okay, so everyones dream is to surf empty lineups. well today i learned that is not my dream. i like uncrowded lineups but empty ones are a bit spooky. i surfed today at a place called tauranga bay on the west coast of the south island. it is a gorgeous bay with a fun little left hander on the south end of it. on my drive down the coast i saw literally hundreds of places to surf without a single person in the water. while i was in the water i definitely got a little spooked because there were all these jellyfish floating around. big pink jellyfish. on top of that there were also little blue bottles (portuguese man o war) floating around as well. but here is the spookiness clincher. it was murky water only a km away from a seal colony. now im one of those people who actually read about shark attacks and it comes to my recollection that most of these attacks happen somewhere around seal colonies or seals or something along those lines. so im not sure if im going to surf much there. or maybe i will but make sure that there are actually people in the lineup when i do. then i have feel more comfortable.
but now im safe and sound. im looking forward to getting back up to the north island. i was reading about this wave called shipwrecks up in kaitaia and it sounds like it is really a class wave. also stent road on the taranaki coast sounds cool, a big muscley right point. i havent heard from dougie but i assume that ill will and hopefully ill see him there.