Trip to Ragalan

Route from Auckland to Raglan for perspective

Jack, Indie and Tally looking at the
giraffess and zebras. 

   


















Last weekend (Jan 30-Feb 1) was Auckland Anniversary weekend so we got a three day weekend. Tanya and I took the kids to Raglan on Thursday afternoon (Jan 28). On our way to Raglan we stopped in Hamilton and went to the zoo. Unfortunaetly we got their fairly late (3pm) so lots of the animals were going to bed. It was a beautiful zoo. The enclosures were quite large and the walkways between the enclosures were shaded by tons of trees.

Kaiya at the zoo

Jack and Indie at the zoon

Tally and Indie at the zoo.

Looking for fish from the stairs that lead down into
the water next to one of the beaches

That evening we explored town a little bit and then went back to the house we rented for the night. We encountered a small problem when we got back to the house, there were lots of huge cockroaches. I'm not talking about the standard run of the mill cockroach which is about 1-4 cm. I am talking about the super big ones that are 6-10 cm, black and disgusting. I spent a lot of time squishing them while Tanya ran to the supermarket to get some spray. The kids were understandably quite worked up about the whole situation. Luckily the property manager had another property that was available the next day.
     Friday Tanya went for a run. I made a valid attempt to take the kids to the play ground but we got side tracked on the way and ended up climbing trees and looking at the fish. After Tanya was done with her run we had a nice lunch out. Then we moved to the new house which was AMAZING. It was pretty awesome. It was smaller and farther from town than the first one but it had beautiful views and a short walk down to the beach. Friday afternoon Rob arrived. Tanya and I went shopping and got some clothing as well as some food.
     Saturday we got up early and went kayaking. It was really fun. Tally amazed me by kayaking almost the whole way in a kayak all by herself. As we kayaked around we found some people who were looking for pippies. They are a little shell that has an oyster like animal in it. Bevan has told me about them before and has tried to show me how to collect them but there aren't enough near us. I was pretty excited to finally get to collect some. After kayaking we had lunch. Then we took the kids to the play ground. I had a wander around town. There was an art festival on while we were there so all of the artists had opened up their studios. I wandered through a few on my way through town. It was fun to stop in a few different galleries. After my wander through  town Tanya, Kaiya and I headed back to Auckland. Tanya had a mountain bike race Saturday and Kaiya had a sleep over birthday party Sunday night. Overall it was a nice trip. It was fun to go some where that I had never been before. Sometimes I forget about how little I have actually seen of this country.

View from our second house

try.