New Zealand rewards taking the long way round. Most people run the standard route from Auckland through Rotorua and down the middle of the North Island, which leaves the west coast quieter than it has any right to be – black sand beaches, empty roads and surf that works every month of the year.
Raglan is the obvious draw. It’s the closest thing the country has to a surf town of legend, a string of long left-hand point breaks that people cross the world to ride, wrapped around a township that’s somehow kept its scruffy character. But the surf highway runs a long way past it, down through Piha and New Plymouth and on towards Taranaki, and the further you go the fewer people you share it with.
This is where we’ll be collecting everything we cover in New Zealand – where to stay, where to surf, and the routes worth taking between them. Start with Raglan and work outwards.
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