Paddling Raglan Harbour

I'm a day late blipping this, as there was no wifi and no mobile connection at the Whangamomona Hotel last night. What a day! I paddled Raglan Harbour with friends in the morning, amongst all these beautiful pancake rocks and NZ plants growing in difficult conditions, but looking wonderful. It wasn't a planned paddle, and as it is so often with things sprung on you out of the blue, very enjoyable.

The drive south took us through Ohura, the Tangarakau Gorge (The Forgotten Highway), to Whangamomona, NZ's self-proclaimed 'Republic'. It's a fascinating drive and well worth the effort, if you're coming to NZ. We stayed in the old historic pub and had a fabulous meal of lamb shanks.

We ran into some trouble in Ohura though. A red sports car was making very fast runs through this back country and deserted ghost town, and I decided to take photos of it. The driver took extreme exception to my doing this and became very upset, angry and confrontational!  We hurriedly got back into the car and locked the doors. He was demanding the photos I'd taken, and got so wild that bashed the car and broke a beer bottle against the car window. Scarey stuff. An SD card (old) was passed through a crack in the window, which he (thankfully) accepted and we were on our way. He didn't follow us but we were on high alert for quite a while, hoping that he wouldn't.