ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME IN NEW ZEALAND

ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME IN NEW ZEALAND

Words Carl Tomlinson //

Photos by Jane.

This year, after a number of trips to South Africa during the winter we decided to go further afield…well you don’t get much further away than New Zealand. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with Cape Town and it has plenty of things to recommend it, but when you’ve been regularly for a number of years you can lose sight that the windsurfing world is much bigger than an annual trip there every winter. We’d always said we’d love to go back to New Zealand, our last time there was for two months in 2000, so it was time to go back and rediscover what captivated us all that time ago, certainly I had memories of uncrowded waves and friendly locals that were tugging on my “bucket list”. Jane too,was keen to go as there is a lot for a non-windsurfer to do. So, as we both can get a little bit of additional leave over the Xmas time, we booked 4 weeks off, flights and a campervan.

Being surrounded by both the Pacific Ocean on its eastern shores, by the Tasman Sea on its western shores and having nothing between it and the Antarctic but the roaring forties and the Southern Ocean, New Zealand is bound to get some great windsurfing and surfing. The four main windsurfing spots are around Christchurch on the South Island, the big lakes on the South Island, Wellington on the North Island and famously around Taranaki in the North Island also. However you can pretty much sail anywhere, it’s just that these areas are more consistent and well known.

We didn’t actually plan where we wanted to go until we got on the plane, and having checked the forecast, it was clear that we should skip Taranaki as it was having a flat spell and do some sightseeing first, so we headed over to the Caromandel peninsula where there also just happens to be 2 of New Zealand’s top surf spots Wangamata and Mount Manganui. Then we headed down to Napier and then onto Wellington to catch the ferry over to the South Island where I was hoping the Northerly winds forecast would blow for a few days, especially near Christchurch.

Around Christchurch the wind generally blows in every day in their summer time (our winter) as an easterly or north easterly, which makes for onshore conditions on the coast or flat water on the large tidal lagoon at Avon Heathcote Estuary in the Ferrymead district. This direction also works at Lyttelton Harbour which will have 5 knots more wind as a general rule. Both spots are perfect for freestyle and blasting. Most of the locals in this area are into slalom racing but I met a few ex pats who are into their waves. When the wind blows in from the North this creates slightly cross off conditions on the coast and when this happens you’ll find yourself sailing pretty much on your own in some great down the line beach break waves; now where else can you do that without having to compete with crowds of wave hungry wind and kite surfers all wanting a piece of the action?

Also on the South Island are some pretty substantial lakes, any of you who have seen the recent Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies will have seen some of the scenery and lakes in the films which was largely shot around the Queenstown/Wanaka/Glenorchy areas. These lakes seem to pick up any whiff of a northerly wind and accelerate it into what one kiwi windsurfer described a “bitch slapper” in other words a strong gale! Lake Pukaki has the most amazing colour, a milky sky blue which comes directly from the melt waters of glaciers at the base of Mount Cook and other mountains that are at the head of the lake. Be warned though, the air temperature might be in the mid 20’s and the strong sunshine makes it feel very blissfully warm but once you get in the water it’s shockingly cold! I managed 20 minutes before my feet couldn’t take any more!

No trip to New Zealand cannot be for surfing alone, you are compelled to be inspired by the stunningly beautiful scenery, especially in the South Island. The Lonely Planet describes the drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy as “achingly beautiful”, I’d say that was a gross understatement. At Glenorchy, which is at the head of Lake Wikipitu, we camped in one of the most scenic places you could imagine surrounded by snow-capped mountains on the edge of a lake, I even windsurfed when the wind came up late in the afternoon.

The West Coast of the South Island feels “on the edge”, it seems like a very difficult place to make a living and has a frontier feel to it. From the hustle of Queenstown we headed over to Haast and fortunately we were blessed with sunshine as it often rains for days on end on the West coast. The south of the West coast is not well known for wind or kite surfing, or for surfing for that matter, however in a small swell it is possible to surf at Haast beach. The road from Haast north travels along the coast through temperate rain forest, it was only sealed in 1965 and all of the bridges that cross the many rivers are single lane still. As you travel north and especially between Greymouth and Westport there are a number of well-known breaks many of which require a swell window small enough for them to be surfable!

These include Cobden breakwater at Greymouth and Tauaranga Bay near Westport which is a point break into a beach break and one of NZs premier spots. None of these breaks are really wind or kitesurfing breaks as the wind here is either light or storm force often lashing it down with rain too. We were lucky enough to have mainly sunshine or overcast conditions for our visit to the West Coast which is great as it allowed us to see both the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers and Mount Cook. If you do visit this area take some insect repellent to protect against the sand flies which are a massive irritation, I was bitten 50 times in one evening and the bites were excruciatingly scratchy for days after!

We stayed about 8 days on South Island and I was sad to leave, it’s ½ the size of UK with only 1m inhabitants and most of them live around Christchurch, Nelson or Blenhiem and is like being transported to a different place and time.

After disembarking the Picton – Wellington ferry we quickly headed up the West coast of the North Island towards our final destination, Taranaki and the legendary Surf Highway 45. Taranaki is the name given to large promontory that sticks out into the Tasman Sea with real live volcano, Mount Taranaki (2510m) at its centre. The Surf Highway (State Highway 45) follows the coast all the way from Hawera in the South to the provincial capital New Plymouth in the north, a distance of 65miles. Small roads (more like country lanes) lead off the main high way to dozens of world class surf breaks such as Stent Road and Kumera Patch.

Our first night was spent at Opunake on the beach campsite and I could see that the swell was not really working, however the next morning a south easterly wind had kicked in and I knew that nearby Kina Road would be firing if the swell was big enough. However as we approached I saw the sign for Tai road and remember a South African ex pat has told me about it when we stayed in Christchurch, my instinct kicked in and we headed down past the gas production site for about 5kms until I came across a small grassy field between a couple of holiday houses with a couple of cars parked up and spotted 2 kiters rigging. At the edge of the field was a small cliff a bit like at Gwithian to scramble down onto a boulder beach and there 300m upwind to the left about 100m offshore was a perfect reef break. An A frame wave, cross off shore, pumping with head to logo high waves. I was rigged up in a flash, scrambled down the cliff with my 5.0m and charged upwind as fast as I could not wanting to miss anything and thinking that crowds would surely appear at any moment.

So fast in fact I forgot to set the camera up properly for Jane so sorry about the slightly out of focus pictures, but you get the general idea…..world class waveriding with just me and 2 kiters on it. Even better the locals are friendly beyond belief. Here’s a quote from one of the locals, imagine the thickest kiwi drawl you can….”Ah mate, we usually only go out when its as big as houses….and we don’t wear shorts over our wetsuits here either”. I sailed here all day and at the most there were 3 of us out! The locals had called in at both Pungarehu and Kina Roads earlier but they weren’t working properly so I guess I was lucky. On the way to New Plymouth later I called in at Kina road and there were 2 wind surfers out. Sadly it seems that, like at many other parts of the world, windsurfing has been usurped by kiting and the locals more or less said this with many of them having been windsurfers for years previously.

For the rest of the trip I sailed at Waitara bar and also sailed and surfed at Ahu Ahu Road both of which pickup sea breezes and SW wind. Both are great wave spots and hold over mast high waves and are reef onto beach breaks and the places to be with a SW wind. Fortunately Waitara is a pretty handy freestyle spot when there is no swell so I was able to keep my hand in with my freestyle too.

What gear did I take?

RRD Wave Cult 83, because it’s such a versatile board and handles just about most conditions really well.
Ezzy Wave Elites 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, I used every sail during the trip.
Surfboard.

Thanks to Jane for patiently taking photos.