There's a really nice beach and town called Raglan about two hours south of Auckland. I've gone down a couple of times with some friends from work. It's kind of a laid-back surfing town with a beautiful big black-sand beach. Most all of the beaches on the west coast of New Zealand are black-sand as the sand comes from the volcanic rock and ash. Anyway, I haven't tried surfing there yet, but it's a nice place to go sit out on the beach and watch people and relax. There is a good backpacker place there as well called Raglan Backpackers with nice but cheap rooms. We took a little side trip to see a cool waterfall while there as well. I think I'll try to surf there sometime as the weather warms up but I'll be nervous of the killer whales in the area. Although they never hurt anyone, apparently they come to the area a lot and get pretty close to the surfers. Just this month there were some - see article : http://www.stuff.co.nz/4757556a11.html
Walking on the Beach at Raglan
Paul and Me on top of the one of the sand dunes.
Beach at Raglan again
Bridal Veil Waterfall near Raglan
