Surfing the 'Naki

Hi folks! Have you missed me?

Well, I've missed you. 

After an incredibly antisocial week of 2pm-midnight shifts, and a very distressing roster for next rotation, Tim and I thought we'd comfort ourselves by going to the beach.

It was awesome. 

We went to Taranaki, on the West coast of NZ, off a little stretch of road called Surf Highway 45. You can probably guess what the main activity of the region is. Surf beaches are everywhere - every few km another sign pops up to direct you to where some good waves are to be had, duuuuuuuuuuuude. 

I'm sorry. I just imagine surfers all talking like this. 

We managed to book a tiny little cabin right on the beach front. It had a little kitchen and cooking facilities and all the rest. Not that we did much cooking, because it was so hot that our bread went mouldy. And all the butter melted everywhere. 

Delicious. But messy. 

We booked a surfing lesson with the surf shop there - the only surf shop, though Lonely Planet describes Opunake as 'the surf epicentre of Taranaki' - and they don't do lessons. 

Surf shop: "There is a chap who'll take you for a surf though if you like. I can give you his number so you can arrange it direct with him, then you can hire your gear from us."

Me: "Ok. Is it better for me to ring him or you to sort it out?"

Surf shop: "Oh definitely you. He's a farmer you see, so you'll have to work out a time that's good for you, good for the tides, and good for milking the cows."

Me: "!!!!"

Sure enough, our awesome farmer surfer, who is this fantastic ageing hippy type (of course), turns up on Saturday and takes us out for an awesome lesson, during which he expounds his life philosophy: 

1) Surfing is awesome, because it inspires you to do other stuff, like earn money, so you can surf on the weekend. 

2) Marijuana is medicinal, which makes it awesome, because how many things are both fun and medicinal?

3) Did I mention how awesome surfing is? If everyone did surfing, then there would be fewer problems in the world.

 He was great fun to be around. I did make the mistake of calling him 'a surfing farmer' though, to which he quickly countered, "aww, nah, I'm a farming surfer."

Fair enough, I guess. 

It's nice, coming from a culture where your occupation often defines you, to a place where your hobbies define you. 

That's our farming surfer down there, riding that wave in:

We were both more than a little rusty after not surfing since Gisborne, months ago, but we both managed to stand up and be a lot less shaky than we were previously. Tim beat me hands down this time - You can watch a video of Tim surfing that wave here. But we both managed to ride some long waves in to shore- a good 10m or so, as our farming surfer predicted - and once we both got on the same wave and high-5'd on the way in -  and it felt like we would never stop. 

It was ridiculous. We were like 5 year olds.

5 year olds with a superlative sense of balance, of course.

Pretty soon, we were exhausted.

Look at our geeky longboards!

Tim was still in his wetsuit and I'd peeled mine off way earlier - it was way too hot to be in a wetsuit. 

We had a good old shower and a lie down and a cold drink, and then we were off to dinner. 

Tim: "I am going to sleep incredibly well tonight."

Dinner was a HUGE affair, with a lot of very, very generously poured wine, at the SugarJuice cafe, 'the best food on the surf highway'. Its sign said it opened from 8am til 'late' on Saturdays.

This is the cafe closing at 8:45pm on a Saturday evening - the only restaurant in the 'surfing epicentre of Taranaki' during the surf season in the height of summer. 

"Late" for Nz, I guess.

I'm going to miss NZ 'lates' when I leave this lovely country. 

It's like talking in code. 

The scenery was almost too beautiful

Being on the west coast, there are some spectacular sunsets, and we enjoyed them from our beach vantage point - our cabins were only 2 minutes walk from here, and had almost an equally lovely view. 

True to promise, we slept very, very well and almost missed checkout due to overwhelming exhaustion.

The next day, we did it all over again, but with added skimboards in the morning too.

Look at the little holes in the sand from low tide!

Those pools were crystal clear, and boiling hot.

I blistered my feet on the sand, even while wearing shoes. 

Tim: "You need to get some new feet."

This is Tim, looking cool as with our skimboard

Skimboarding is a bit of a black art, really

The beach at low tide was perfect for it though - much better than our previous attempts in the North. Huge swatches of standing water on a flat surface.

I'll leave you with a last view of Mount Egmont, with its last vestiges of snow even in the height of summer, the view from just above the beach. It really is minutes from the mountains, minutes from the sea.

As we left Taranaki, there was the standard sign which announced, 'you are now leaving Taranaki'.

Then in 200m another sign popped up - 

"Why?"

Why indeed. I fear if they made such a sign over New Zealand airspace, I would just lose all my resolve and turn back immediately. Though, I suppose, we do have China and the (hopeful! tentative!) possibility of South Africa to spur us on. Still - almost halfway through our NZ odyssey, and what a journey it's been. 

I hope you're looking forward to the next half as much as I am :-)