Seems watching the weather reports and getting an understanding of swell and wind patterns works…mostly… So, yesterday I took off to Tauranga Bay, which I thought was looking good according to the NZ Met office… the problem was that that particular bay is more or less a harbour, so it never gets any waves!
Still…nice place to visit. However, a couple of bays over – Taupo Bay – is actually a very good surf beach and the conditions were great… a little dumpy, but pretty good.
Taupo Bay is beautiful and it was an awesome day. My arms were pretty done from the day before at Shippies, so I lasted only an hour or so but it was good fun. After that I took off up Ninety Mile Beach with Samuel, a surfie I met at Shippies. Ninety Mile Beach is an official highway and particular areas are safe to drive on at low tide in 4WD vehicles. We hit it at exactly the right moment. There were quite a few people out and about including a few families collecting shellfish…
Then we drove up the river bed at Te Paki.
And finally to Cape Reinga at the very tip of the North Island… the waves up there are crazy…I’m a newbie surfie and newly fascinated by waves., so forgive me for the gratuitous wave shots..
Then today I went to Rarawa and the surf was also great and the day was luscious.
So, checking swell and wind conditions against the optimum conditions for the surf beach has been pretty successful so far. The one lesson learned is just local knowledge – getting to know which beaches are good surf beaches to begin with…awesome…
