One for Keith

It seems to be taking forever to finish part two of Diane’s visit. In the meantime, here’s an entry 'specially for Keith (my surf pal back home), Andrew in Portland and any other surfers that might be reading.

The morning I left Raglan I checked the weather forecast, and made the choice to come back to the Taranaki. I’m so glad I did- I had perfect surfing weather with just the right wind direction and a nice-sized swell for three blissful days.

On Tuesday I made the twenty-minute hike to a magic place. The walk is so long that folks make a day of it; they bring lunches and take long breaks to rest and dry their wetsuits. Here’s a photo taken about a quarter of the way there, just before you descend from cow pastures onto the driftwood-strewn beach.



If you click on the picture, you’ll see surfers.



I walked around trying to capture the beauty of the waves from different angles.





The three shots below are a sequence, and show how the wave peels.





The times I’ve surfed it, the break has had an outside and an inside section. On the right swell, it all becomes one long wave. Not that I’m complaining. The view on this clear day was magnificent. Mt. Taranaki was three-quarters covered with snow, and looms spectacularly over everything. The air was clean and cold. The water even smelled good, like… what is it? Like “Gee, your hair smells terrific”!

Wednesday I met Craig, who took a break from caring from his three-week-old baby (a beauty!) with his partner Suzanne and working on restoring their 1920s-era farmhouse. Craig took me to a secret beach. We had to let ourselves through farm fences and bounce through pastures to reach the surf. It was a beach break (most spots here are volcanic rock reefs), and the waves were good- then as the tide dropped, got very good! It was wonderful fun to go with a friend, and the whole experience was really neat. Thank you, Craig. I didn’t take any pictures- I forgot my camera. I’ll just have to remember.

On Thursday the wind had shifted northeast. The coast wraps 180 degrees around Mt Taranaki- you have a whole range of places that will be offshore in any given wind direction. Today the place to be was around Opunake, which was great, because my Raglan friends were staying there. Maybe we would meet up! I checked the reefs around the town- one good setup after another, and not a soul out at any of them. Finally I went to a spot with a few cars parked in a cow pasture. One was my friends’. They were just getting out as I walked up. We made plans to meet the next day, and went our separate ways. The surf was great- the wave really wrapped and was exciting and steep- a very high-quality wave. Once again, I ‘d forgotten my camera, but a nice surfer was taking pictures, and took some of me! Thanks, Andy.

These three are a sequence:





These three are a sequence too:





Returning to New Plymouth in the late afternoon, the light was beautiful. The smokestack of the abandoned power plant dominates the town. I like it- it has a gothic, haunted quality, not to mention phallic.



The surf was smaller at Back Beach (the good beach break that I had sent you pictures of, Keith, and had in this blog). The waves are bigger down the coast than in town, like Santa Cruz/north county (but reversed south-for-north, as is every weather feature her in the southern hemisphere).

I often think of how fun it would be to explore this coastline with you, Keith. You’d be like a kid in a candy store. I know the environment would suit you, too. It’s a bit like north county Santa Cruz mixed with Big Sur, with Mt. Fuji overlooking it all… and everyone on niceness pills!

I hope we can travel here together someday.