New Zealand, the North Island, Part Uno.

Stepping foot on to the North Island of NZ is like arriving in an entirely different country. The people more diverse, the climate hotter and the swell noticeably bigger. We hadn't had much luck on the paddle front down South so we were hungry to feast on the October swell that was dominating the West coast. After a couple of uneventful days awaiting our medicals in Wellington, we speeded up North a-sap towards Raglan with our arms still feeling like pin cushions. Raglan for those of you who haven't heard is the NZ Mecca of surfing. Pretty much every town on the North Island's coast claims this title but only Raglan actually deserves it. A sleepy little coastal town with a handful of surf spots nearby, all brimming with beautiful leftys. We lucked out time wise and had arrived just in time to catch the end of the bigger winter swells. The next few days were spent in the water feeding off the sets of almost perfect waves which tumbled in one after another for what seemed like hours and hours. We knew this dream couldn't last forever and right enough after a few awesome days the sea turned eerily flat which was enough to motivate our lazy arses to shift in to gear and seek out new spots to revel in.

My new boss had tipped us off about a sweet surf spot right up North called Shipwrecks Bay which is apparently home to the longest lefty in NZ. He also told us the swell was looking good for the next few days which was enough to convince us to hop in to Plop and cruise up the winding mountainous roads of the North which feel more than a challenge without power steering. Five hours after leaving Takapuna we arrived at Shipwreck bay just in time for waves to be picking up. Full of anticipation we jumped in our wetties and paddled out in to the amazingly warm and clear aqua water. We soon found out the rumour of Shippers epic leftys was no lie. In almost perfect symmetry wave after wave broke, peeling along in perfection for as far as the eye could see. Even the smaller breaks that would usually be mush on a regular beach were perfect little waves peeling away happily in to the shore. And crowds, they don't exist here. We're talking about 3 or 4 locals who spread out along the reef and beach break too busy having a good time to spoil anybody else's fun. Yup Shippers was peachy and we even scored an awesome camping spot right on the bay which was owned by local Maori Willy; “complete with flushing toilet and warm shower”. Well you can't ask for much more than that can you?

Shippers was sweet but it only works every so often when the swell checks in to town, which at this time of year wasn't as much as we'd like! So off we headed again back down South towards Raglan where we spent a few more days before we caught wind of giant swell hitting the Coromandel and Mount area which was on the East coast about two hours away from us. After yet another mellow drive we arrived in Whangamata and pulled up to the bay to see around twenty keen surfers in what can only be described as utterly massive waves. The currents were wreaking havoc though and not knowing the spot too well we decided to play it safe and head for Mount Maunganui which was just down the road and catching equally good swell but with a bigger beach to play on. Again we pulled up to a sea full of little black spots of people so decided to catch some zeds and head out for an early surf instead. The next morning was just as busy so we drove along the beach until we found a slightly less crowded spot. The waves were huge but the currents were there in force to make sure you didn't have too much fun. Paddling out was a bitch but our perseverance was rewarded with monster waves, a few of which were our biggest yet standing tall at around six foot. After a couple of good days of getting two sessions a day in the sea yet again turned flat. Which was probably for the best as we found out just before we left that a couple of three to four metre great whites had been spotted lurking in the water. That explained the helicopters then.

With a lack of enthusiasm to head anywhere too off to radar we decided to head back to Raglan again where we had established a nice little group of friends and so it was starting to feel a bit like a second home. Alas by now the Summer had rolled in to town and so along with the sun came the drop in swell. Yes there was always waves but the winds always in the wrong direction or the swell never really big enough to salvage much. But beggars can not be choosers and as long as the surf wasn't complete and utter mush we'd be out there trying to make the most of it. And so this brings us to present day. I (Katie) start work in a few days so gone are the days of complete freedom to chase the swell and live the search. It's only three days a week though so we're hoping we can cram in a lot of adventures in between office hours. And plus summer is here now so if all else fails there's always a sunny beer garden just waiting to be exploited by a couple of rowdy Scots.

New Zealand, the South Island.

After a long over night flight from Santiago we finally arrived in Auckland bleary eyed and kind of bushy tailed. I was perhaps more bleary eyed than usual after not getting a wink of sleep for fear of missing out on the free drinks and food. The thought of bed couldn't have excited me more when the plane touched down so you can just imagine our delight when the pilot announced our arrival time as 4AM, not 4pm like we had expected. And guess what? Our hostel didn't open until 10am. So we had five lovely hours in Auckland airport to enjoy before catching a bus in to town.

Our journey in to Auckland city was the start of our major culture shock. Gone were the rickety old cars, tiny happy people and laid back attitude of South America. Everything was big, clean and brash with not a touch of orange dust or brown smog in sight. We quickly came to miss the happy, chilled out people of SA when the first kiwis we had the pleasure of meeting turned out to be pretty rude, arrogant and bizarrely bitter about the fact we were Scottish. It also probably didn't help that we were still replying to any question in Spanish as a reflex.

We'd met a couple of awesome kiwis in SA though so we decided that they couldn't all be that bad and chose to persevere rather than do an about turn and hop on to the quickest flight back to Chile.

The plan for NZ was to travel by van so we utilised our unexpected twelve hours to find our home for the next four months. I'm not sure whether it was love at first sight our a hasty decision brought on by jet-lag but by 3pm we had Plop, our very own racing red 1991 Toyota Hiace. Complete with double bed, gas stove and burnt cooking pot. As you can imagine we hadn't expected to pick up such a beaut so quickly so there was only one way to celebrate, with a pint.

Off we plopped the next day making a speedy descent towards Wellington where we were to catch the ferry to the South Island. Due to our ignorance, lack of knowledge (and to be honest lack of actually giving a toss) we had no idea that Wellington was the capital of NZ. We later greatly offended a native kiwi by stating that we thought it was quite small. Well I stand by that statement, as far as cities go it's nae big but it's nice enough.

The ferry ride to the South Island was a strange one. Any ferry crossings that last more than four hours should, in my opinion, be spent in the bar. For a start the bar was shut. So that was the end of that idea. I looked around the ferry lounge for some sort of inspiration but was instead met by a wall of silence reinforced by what I can only describe as a group of lethargic zombies. Nobody was uttering a single word and it was beginning to freak me out. What was wrong with these people? Had we some how coincided our crossing with the entire population of deaf and dumb kiwis? Perhaps it was me that had turned deaf? No I could still hear Ryan snoring......so why the hell was nobody talking to each other? I never did find out the answer to that one suffice to say I was overjoyed to get off that boat pronto when it docked in Picton.

After our first proper sleep in Plop we headed towards Wanaka to meet an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen for years. It was coming to the end of the winter season but the mountains still had a respectable dusting of snow and looked stunning in contrast with the vivid aqua blue lakes which lay below them. Wanaka, like every where else it would seem, was much smaller than we expected. On first appearances it reminded me a bit of Quebec with it's wooden Canadianesque houses. This is where the similarities ended. Wanaka is where we also discovered that the kiwis think they invented the pie and that Scottish people are apparently tight bastards. Enough said on that one we think.

Next on our trip was Queenstown where Euan and Ailsa now lived so off we plopped through the winding mountain roads accompanied by my good friend Lisa. No journey to Queenstown was of course complete without a visit to Arrowtown's “FAMOUS PIE SHOP”. Granted the pies were good but we were all pretty shocked by the rude woman who served us, she put any grumpy weegie to shame. Later on we found out this shop was just as famous for it's service without a smile as it's gourmet pies (I.e bolognese).

It was pissing with rain when we arrived in Q-T and we felt like we had warped back to Scotland during the journey. The next few hours were spent drinking copious amounts of beers with Euan and grabbing a famous (yup everything here is famous) Ferg Burger once Ailsa had finished work. Fergs is basically THE fast food joint to be SEEN in in Queenstown and it sells abnormally large burgers. We felt so ill after so much meat and beer that we had to have an early night which almost resulted in me having to go to the toilet in the cooking pot.

After being the star contributor of a word puzzle, drinking large quantities of alcohol and eating way over our RDI of meat it was time for us to head to Dunedin where Lisa now studied and lived. We had heard the surf was epic at Dunedin so we were pretty amped to get back on the coast. The swell however had different plans. The first few days were spent checking out the flat sea hour after hour until we struck it lucky and got a good couple of days of waves. We also met up with some old family friends who went to uni with my mum and dad and it was rad to see them all again along with Martin's wee boy Ethan who's dead cute and Martin's girlfriend Vicki who will be a good friend from now on. D-town also had an amazing selection of sushi restaurants which we indulged ourselves in daily.

After spending a good few weeks there and fitting in a quick trip down South to the Catlins we decided it was time to check out some other spots on the South Island. It was sad saying goodbye to all our new and old friends but we hope to see them again in the future. Off we plopped again and headed back towards Queenstown where we spent another couple of boozey days with Ailsa and Euan and also got to bungee jump which was an epic experience (Many thanks to Euan for hooking us up with that).

Next on the cards was Fox Glacier. There was a rad wee camp spot here where we spent a couple of rainy days before heading to Rangitata River where we did our first ever white water rafting experience which was so much fun. Neither of us got flipped out of the raft so we considered that a pretty good effort.

It was at this point that funds started to become low so we decided to start seeking for some part time work. I emailed pretty much every surf/skate/snow store in the country and was stoked to get a bunch of interviews so we headed North sooner than planned after dropping off for a quick overnight visit at our friend Erin's in C-church where we enjoyed beers in the sun and some awesome homemade burgers.

The South Island had been an experience in a half shell. Although a hard adjustment from SA living we met some amazing new (and old) friends, saw some utterly breathtaking scenery and gave a good effort in seeing as much as we could in Plop. The North Island was calling us though and we were excited about seeking out it's infamous surf spots and basking in it's warmer climate. So off we plopped back on to the ferry, which was slightly more lively this time, and began our journey back upwards.