Jan. 29 - Northbound to East Cape

This crew was chilling on top of a bridge over the river, occasionally getting hyphy.

The run of waves looks over for today -- on-shore wind.

Gizzy is rad, but I need to keep moving if I want to see the Northland and Taranaki...If those place suck, I can always beeline back.

I'm thinking of breeding Kiwis with Costa Ricans and creating a master race for the global tourism industry. The kiwis are so damn nice! I came here for the natural beauty, but oddly, it's been the culture and people that have really touched me.


PS -- the East Cape is the most remote part of NZ, so I may be off-line for a week or more.

Jan. 29 -- Gizzy delivers

Boo0-YAH!

Jan. 27 -- Gizzy Goes Off!

It's working!!!

Jan. 26 -- Gizzy II

Jan. 26, 2009
Makarora Beach

I woke up in the middle of the night to a starry sky, and could tell by the volume of the surf that the swell had picked up. Sure enough, when I peeked out of my tent in the morning, the surf had gone from 1 to 6 feet overnight -- and the local crew was on it. Surf towns are funny, b/c you don't really see that many surfers when it's flat. But when the swell picks up, they come out of the woodwork and are on the waves likes flies on shit.

There are some ripper local kids -- saw one land a 360 aerial this morning, to a barrage of hoots and horns from those of us on shore. After, the kid just stood there on the sandbar inside, looking stunned at his own success. That is an extremely difficult move. I had never actually seen it done before.

The demographics of surfing here are so different than SF, where I am right in the middle of a skewed bell curve -- the average surfer in SF is a 30ish transplant. There are almost no kid surfers in SF. Here, the average surfer is closer to 20. When I see any one else over 30, I get the "hey, you're an old man, too". But I also get respect from the yoots (for my wrinkles, not my surfing!) and that's cool.

I have a new subtitle for my book, "New Zealand: It Ain't Mexico (or Yosemite): Come for the tramping, stay for the waves.”

Jan. 24 - Gisborne, baby!

Jan. 25, 2009
Gisborne

This place is dangerous........dangerously perfect, that is. Up to this point, I've been saying that I would live in NZ if the weather was better.

Enter Gisborne, a remote, 30,000 town on the East Cape that has a Mediterranean climate that feels like San Diego. (When they talk about climate in NZ, they always show data for Auckland, Welly, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown...but those cities all have the same rain issues.) This place is sufficiently "out there" -- at least 3 hours from any community of consequence -- that it's off the main tourist track. And it shows: its funkier here, a little more edgy.

"Gizzy" is like a Santa Cruz with San Diego's climate, and Cabo San Lucas' isolation. There are palm trees everywhere, and all the stores have open-air fronts. It's a tropical vibe, but with low humidity and clear skies. It's also the only place in NZ that has seen a growth in tourism (3+% over the past year) and the current campaign is "Gisborne: The Endless Summer." The water is a perfet 68 degrees....Adios, wetsuit.

There's a lot of Maori here, which adds some much-needed flavor. I must say that the Maori are very good-looking people. The men are well-built and handsome, and the women are suprisingly fit. (in fact, they are often more attractive than the English-descended kiwi ladies, which I'm sure has been the source of more than one kiwi's problems...) They have really nice skin (tattoo'd extensively) and almost noble features.

Oh yeah, did I mention there are several word-class surf breaks here, ranging from long, easy right-hand points to sucking beachbreak barrels to a legendary, firring left/right around a sacred Maori island that can be walked out to at low tide?

And if that wasn't enough, there areb heaps of girls running around in bikinis. I guess this is the place you move to if you are a kiwi looking for the beach life.

Hold my calls, please.

Jan. 23 - Mahia Peninsula

Jan. 23, 2009
Mahia Peninsula

Hands down the finest campsite I've had on this trip, and one for the life Top 10 list.

I'm situated on a grassy bluff above short limestome cliffs, surrounded 180 degrees by Mahia Bay. In the distance, I can see the mountain ranges of Gisborne. Just below the bluff are beautiful limestone cliffs and rock shelves extending into the water. There is a perfect keyhole beach in a joint in the rock with just enough sand for a tent. Best of all, the water is clear and WARM...maybe 72 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky: this area is famous for having the best weather in New Zealand, and feels more like Greece than New Zealand.

If that wasn't enough, there are several reef/point setups within a short paddle. All we need now is a northeast swell....

Jan. 22 - Little Ning-Nong

Little Ning-Nong
Jan. 22, 2009

The first thing I did on return to the North Island is hit Wellington's premiere break, a left called "Little Ning-Nong". (The swell wasn't big enough for "Big Ning-Nong" to do its thing.) Classy wave in a remote, Baja-esque area called Cape Pallister. Very dry and almost deserty; a whole different ball of wax than the rainforests on the west side.

Leaving the area, I stopped at the Pinoa Area Market, founded in 1882 in the middle of fucking nowhere. I was impressed that they had an extra surf leash behind the counter; however, when I saw that they offered "mussel pies", I almost barfed.

Passed through Napier today -- it's like a Mediterannean port, complete with palm trees, torquise water and a hot dry climate. However, I feel like I spent enough time in cities at the beginning of the trip and I prefer the countryside, so I pressed on toward the East Cape of the So. Island.