North part of the North Island
Today was a full one. The photo above was just the start of the day.
After a night of good food and a few beverages with the our group we awoke at 6:45 for a quick breakfast and a 7:15 ride to 90 Mile Beach (it is actually is only 65 but might as well be 1000). I was promised that on this trip I would not see surf worth riding. I was lied to. Three hours into the ride I saw my first break here. A beach break with miles of peeling waist to head high glory. I could not believe that I saw no riders but was told that the end of the pennisula was where they all were. So after about 60 kilometers of a bus ride along a really low tide we stopped for a quick shell fish (was not clams) dig. Some participated in eating the raw meat in the shells (mostly the girls).
After that it was off to the sand dunes for the fastest ride on a boogie boad I have ever done. It was down a 300 meter, almost vertical at one point - dune. Before we had a chance to rinse the sand off we drove to the top of a sacred place where the Maori people go to the after life. This place is also where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet. It was odd to see how deep blue the Pacific was and aqua the Tasman was and how the two did not easliy blend out off the point.
That was very cool but nothing compared to the beach where a local let me borrow his surf board. I caught at least 5ive clean waist high lefts. I gave the stick back as time was limited and I think I was wearing thin on his generosity. Russ you and I would have shown these guys how to ride beautiful waves like these had we had our own gear here. The water was glass too.
Afterwards we spent the rest of the day stopping at locally grown fruit stands sampling and purcahsing the freshest and cheapest produce available. And they are telling me it only gets better.