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The next morning we got up and said our goodbyes to Paul and Ann and headed on our way. We decided to drive over to the west coast to Raglan. We had heard really good things about it and its a real surfers town so we though we would hang out on the beach for a day or two and try to sell the remaining surf board. It was indeed a really cool place and our first stop was the main beach. It was stunning! Surrounded by cliffs, quite similar to the north coast of Cornwall . . . but in typical New Zealand style way more dramatic! It was just lovely to chill/bake in the sun and go and have a dip in the sea when we were too hot. Unfortunately we had no interest in the board. We weren't that bothered though and drove round the coast away from raglan to find a campsite. The road was beautiful and the campsite was in a stunning remote location jut by a stream that led down to the sea. We had a lovely walk on the black sanded beach there and watched the sun go down over the sea. There were only about 3 groups camping in this site but coincidentally one of the coupled were a Swiss couple that we met canoeing down the Whanganui river! We hung out with them for the rest of the night and shared stories. They had been to Thailand before coming to New Zealand and they gave us loads of tips making us very excited!! We said goodbye to the couple the next morning then drove back towards Raglan stopping at a surf spot to pop our board with the for sale sign in view whilst we completely emptied out the van and sorted out all our belongings pre selling in Auckland. It was a bigger job that we thought and spent most of the day there . . . Well we may have been quicker but everyone was so lovely there and came over to chat with us, borrow suncream and offer us coffee! We met one really nice guy from Italy who runs a surf school near Rome for 6 months of the year and ten comes to New Zealand for the other 6! We also met a cool Guy from Denmark called Pim who hung out with us for quite a while. He was interested in our board but wanted it for cheaper than we wanted to sell it. He offered for us to stay in his garden in Auckland whilst we were tried to sell our van so we swapped details and said our goodbyes. After doing a few bits in raglan we filled up with with fuel and were on our way . . . for about 2k until the van started chugging a bit and then James noticed white smoke coming out o the exhaust! GEN the van is a diesel drinker . . . She doesn't like petrol! Big ops! We had roadside assistance so we gave them a call, James gave the details and she called us back 30mins later to say sorry as she tried calling round everyone and no one was answering so she couldn't help us!! Typical kiwi style. We were lucky enough to see Pim from earlier driving past on his way out of town, we flagged him down and he was awesome! He had a rope and a 4x4 so we were sorted. He towed us (a pretty hairy 5mins but ok in the end!) to the garage that we filled up in. It was confirmed, yes $40 of premium unleaded was indeed in the Diesel tank! The workshop was closed so we were told to leave the van there and the garage would sort it out the next day and that they would call us when it was all done. We took out overnight stuff, left the keys and went in search of a bed! The two youth hostels in town were full . . . We started to worry but then we got a really good deal staying in a cabin in a campground for less than the cost of a yha - perfect. We shared the cabin with another British guy who had just arrived in NZ and had a nice evening chatting with a much needed bottle of wine!
The next day we went up to the garage and it seemed that we were quite low down in the list of cars to be fixed! We went back into town and chilled out on the green. After a few hours of waiting we hadn't heard much but we decided to see how it was going and luckily the van was there and sorted. We were so lucky, the engine was fine!!! It didn't even cost that much. With a big sigh of relief we were on our way up to Auckland to sell a working van!
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