once was; our room was in the ‘North wing’ that was once a ward with open veranda for the patients. The veranda now glassed in to allow you to enjoy your FREE continental breakfast over looking the valley, while deciding at what time to put your name down for the FREE session in the Spa pool; not bad for a spotless clean BBH hostel at $60 p/night about £24 ish? Okay some are better than others, but NZ have taken the ‘Hostel’ to a new level and the BBH has given the whole network of Hostels a very easy and affordable outlook. The Black sands! Hard to even comprehend really, imagine the softest sand you have ever stood on, built a sand castle on or ever walked on; BUT (again a big BUT) it’s jet Black. There in front of you is this beach for miles in either direction, you can’t see the end and it’s just Black; when you look closer you can see the Sunlight catch the small hints of Silver that’s mixed into it’s darkness like stars in the night sky (have a look at the photo!) Oh and a word of warning to all, because it’s Black; the BL**DY hottest sand you’ll ever run on. I say run because, you walk on very casually all happy and enjoying the view and then it hits you. You know have some choices to make, do you?
A) Pause to put shoes back on?
B) Turn back and run back to the cooler stuff? Or
C) Run like hell to the Sea and cool your feet off?
Trust us the answer is C) Run like hell, if you stop to put shoes on the other foot burns or the sand gets into the shoes anyway and still burns; if you turn back you still get sand in your shoes and it’s too late now you’re almost half way so just go for. All the way shouting F**K, F**K, F**K at ‘every’ step. It’s true that everyone looks at the people just walking on to the beach for the first time, just to see their faces change as they realise just how HOT it really is; and then their faced with the 3 decisions that you all face A), B) or C) a great source of endless harmless amusement while sunbathing. We could only laugh so much, so it was time to go and see the MAD fisherman and surfers on the rocks. Watching this event brings a whole new meaning to ‘Extreme fishing’ if ever there was such a sport. These people stand on the edge of the rocks to cast off into the Sea, the casting timed the same as the Surfers who launch from here rather than paddle out through the in coming surf; when the pattern of swell drops you run like hell and cast off into the sea. The MAD fisherman then return the rod to it’s stand, still within the reach of the crashing waves; and the MAD surfers paddle like crazed Shark chased people to get past the next wave set before they are forced back onto the rocks they just left. In short, both sets of people are BL**DY MAD!!!!!! Well after 2 nights in this really relaxing hostel, Malolo House; it was time to head south for New Year in Raglan.
