West Coast: Low Tides and High Hopes

Soul Surfers Camp: PK Bay

Plans change, and that’s not always a bad thing. Trying to keep it light and disorderly, we ended up spending less time travelling up Aotearoa New Zealand’s East Coast and, instead, rolled back down, hitting a few spots where we found a few small breaks (notably Purakaunai Bay – or PK Bay), where we camped a night and witnessed one of the most spectacular sun sets I’ve ever seen. PK, known to locals as a little bit of an odd, sometimes crummy break, still has its draw. A massive white cliff juts out of the shore and into the ocean, bringing campers and surfers alike, and a waterfall (the Purakaunui Waterfall) also brings more than a few tourists. We met up with another travelling group (out of Dunedin) and spent some time chatting with them about surfing, the world, and how the two fit together.


Then, the weather turned. We went a little more west along the southern coast but were socked in and

Lost Gypsy Caravan

couldn’t surf, even though Bret from the Lost Gypsy Caravan (which anyone travelling State highway 6 between Invercargill and Dunedin should check out) – a surfer himself – tried to bring us to one of his local breaks. Bret and the odd assembly of international travellers who work/live at the caravan are really cool, and are (like a lot of people I’ve met here) – for the most part – environmentally minded. Leaving a sticker or two, we departed, deciding to head as quickly as we could to the West Coast.


Spending a few days making our way through Cromwell and Wanaka (where we connected with old friends and some former flatmates) we arrived along the South Island’s west coast. One of the rainiest places in all of Aotearoa, we’ve been super lucky, and have had amazing sunshine and full-on summer temperatures all week. Until today (giving me a chance to update the blog). Rolling up the west coast Sam, Tom, and I have managed to find more than a few super gnarly breaks (one in Hokitika, another just south of Greymouth), a nice beach with a soft though messy break (one break, along the northern side of Mawheranui, or the Grey River), and finally one that was almost perfection (we lucked out on it, and it’s on a ‘Beach Road’ somewhere between Charleston and Westport). This unnamed beach (we can’t find it in any guide books) has a really nice left-hander that didn’t close out too quickly, and Sam was finally able to carve his shortboard (we’ve mostly been experiencing smaller, longboard-style swells, which has worked out for me!).

Kahikatea and Kikila

I did luck out when T-Bone (Tom) found a ‘Bush Walk’ that brought us through a small forest of kahikatea trees. This was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had since reading Geoff Park’s Ngā Uruora: The Groves of Life, a book about the ecological history of Aotearoa. Most of the kahikateas were destroyed by sailors and missionaries, looking to fix their boats or to convert Māori during the colonial period. The trees, in which some iwi (~tribes) laid their dead to rest, were sacred in many Māori groups, and seeing as most of the trees were destroyed, I was really happy to be able to walk among them (there is an ongoing re-growth program trying to bring the trees back).


The weather, and the swells no longer agreeing with us, we’ve got the day off (in Westport) and a decision

The West Coast

sits before us: Do we continue north and finish out highway 6 before turning back, or do we make haste to Kaikoura? We haven’t seen many other surfers since arriving on the west coast, and while we’ve been lucky with the weather (and the surf), there doesn’t seem to be enough of a permanent surfing community to help spread the Soul Surfers message. We’ve dropped into a few shops (those that exist out here), and took note of the immaculately clean beaches, walking paths, and environment (the one exception being a small rest area in north Westport). We might, I’m thinking, have more luck heading back to the east. At least, in spreading the word.


Aroha! Ride With Care. 

Chris ‘Kikila’ Perrin  
14 November 2013
(all photo credit: © Kikila Bodhi)