Whilst I only had 1.5days to validate what a few surf buddies often said about Raglan (the best left-hand point break in the universe!), and whilst I only caught the leftovers of a good swell, I can confirm: Raglan is a very special place. The surf was on the small side, but somehow everything felt perfect.

I can already hear them say “Maaaaaaate! When we were there it was 6ft, pumping!”… Naturally this kind of comments make me a bit envious usually, but in that instance I actually feel like I am the one who scored: I arrived there after 11hours of traveling and zero planning to find a conveniently located backpacker 2min from Raglan’s pub, get the last bed available, 30min before the kick off for All Blacks-Argentina! Perfect! I shared my dorm with 6 German girls who didn’t seem to care that I had to get up at 5:30am, and woke up to corduroy (small) swell lines marching in Whale bay. In the hope that it would get bigger later in the day I kept driving 45min up a dirt road north of the point to find somewhere more exposed. After randomly walking across a few fields and down a few hills to check a few spots, I ended up in Ruapuke, an empty beach break with Mt Taranake in the background (apparently 200km away). Breathtaking! I surfed on my own before returning to Raglan and surfing “Indicator”.

I met a few interesting characters too: an Italian oceanographer, who lived on an island off the coast of the Netherland, and managed to surf everyday – A young Texan who relied on the hurricane season to bring him swell, and a Hawaiian who lasted about 30min in the water, not being used to wearing a wetsuit!   Anyway, watch the short clip , or just go there…I think the Lonely planet wrote that it was the prettiest town in NZ.