We woke in the middle of the night to what felt like an earthquake, only to look out the window and see a car full of teens dashing way in hysterics. Apparently they shake camper vans for fun in New Zealand. We felt like we were really getting a taste of the culture.
The next day we drove to Gisborne, but not before stopping in a one-horse town called Opotiki for some coffee and meat pies. Okay, we all have heard that New Zealand is beautiful and it boasts some world class surf breaks, but none of us knew about the meat pies. They are amazing. And not just meat; there are chicken, pork, vegi, and cheese varieties—whatever you want. I am still dreaming of the pies from this little bakery, which as far as I can tell was just called Hot Bread. (If you find yourself in Opotiki, you can't miss it, as it appears to be the only only or bakery restaurant in town.) We drove through the scenic Waioeka Gorge to Gisborne and went straight to Wainui beach. And we found waves!
We suited up and paddled out. It was terribly windy, but offshore so that the waves were holding up perfectly. But we had planned this to be a summer vacation and had only our 3:2 wetsuits with us. That meant we were freezing! So we didn't last too long in the little but fun waist-high waves. Unfortunately, the wind blew out the surf the next day. Argghh! We decided to head towards our final destination of Raglan, with an overnight stop in Rotorua for a soak in the hot springs. Raglan has a great surf-town vibe. The only problem was that when we arrived it was very, very windy. My friend Jose lives there now and told us the wind might die down the next afternoon and we could go for a surf. I like when my friends are right—the conditions were good the next day.
Raglan is made up of three spots: Manu Bay, Wale Bay, and Indicators. From the road it looked like Manu Bay was crowded and Whale Bay looked a little less hectic. There was an inside break that looked perfect for us, but when we got down to sea level we could see that the waves were well overhead and that the only place to paddle out was at a place where waves were crashing over slippery rocks.
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