I began watching the swell forecast earlier in the week, & things were looking promising with a fairly intense low heading north off the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Earlier forecasts were for 3-4m swells, but by the time the weekend came around the forecast was downgraded to 2.5m swells. The decision was to either stay in Wellington & hope for waves at Lyall Bay, or head on over to the Wairarapa & try & score much bigger & better surf.
Saturday morning came, & after a early morning check of Lyall, it was clear that I'd be better off heading over the hill to the Wairarapa. I packed the car ready for anything, & started off on the drive that would take just over 2 hours to the first surf break I was going to check out. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the NW when I got there, so I shot some photos & then headed on to the east coast where I knew it would be more protected. As I arrived on the east coast, I knew I had made the right decision. There were a only handful of guys out, & the waves on the point were pretty clean & a good 4 foot plus on the sets.
I ended up surfing a few breaks around that area over the two days, & I shot a heap of photos & some video too.
I'll be definitely heading back that way next time there's swell...
By Mark Gee
Check out more photos from Mark's surf search here.
