I learned an interesting new fact around that time: black sand on a sunny day is, approximately, 94 million degrees Celsius. Still, even if I wasn’t out there in the waves face-planting every 10 seconds, the black sand beach looked like the perfect spot to work on my tan. Over the road, a trail lead down through the native bush to Manu Bay, a famous surfing spot … for people who weren’t as big a klutz as me, at least. Tempting as it was to lounge around in the hammocks reading a book all day, we figured that a little exploring probably wouldn’t go amiss. It was, easily, one of the best, most interesting hostels I’ve ever stayed at. Often places like this with such a mix of styles don’t quite get it right, but Solscape definitely did, with a strong eco-friendly vibe running through it all. It’s not just about trains, however – the owners and volunteers have also hand-built a few earth domes and fancy cottages, and a few minutes walk down a nature trail took us to several tipis, complete with communal kitchen and bathrooms. Solscape has an eclectic set of accommodation options, with cabooses and carriages that functioned as private rooms, small dorms and even a large family space. This was definitely the kind of place I could have stayed for, oh, a month. Right about that point, I really started to wish that we’d booked for a lot longer than one night. Still wiping the last drops of balsamic from my lips a while later, we were shown to our room. It took a few minutes to arrive, which I didn’t mind a bit – especially when it came out like this. Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we sat in the sun and ordered some organic goodness from the little cafe. We were headed for Solscape Eco Resort, and as I drove along the winding road I was grumbling to anyone who would listen (ie, nobody) about how far out of town we were.Īnd then we drove up the driveway, parked the car and saw … this. Google Maps was pointing at a random-looking spot several kilometres away near Manu Bay. We arrived in Raglan around lunchtime … and then proceeded to drive straight out of it again. ![]() Oh, and the barista at the little cafe down the road made an excellent flat white. Internet was via the semi-ubiquitous Global Gossip, one of the more reasonably priced options (by New Zealand standards) at a few dollars a day. With a friendly and helpful owner, clean private en-suite rooms, a great commercial-style kitchen and funky movie room, it was a surprisingly good hostel. We stayed in the shiny new YHA Hamilton, a converted motel a few minutes from the downtown area. It’s an hour or less to Raglan, Mount Maunganui, the outskirts of Auckland … but not really full of attractions in its own right. ![]() A city with a bit of an identity crisis, more than one local described Hamilton in terms of its proximity to other places. We had seen nothing but blue skies since leaving Auckland several days earlier and, after three days exploring Northland by land and sea, headed down to Hamilton for a couple of nights to hang out with my lovely cousin and catch up with work.
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