South Taranaki

Despite the great surf we ventured south, you know sally and I always sticking to the schedule....
But we do miss....

And of course....Ian and Amy too

S.Taranaki was very desolate we checked out some "famous" surf breaks......Stent road blown out

This was an the beginning of an artificial surfing reef being built in this tiny town Openaeke, could be sick when it is done in 20 years....

This entire region had a very deserted feeling to it, but very beautiful and had a surf break for every swell and wind direction.
Did u know that NZ has more golf courses per capita than anywhere in the world? Maybe,,, But have you ever seen a NZ lawnmower?

Better than herbicides, if u have enough of them.....

The Roots will be happy to know that Sally has made leaps and bounds in her frisbee catching skills..........


Merry X-Mas to all those Family and Friends we left behind in the winter......
Saled

New Plymouth/Fitzroy

This sunset was the first spectaular one of many to be had on our trip.....
We loved New Plymouth it was not that touristy and had 11 surf breaks within it's city limits. It really reminded us of Oregon, mostly because it rained the first two days we were there..
This is a New Zealand X-mas tree perfect.....

Sally can ride bikes......

New Plymouth has a 7 km bike path (only 4 yrs old) that runs along the ocean, we borrowed bikes and explored...

On the third day the surf picked up, the winds shifted to offshore, and we got some great surf at fitzroy beach...













Hope you all are enjoying the rain, snow, and winter up there.......

Waitomo Caves and Sally's first friends

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We then ventured inland, away from the surf, to check out some caves, a little touristy but supercool......

The Waitomo caves are made of limestone, and one of the select Karst formations found throughout the world. There s a river system that runs through the caves, we floated the rivers, squeezing through stalagmites and following a trail of glow worms overhead...but most importantly we learned that the pockets in a New Zealand pool table are significantly smaller than the US....

We stayed at the lovely Juno hall Bacpackers, complete with tennis courts, pool, scenery and farm life...is a deer farm life???



OK the deer was kinda intimidating...to me at least...

Rrrrrrraglan.......

So first stop is @ raglan, one of the most well known point breaks in New Zealand....

But we surfed the beach break...as a warm up. As usual, small wave Sally tore it up while I just watched and learned...

We had 3 fun days of surf there...With recommendation from eve and ryan we stayed at a place called Solscape...Great backpacker accommodation in the form of old train cars. Of course we stayed in the van...The communal kitchen always makes a good environment for meeting interesting people....



Cool little surf town with a very hippy vibe......Great green lipped mussles and fish'n chips in NZ....


We debated staying another night because it was so easy there, but we pushed on up the coast....

There is no I in New Zealand.....

So it took us awhile, but we are now 21 hours ahead of most of you and lovin it.......So my first story happened on the Air New Zealand flight from LAX to Aukland (which is a great airline), we finally got to the gate and had confirmed seats next to each other on the 13 hour flight, not a window seat but a aslie at least. I looked at the tickets and saw 46H and 46J. After 5 minutes of repeating the alphabet to each other we agreed that I was in between H and J. So we go to the counter and ask why we were not sitting together and with a smirk he answered we do not have I in New Zealand.............Now you all know, maybe it will save u the embaressment Sally experienced on this 1st day of our trip.............After a particularly comfortable flight, we arrived in Auckland, but our surfboards were in LA, classic.....

After talking to the friendly people of Air New Zealand and securing a hotel room in Auckland, it was time to get our campervan.  We rented a small toyota van that has been converedt to nclued a couch/bed and food prepping and eating area.  The van came with more that we would ever remember!  This is a standard mode of travel for New Zealand, and we didn't want to stand out (insert your own comment here). All Ed can say is, "sweet......". 

We stayed two nights in Auckland, got our bearings, watched the Colts crush the Ravens while degenerate Dave bought us beers.  After watching Sunday Night Football at 2pm, we ate a delicious dinner of morrocan lamb salad and mussels.  When we returned to the hotel, our boards were there and the next morning we headed to Raglan.