![]() ![]() I currently write for a number of websites and accept commissions for various writing projects. I was born in 1991 in England, but my family immigrated to New Zealand when I was ten years old. It’s time for us to leave now to return to our respective unconscious kitchens. You can walk straight from the town centre to the sea and – not far away – you can find one of the most beautiful waterfalls in New Zealand, Bridal Veil Falls. If you’re a fan of household art, vintage clothing and macramé necklaces, it’s got your name crocheted all over it. It’s full of quirky craft shops and cafés, often down intriguing, little alleyways. Raglan’s a bit of a hippy (as well as a surfers’) paradise. I’ve written about the town before, in Raglan on a Winter’s Day – you should definitely check it out. There’s a beach within easy walking distance, and the town of Raglan is a short drive away. ![]() As we’re in Raglan, one of the most famous surfing spots in the world, Solscape offers surfing lessons as well as the expected yoga. It’s a little on the expensive side, but it’s a place worth seeing. If you’re on a New Zealand campervan trip, I’d recommend booking one of the powered van sites here. Solscape Solscape is a unique place 6km from town that features accommodation. The permaculture gardens and glorious sunflowers add to the relaxed atmosphere, and even though I can’t eat much of the food here due to an intolerance to veganism – note that I’m not trying to be a dick I am genuinely intolerant to most fruits, many vegetables, some nuts and all beans (including, of course, soy) – I would definitely come here again. Raglan (07) 825 0515 Dorm bed 19 (17 BBH) double/ twin room 44 (40. The cabooses made from old railway carriages look awesome, as do the earth domes and the tipi forest. The composting toilets and solar showers are actually quite nice. The Conscious Kitchen overlooks a gorgeous bay. You get the idea.Īnd though we’ve all made a few too many chakras jokes since arriving, even I have to admit that I like it here. The café is called the Conscious Kitchen. It advertises itself as a ‘harmonious diversion from conventional forms and patterns’ and uses phrases such as ‘holistic wellness’ and ‘to nurture our connection with each other and the natural world’. It’s one of those eco campsites that oozes kombucha-flavoured self-righteousness. It’s a friend’s birthday and he chose the place. It’s not a place I’d have chosen to come myself. You’re free to do nothing but stare at the view.Īnd what a view Solscape has. You know that moment, when you feel totally in another world? Work doesn’t exist here. Other couples thinking they’re bonking quietly. Cicadas building to their perpetual crescendo. Solscape is now in the hands of another family who have “lots of connections” to Raglan and intend to work in the same vein, Phil told the Chronicle.You know when your tent starts glowing with the light of dawn? And the sounds of nature gradually permeate your dreams? Cockerels cock-a-doodle-dooing. ![]() Peter reckoned everyone thought he was crazy dragging railcars through town in the early 90s to set up Raglan Wagon Cabins, as the venture was called then, but said he was amazed to find Phil and Bernadette to carry his vision forward. The couple’s teenage daughter Sequoia – now in her last year at the area school – celebrated her first birthday there.Īlso at the event were former owners Peter and Miriam Dixon – now breeding alpacas on the outskirts of Dinsdale – who were responsible for setting up on site some old train carriages, most of which are still in use today. He is staying on, as is Phil’s daughter Molly. It was part family album-part Solscape history, Phil said, because the two had been inextricably linked over the years.īernadette’s brother, Dom Gavin, has been at Solscape in a managerial role in latter years. The pair marked the occasion a week ago by hosting 100-odd friends and family at their cafe overlooking the Tasman Sea while reliving Solscape’s evolution through a slideshow of cabooses, tipis and earth domes, burgeoning gardens and woofers who’ve come and gone. I t was the end of an era for Solscape couple Phil McCabe and Bernadette Gavin last Monday when they finally handed over the eco retreat they’ve nurtured for almost 17 years to its new owners.īoth activists are now looking forward to “a bit of a break” before Phil – former chair of KASM – sails to Fiji to look at seabed mining in the Pacific, and Bernadette follows up African connections to continue her work in animal rehabilitation. ![]()
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