Road Trip To The East
These shots are from a road trip a few years back with some good friends. We drove across the country the night before the swell was due to hit and found a friendly place that let us park the van for the night for 10 dollars. Driving across the country sounds crazy but it only takes 3 hours in this part of New Zealand and I would do it again in a heartbeat for waves like this.
My partner and I fell asleep in our van and held each other close, because even though it’s not like the winters we are used to at home it still gets pretty cold over there that time of year. We woke up the next morning to a beautiful rainbow glowing in the pink sunrise haze.
We went to the beach and checked the surf but the swell hadn’t really showed up yet, so it was off to the bakery for a coffee. We ran into a few more friends from Raglan there and decide we should try to surf a more exposed wave further up the coast.
We ended up surfing fun waves by ourselves there all morning long. It was my first time back in the water after being out for a few weeks with a wrist injury and I couldn’t get enough. I finally got out after I broke my leash and waited with Raven on the beach for the boys to come in.
After the session we had another coffee and came up with the plan to head back down the coast and surf what has to be my favorite beach break In New Zealand. When we walked over the dunes we were greeted with peaky aframes up and down the beach and you couldn’t have smacked the smile off my face.
I surfed for about 20 minutes until I just couldn’t take not having my camera with me in the water. I ran to my van, dried my hands off as much as a I could and threw my camera in my water housing. I spent the rest of the afternoon shooting from the water calling my mates and the local boys into the most beautiful waves. We finished the day at the pub with a few beers and just reminisced on the day we just had. These trips were a dime a dozen during our time we spent in New Zealand and I truly hope there is a time where we can one day go back to see all the friends we made and keep exploring the beautiful country.
