Dear Zingy and Donna's friends at EDF Energy

Thank you for buying us sleeping in a train for our wedding gift. We have just been spending three nights sleeping in a caboose at Solscape Eco Lodge in Raglan and it has just been voted the best hostel we have stayed in so far (according to us). It is beautifully set on top of a clifftop with views across the main beach in Raglan. You can sit there for hours watching the huge waves slowly roll in.

It has a cafe overlooking the view, which unfortunately due to the 'eco' nature of the place only sells unappealing smoothies and vegetarian food but I won't hold that against the place. It also had yoga classes, although luckily they were not on during the three days we were there so we could avoid doing any more yoga without feeling guilty.

The accommodation was set up like a train set. We were staying in a little caboose - a word I have only previously heard in a Starlight Express song, but is apparently part of an old train carriage. Having previously been on a night train in Thailand and therefore, consider ourselves experts on the matter, we can confirm that it was not very like sleeping on a proper train. For a start, it was a lot more comfortable and a lot less noisy and you don't get bumped around too much in the night. All of the carriages and accommodation were set up around the central train station, which doubled as a kitchen, bathroom and common room etc. 'It even looks like a little train station', observed Donna when we first arrived, which I guess is the point.

It was a very chilled out place and actively discouraged drinking sessions and parties. In fact alcohol was only to be consumed in reasonable quantities during meals. I think we managed to stick to these rules because Donna was still eating her packet of crisps at three in the morning, which still technically counts as a meal.

Raglan itself is a small alternative town on the west coast of the North Island which is a favourite hangout for surfers. According to the Lonely Planet, it has the longest left handed breaks in the world. I don't think that Lonely Planet has any more idea of what this means any more than I do. This does mean, however, that it does have some rather nice chilled out bars and cafes and a not so appealing beach, being as it is down the bottom of a very big, un-Donna friendly hill, which induced the most hardcore piggyback ride of our trip so far and at the bottom, it was covered in really dirty black sand and was very very hot to walk on. It reminds you of the old Bette Midler song 'From a distance' where she goes on about everything looking great from a long way away but actually upclose there are lots of wars and s*** going on. Sitting at the hostel with the amazing view, the beach looks a lot nicer than when you get down to it. As you can guess, we spent more time, at the hostel admiring the view than down the beach.

Despite really enjoying our stay in Raglan, we didn't really do much. Donna's highlight was having a really nice pizza in town, while people watching the world go by, I managed to finish the book I was reading and Sunny met his twin; another Sunny car. Unfortunately, he has got rather dirty in the course of being driven all over the North Island so I don't think his pulling chances were very high.

Lots of love

Jim and Donna

INTERESTING KIWI FACT OF THE DAY

Although New Zealand is known for its beautiful scenery and diverse fauna, it is a bit let down by its rubbish animals which it rather halfheartedly tries to be proud of. A good example of this is the Tuatara. New Zealanders claim it is the oldest living animal in the world and it belongs to the same family of lizards as the dinosaurs came from, having not changed for 65 million years. Although, that might be quite exciting, when it comes down to it, the tuatara just looks like any other lizard around and isn't really worth getting out of bed for.