Raglan

Raglan is a quaint little surf town -so we were excited to check it out! When we arrived it was pouring down rain! SHOOOT! We stayed at Solscape Eco Retreat in an old converted caboose. They are in a great location (on the side of the hill overlooking the ocean) with a fantastic view. Solscape is filled to the brim with surfer peeps and hippie dudes with cute puppies.

Solscape Eco Retreat

View from Solescape

For dinner we headed to town. Nothing was open for sit-down dinner yet…at 6:30pm…craziness! We were starving so we decided to go to a takeaway place that served fish and chips. Oh my goodness we had the best fish and chips (pronounced “fush an chups” here) in the world! We nommed it down so quick, we forgot to take a picture! We ordered ONE order of snapper “fush an chups” and it was HUGE! Four GIANT pieces of fish and fries for miles wrapped up in newspaper for SIX DOLLARS-our cheapest meal to date (if you are not including our Weetabix/soymilk breakfasts). After dinner we headed to Orca, a cute restaurant right across from the ocean. We sat on barstools right by the window- Joh had a Spites Dark Ale and I had a decaf flat white coffee. We ended our lovely rainy evening looking out on to the stormy ocean.

@ Orca

The next morning on our way out of town we went to check out Bridal Veil Falls-pictures say it all!

Giant fiddle head

Spiky flower guy

Mushroom man

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Beautiful Fox-Gloves 

After the falls we headed to Mike’s Organic Brewery which is in the middle of f’ing nowhere!! There would be absolutely no reason to go anywhere near that brewery unless you were going to the brewery. The whole time I was wondering to myself…”Where in the hell do these people live?” The brewery is situated on an old plantation setting with beautiful hard wood tables outside. Their beers are made with all organic, local ingredients and pure New Zealand rain water. I had the Strawberry Blonde (no sugar was added to this beer, just local organic strawberries) which was totally pink! Joh had their ale and we had a taste of the Chestnut Liqueur (which was deelishus but doesn’t hold a candle to Charbay Walnut Liqueur, of course). We also purchased one 750ml bottle of their 9.3% Double IPA. Our plan is to bring it home with us, but we will see –we are just such thirsty peeps!

Mike's Organic Brewery

Tasting Room

Deelishus