NEW ZEALAND

Travels with Lonely Planet: Raglan, New Zealand

You won't stumble on this funky New Zealand town by accident, but the surf, the music and the art make it worth a special trip.

BY BRETT ATKINSON

Lonely Planet

PAUL KENNEDY / LONELY PLANET

Surfers flock to Raglan, New Zealand, home to one of the planet's best left-hand surf breaks.

I don't know what's more relaxing: The calming regularity of the breakers rolling in outside the window, the unfamiliar but soothing beats of world music or the smooth, deliberate strokes of the Hawaiian-style kahuna massage that I'm blissfully yielding to.

Bernadette Marama's simple massage studio hugs the Tasman Sea at Manu Bay, a surf beach just south of the coastal town of Raglan in New Zealand.

Perched on the rugged western edge of the North Island, Raglan is on the road to nowhere. You don't arrive there accidentally en route to somewhere better. But the creative community that's found its way to this relaxed haven will tell you there's no better place to be anyway.

SPIRITUAL SOLSCAPE

High above the waves rolling into Manu Bay is Raglan's most spectacular accommodation, Solscape, with its brightly colored array of converted railway carriages for hire, scattered about a hilltop. Solscape celebrates a global vibe, with multinational clientele mixing with relaxation-seeking urban refugees from Auckland.

It hosts surfers, too. Year-round, wave riders test themselves in Raglan on one of the planet's best left-hand surf breaks. So good, in fact, that the town was featured in the classic 1966 surf movie The Endless Summer.

Bernadette and partner Phil McCabe took over Solscape in 2003. Originally from California, Phil was naturally drawn to the far left of the map isolation of Raglan. Solscape is built on the former site of a fortified Maori village, or pa. On Phil and Bernadette's first night, they heard ghostly footsteps on the staircase in the main house.

''We actually feel privileged it happened,'' he says of their first night at Solscape. ``We understand we're just guardians of this land.''

Throughout the years, several guests have had visitations from benign spirits. A guest in Caboose No. 9 awoke to see a hazy male form sitting idly on the end of her bunk. Since the property has been blessed by a Maori elder, or kaumatua, Phil and Bernadette are unfazed.

ARTS SCENE

Relaxed, bohemian Raglan also occupies a favorite spot in the collective heart of the New Zealand music industry. Many Kiwi bands kick off their national tours in Raglan, at Aqua Velvet or in the town's renovated Victorian pub, the Harbour View Hotel (011-647-825-8010; www.harbourviewhotel.co.nz).

Keeping the vibe alive, local musicians meet on the last Thursday of the month at the Salt Rock Café (011-647-825-8022), down by the wharf. It's usually an inclusive and eclectic night, with members of local reggae band Cornerstone Roots often sharing the stage with folk singers from California who've chosen this isolated surf town as their refuge.

Raglan is a small town, but with a very creative community. A resident population of 3,000 supports a thriving arts scene that matches the shared musical energy. Funky galleries like Jet Collective (011-647-825-8566; www.digitalstuff.net.nz/jet) punctuate the town, and a few miles out of town the Te Uku Gallery (011-647-825-5212) sculpts recycled metal and corrugated iron installations.

One of the most interesting local artists is Aaron Kereopa. The Kereopa family grew up near the surf at Manu Bay, and Aaron's brother Daniel is one of New Zealand's top surfers. Aaron's art blends ancient tradition with modern materials. Foam surfboard blanks are his canvas, and he sculpts them into ornate carvings combining Maori mythology with other Pacific legends from Hawaii and Samoa.

One of Aaron's installations adorns a wall in Aqua Velvet. A traditional woven flax panel intricately carved from a contemporary medium is actually a pretty good metaphor for Raglan. New Zealand's iconic surf town is updating and modernizing itself, but still retains a relaxed Kiwi atmosphere that continues to revive and recharge.

Raglan may be at the end of the road to nowhere, but I'm in no hurry to move on.