Weekend Road Trip: Raglan

Raglan, NZ

While Mac’s parents are in Australia for a few weeks, we have their car. Since Mac & I both have very short walking commutes, and live very close to a grocery store and public transit, we’ve never really had the need for a car. This past Saturday morning though, with no plans for the rest of the day, Mac suggested we drive to Ragland for a short day trip. So, after a quick breakfast & a few minutes to pack some snacks & lunch for the road, we were out the door by 9am!

Raglan is 2 hours from Auckland and is on the east coast of the North Island. It’s quite well known for its incredible surfing. We arrived in Raglan around 11 and spent a while walking around its cute downtown as well as checking out the small beach on the other side of the bay (conveniently connected by a colourful bridge!).

From town, we hopped in the car again and drove out of town and headed east to the coast – namely Manu Bay. The views here were remarkable!! We had lunch on a bench overlooking the bay – it doesn’t get much better than that!

During our scenic lunch stop, we could see a beach below in the distance. It was basically calling our names, so back into the car we went and we backtracked down to Ngarunui Beach. I simply could NOT get over how BLUE everything was!!! Mac & I sat for a while on some driftwood just taking in the scenery. The tide wasn’t in while we were in Raglan, so surfing was out (for Mac – my past surfing experience was enough to convince me that I’m better suited for just swimming!).

After a quick walk down the beach, it was time to head back to Auckland so Mac could get ready for his 5:30pm shift. Instead of taking the motorway back the way we came, we opted for the slightly longer, yet dramatically more scenic route back. The rolling hills and valleys that surrounded the winding, steep road were amazing. I loved the spontaneity of this day, and I’m so happy we visited Raglan – you can never have enough beach time in my opinion.