Camping Raglan-style

I can no longer say that I've never driven in New Zealand. I gathered my courage (which was more like rolling my eyes and telling myself to get on with it) and rented a car to go out to Raglan last weekend. (I had to go to Hamilton for work and Raglan is near there on the coast, so I flew out early to go camping over the weekend.) It went pretty well: I didn't kill anyone, and there was only one time that I forgot which side of the road I was supposed to be on. (And even that was merely annoying rather than life-threatening: I was waiting to pull out of a parking lot onto a semi-busy intersection, and I was getting ready to turn in the right direction but I was on the wrong side of the driveway--which caused a minor traffic jam as the poor woman who was trying to pull into the parking lot from the busy intersection couldn't get in, because I was in her lane.) I turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal every single time I tried to turn and there were a few times I had to go around a roundabout more than once, but all in all, it was a success.

Here's my brand-new tent, and you can see my trusty rental car in the background.



And here are some pictures of camping facilities in New Zealand.

(Dear Chad,
I know you probably don't read this blog, but I wanted you to know that I thought of you and your enjoyment of all things camping as I took these pictures.
Love, Heidi)





Maybe campsites in the States are like this too and I just always ended up at the backwoods sites that didn't have kitchens or TVs.

And here are some Raglan photos. My campsite was mere meters away from that black sand beach.