Friday, June 30
We landed in Aukland, got our van, and drove to Raglan by noon. Kept seeing these signs that say, "Stop Sea Bed Mining." Surf looked great. Picture perfect. But maybe 1 out of 10 waves was being ridden successfully with 2-6 guys dropping in on every wave. Too fast or maybe too offshore. So we drove down the coast on a gravel road towards the next town. On the way the beachbreaks were very large and breaking way out to sea. Road got really muddy and I was nervous we might get stuck. Saw 5 cars the whole way. Finally we arrived in Kawhia (kar-fee-uh). Very small town on a huge bay. Stopped at the bar and found that the tow in surfers had just left that morning. They had been towing into the waves that broke across the sandbar at the bay's entrance. Went to campground. We were the only guests. Went back to the bar and had frozen pizza and Ju had a few raw oysters. Bed at 8.

Saturday, July 1
Slept till 11. Breakfast at a cafe. The only customers. Town population is around 500. Went to museum. Lady talked to us about where the go next and we didn't really see much of the museum. Found out that sea bed mining is when they suck all the iron out of the sand and leave the rest. They take the iron Asia and turn it into steel. Across the bay from Kawhia they fill up a huge ship 8 times a year with this iron. Also across the bay is Maori land that has better surf than Raglan. The tow in guys originally went over there until they found how good the entrance was. I heard all this from the lady at the museum.
Also she tried to talk us into taking another crazy drive down the coast to another small town. Then she started raving about the east coast and the Coromandel. She and her husband had a caravan at a place called Waihi (why-hee) and loved it there. We drove and got some fuel and a newspaper.%