Scott's Place

As an American, with all my biases and background, I've written in the past about differences between the USA and NZ - differences in language, food, language about food, and signage, for example. Another one that I have briefly mentioned is public holidays. In the USA (government workers not included), there are 8 days in the whole year considered to be universally public holidays. On the other hand, New Zealand has a lot of summer loaded holidays:  mandatory breaks around Christmas (Eve, Day, and Boxing Day), New Year's (Eve, Day, Day after New Year's Day), Auckland Anniversary Day (other cities in NZ have their own day), Waitangi Day, Easter (Friday and Monday), and ANZAC Day. That's 11 public holidays in the span of 88 working days, meaning once every 8 weekdays is free over the New Zealand summer.

I could imagine a person coming to work in New Zealand for that roughly 6 month period, leaving, and thinking that it is the easiest place in the world to work. However, with all these front-loaded public holidays comes a price - between early June and late October, there are no publicly-sanctioned days off. Incidentally, this is when New Zealand days are shortest, darkest, dampest, and coldest. It's as if the huddled masses are accepting their fates:  putting their noses back to the proverbial grindstone, stocking up on stocks for soup, plugging their electric blankets back in, and dreaming of the next time they can fly to one of the (relatively) nearby Pacific islands for a little sun.

The last holiday before the full dreariness-mode is activated is the first Monday of June, known as Queen's Birthday. This is a celebration by Commonwealth countries of the monarch's birthday. It is archaic and mostly pointless, but it give Kiwis one last chance to get out of the city for the weekend before winter truly arrives.

Rhiannon and I chose Raglan, which dubs itself the 'jewel of the Waikato,' as our destination. It's known as a mecca for surfers in New Zealand, and is only about 2 hours drive south and west of Auckland, so getting there is relatively simple. We packed up Rhiannon's delightfully small silver Honda Civic hatchback, and cruised down on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Our intended accommodation for the weekend we found on AirBnb, simply titled "Scott's Place."

Scott's Place, located in the Waitetuna Valley 15 minutes east of Raglan, is strange. Before diving into the photo evidence, here's a brief bullet-pointed list of just a few of the strange things we encountered:

• When we first arrived, we were greeted by some guy named Dave from Hamilton. He was also staying at Scott's Place while Scott was away and had the task of showing us around a place he didn't really know.
• He proceeded to tell us that he and Scott had gone down to the (presumably frigid) stream to do some breathing exercises earlier in the day, during which Scott repeatedly submerged Dave for some reason.
• After dinner and drinks in Raglan and returning back to Scott's Place for the night, Rhiannon came upon two massive dogs, a child, and a man dressed in a too-tight frog onesie. Guess which one was Scott.
• Also staying at Scott's Place were several German WWOOFers (read:  Rammstein loving surfer hippies), who were...
• by chance hosting a Viking-themed party that night. We were invited. 
• Viking party here means one or two guys wearing eyeliner.
• There was a female in the kitchen baking three cakes simultaneously. Her name was Forest.
• The party continued after we went to sleep in our cabin. The next morning Dave peeled out of the drive without even saying 'Good morning' or 'Hello'. Something very strange must have happened to him in the night. Poor Dave.

Now some photo-documentation.

"HEY THIS IS THE REFRIGERATOR GOT ANY HONEY???!!!"

Rhiannon and Shy Life-sized Panda share one of the many leather chairs.

Guitar and drum circle. Trying so hard to fit in.

I think I'm really fitting in now.

Overly friendly and overly massive pig outside our door in the morning. Kind of terrifying.

Not terrible. Just weird. Ultimately Rhiannon and I decided not to stay there for a second night. The real kicker was how cold the cabins were. I'm guessing the overnight temperature outside was about 4 or 5 degrees C. This meant that our cabin (4 pieces of aluminum, some laminated flooring, and a single sliding glass door) was also 4 or 5 degrees. Not comfortable. Not romantic. If you feel like reading my my AirBnb review of Scott's Place, please scroll to the bottom**. It's a little harsh.

But before we headed back to Auckland, tail between our legs, we decided to actually spend some time in the Raglan area. As per usual, I coerced both Rhiannon and myself into doing a pretty optimistic hike, this time to summit of an ancient coastal volcano known as Karioi. The 4 hour up and back track was steep, slippery, muddy, and often a little disorienting, but it made for truly spectacular views of Raglan, the coast, and the surrounding valleys.

Exceptionally calm and sunny day for the beginning of winter.

Raglan and its coastal estuary off in the distance. Mountain peak destination to the right.

The rolling farmland of the many valleys between Raglan and Hamilton.

The summit - that moment during a hike when everyone briefly wishes for a zipline directly back to their car.

That horse in the distance did not move once during the final 45 minute descent. My best guess is that it's still there to this day. What an existential crisis it must be going through.

Survived both Scott's Place and the hike! Not pictured - wobbly, tired knees.

Goodbye sun. See you in October...

Cheers!


Bonus:  A (mostly American) sugary cereal and pajama party I hosted a few weekends ago:

The future generation of diabetic American children don't know how nice they have it.
Most of these cereals had to be purchased at an American import store.

There were also balloons. Here I suffer from sugar-induced coma.

**My harshest ever AirBnb review:

My partner and I stayed at Scott's Place over Queen's Birthday weekend. We arrived and were greeted by Dave, a Hamiltonian also staying at Scott's Place for the weekend. It was not until late that night that I actually met Scott, and he did not inquire about the state of the cabin we were staying in or really host us in any way.

The cabin itself was small and cozy, but not in a warm sense. There is absolutely no insulation inside the cabins, so they experience the exact same temperature as the pig that will be snuffing and snorting outside your door in the morning experiences.

Scott's Place, itself, has the many amenities promised on his page, and is quite a unique place to hang out. We were sharing the space with a large group of strangers who were hosting a viking themed party, which sounds amazing and fun until you realize that you can't escape the party unless you want to freeze to death in your cabin.

We did not stay a second night as we had originally intended, and I'm pretty sure Scott had no idea...

It's essentially a hippie abode, which is fine if you are traveling with 6 other hippies (like his other guests seemed to be). But nothing on Scott's page fully hinted at this. I would also add that his 'cabins' are too cold in New Zealand winter and should not be hosting anyone unless he increases the insulation in them.

note - To Scott's credit, on his AirBnb page he has responded to my critique by adding heaters to the cabins...