We stayed one night in Raglan a beautiful seaside town, the surfing capital of NZ (I made that last bit up). But it is where all the pro surfers practice and we watched a few in the freezing water, some were standing on their surf boards and paddling with an oar, not quite sure what that is all about. We initially wanted to head up to the bay of plenty and go to Hot water beach where you can dig in the sand and sit in boiling hot sand, but there had been lots of bad weather up there and most of the roads were closed. We stayed at a great backpacker place that had free kayaks and bikes and even a sauna, which we had to go in. It was called Ragaln backpackers and it was right in town. We stayed in the house which was brand knew, it was really nice with a view over the estuary, I could have lived in that house myself it was that nice. We didn't attempt surfing, although it was a sunny day, it is winter, but it would be a great place to stay in the summer and surf everyday, (not that we can really surf yet, but maybe a bit of practice).