Surf trips...

March 28- April 4, 2008 Surf trippin with Pablo

Here I go grouping a bunch of days together again. I’ll try my best to recap. After arriving in Palmy, I relaxed and sorted things out for 2 days and then we were off again, up to Gizbourne to catch the swell up there for a couple days. It’s Paul’s fall break for 2 weeks so I arrived at the perfect time when he’s not bogged down studying all the time. We ended up taking all of Paul’s roommates, including the 2 dogs. So it was Diana, Paul, Gabe, and I and 2 big labs all in Paul’s 4-runner. Quite a trip, and of course Osa, the black lab, snuggled up and laid on my lap most of the time. It was about 5 hours up to Gizzy on the north eastern side of the North Island. A surf mecca though. Similar to Raglan and that surf scene, but still a whole line up of huge beach breaks. We spent 3 nights camping on the beach at different spots, which was fun. It was nice to just be out and camping again. The dogs spent the nights in the car and of course got into our food. I think I bought the most expensive yogurt ever! I ate one of the 6 pack and the dogs devoured the rest overnight. One day I spent hanging on the beach watching the surf, another day exploring around the town of Gizzy, and the next day we slowly drove home stopping at almost all the surf breaks down the east coast. We stopped in Napier to do some wine tasting for a few hours. Wine tasting is always a good time. Paul and I got suckered into buying 2 bottles of wine, well we split them, so I actually only bought 1 bottle of wine (which makes me feel better in the end, like I didn’t blow heaps of money that day!). At one really fancy winery we actually got to see some of the production process with fresh (delicious!) grapes being squashed and wine dispensed into the bottles through the production line. Just being at the right place at the right time. We got home at about 7 that night and crashed out.

The next morning I’m getting busy doing laundry and fixing things up, when Paul says we should leave for Taranaki (on the west coast) at noon to get the swell there by late afternoon. Well I think we ended up leaving by 2:00, but still pretty crazy to just get back from one coast and then the next morning be heading for the opposite coast. It was just Paul and I this time, and we camped out in the back of his car with the seats down. Not the most comfortable sleeping in the world, but a lot better than tenting it. We got there at about 5, in time for Paul to surf some big waves before sunset. We just parked the car and let down the tail gate and camped it for the night. So much easier than tenting. We had a fire right near the tailgate and had a relaxing night with the pounding surf in the background.

Next day we went a half hour south still in the Naki to surf this epic wave called Stent Road. Lots of people were out on it, but the waves were pretty big. I spent a few hours sunbathing while Paul surfed. We were done there by early afternoon as the swell was already dying out. With most of the day left, we headed to Mt. Taranaki to explore around a bit. We went to Dawson Falls at the base of the mountain (which wasn’t all that impressive) and then took an hour hike to these pristine pools with water trickling down between each pool. It’s as if someone just carved them right out. I was scooting back on the edge of one of the pools to pose for the perfect picture, and what do you know? I go a little too far and make the few feet of a drop down to the next pool. Luckily I only had my camera case in my hand, because I was soaked in numbing water from head to toe. Pretty funny really, all I could do was laugh. The rest of the afternoon we watched around and took a few dips in different pools. Nice to go for a little hike and be up in the mountain we always see from a distance.

That night we slept in the car at a paved parking lot of this one surf break. Wasn’t as sweet as a spot as the night before, but we still had a fire and we cooked really good beef stir fry with peanut sauce over Paul’s little propane stove. The next morning was rainy and the waves were down to nothing, so we slowly made our way back to Palmerston. Stopped at a bakery along the way and an aviary right by a large lake. Took a walk around the lake, had a picnic, and we were back home again in the late afternoon.

I spent the day relaxing today and catching up on a few things I’ve been putting off for a while. Will most likely spend another week here, bumming around in Palmy, and then make it up to Auckland and see some of the far North (Northland, Bay of Islands, 90 mile beach) with James in the little car, as he is working up there.