Day 7 - The Spit

Today was our last day in Dunedin and it was a ripper. We awoke to an amazing sunrise at Aramoana and the surf was head height and glassy. Kara paddled out and promptly threw up her cereal. She is blaming it on the dodgy water we fulled the camper up with in Port Chalmers yesterday, but I reckon it may have had something to do with the $10 crayfish she at last night.

Yew!! Check that sunrise

How fun does this look?

Alex gets a good view of Zennor in the tube

Mikey gets a good view of Alex going 12 o'clock

Silas had a disturbing habit of stripping down in the freezing water to lay one of his famous aqua-turds at the end of each session

Day 6 - Penguin Bay arvo

We stuck around Penguin Bay, and pretty soon we realized why it was named so, there were little yellow eyed penguins waddling up the beach to nest in the dunes. Gotta love the South Island. The onshore came up but there were still some good waves to be had, and our brother Lyndon joined the crew for the arvo session.

The groms are actually taking the boards off the roof themselves!? Someone take a photo!

Alex aka Legoman

Lyndon Hutton aka Mini-Mutt

Day 6 - Penguin Bay morning

Last night was a classic power struggle. We initially gave the girls the Britz rookie as we thought they would prefer to sleep away from the stench of a bunch of smelly guys, but Kara's long frame was struggling to fit in fully extended so she'd had some pretty poor sleeps. She suggested that Alex and Mikey probably wouldn't notice the difference and that they should swap sleeping quarters with the girls. But the groms weren't going to give up without a fight and a serious debate followed. But two 16 year old kids were never going to win against a school teacher and it wasn't long till the groms were headed to the rookie with their sleeping bags.

Mike and Alex seemed like they were pretty comfortable in there as when I knocked on the window at 6:30am this morning in the fog they weren't keen to get up at all.

But it was worth getting up for, Penguin Bay was head height and glassy.

Zennor vert frontside

Kara just about to make friends with a local longboarder

Mikey was wafting tail on the rights

Zennor vert backside

Day 5 - The Spit arvo

During the day the offshore picks up to near gale force, making it almost unsurfable, but on dusk the wind backs off and the waves are epic. This beach is insane, 4-5 foot A frames are detonating left and right. Nat finishes work, paddles out just as it gets good, and dominates the session. Zennor paddles down the beach to share a peak with the local boogers and comes up trumps with a solid backside shack.

Silas is finally happy, he links up with Nat several times and nails some sick tube shots from the water, but you'll have to wait for the Kiwisurf mag comes out to check them out.

Unfortunately due to the intensity of the wind it's impossible to shoot video, but here's a couple of stills.

Peaks everywhere

Nat had been in the forest pruning trees all day, then paddled out and got slotted right in front of Silas.

Zennor snuck off down the beach and managed to weasel a couple of sick lefts of the boogers

Day 5 - The Spit morning

We drive back down to St Kilda, where it looks small but fun, and we are just about to have a go at shooting the pier when the wind comes up howling onshore.

The great thing is Dunedin is located on a peninsular and if it's onshore on one side, then it's offshore on the other so we head off to Aramoana. The swell is still a little raw but there are a couple of sick ones coming through.

Kara duckdives a bomb left

Day 4 - Blackhead

We pulled up to Blackhead and although there are clean waves peeling left and right, it's a touch small and no one is too keen to get out there. Then I hear Alex muttering something about the best day at Tay street ever and before I know it he's paddling out on his own.

Alex makes the waves look pretty fun, throwing down a bunch of clean combos. Pretty soon newly crowned South Island champ Lyndon Hutton joins him. Kara and Laura aren't too far behind.

Blackhead beach

Alex has got those double grabs down

Kara couldn't let Alex have all the good ones

Zennor has a quick look at the waves but decides going back to sleep in the camper is a better option

King of the South, Lyndon Hutton was ripping, that kids got flow.

Alex celebrates a fun little session by throwing one of the lamest shakas of all time

Day 4 - Middles

St Kilda and St Clair are both just either end of the same beach really, so it's a bit confusing if you surf right in the middle of the beach like we did this morning. Natty informed us that it's called middles, and I guess that makes sense really?

Even though Mikey is still looking green from the pollution Alex and Laura can't resist getting out there for a couple of clean head height peelers.

Alex lines up Silas

Laura carves

Alex can do punts with his eyes closed

Laura drops into a nice wall

Day 4 - Peninsular Hills

We thought there was a possibility that we may score a good early morning session at an isolated beachie up the peninsular, so we set up camp in the hills above last night.

It may have been from Hambo's dodgy cooking, or maybe the effect of sleeping directly above Silas' vile fart zone, but more than likely it was the sewage at St kilda that had got the best of Mikey. He had his head sticking out the top window of the camper and there was a stinky mess of chicken salad vomit on the ground below, and a few stray chunks on the drivers door handle.

The surf was looking junk, and there was a freezing cold misty fog surrounding us. Mikey isn't one to complain, and everyone feels for the poor little fella sitting there in the miserable conditions continuing to hurl.

Mikey not feeling the best

Day 3 - Nat's Reef

Nat takes us down the coast for a quick session just before dark. But the spot we plan on surfing isn't quite doing it, so we go a little further down the road where there is a fun little right running down kelp covered rocks.

Nat claims he is the only one that ever surfs here and that's why it's called Nat's reef, but later on someone else told us we had been surfing Todd's reef and then the guy who also came out surfing that lived across the road reckons it's called John's reef, seeing how his name was John and all.

Natty boosting above Nat's reef

Alex carving tight

Mikey getting amongst his 4th surf for the day

Zennor negotiating the kelp bed

Day 3 - Blackhead

After a couple of false starts we drive over the hill to Blackhead. There are some super fun waves coming through, with long walling lefts running down the beach. Although it's the weekend and a perfect bluebird day, there is no one else surfing at all? Nat is out there first and has got a couple of nice ones in the bag before anyone else even hits the water.

Everyone is pretty stoked with the session except Silas, although the light is perfect, the water colour is amazing and the waves are totally ripable, Silas isn't really happy unless he's shooting photos from the water in barrels. The water temperature is not bad. It's definitely crisp, but at least you don't need booties or a hood. At a guess I'd say it was around 16c.

Alex ready for surf #3 before lunch

Nat & Zen in the gravel pit that is the Blackhead carpark

Nat loves launching monster airs

Give Zennor a nice left and he'll go 12 o'clock on ya

Kara stoked on a fun session

Kara chuckin buckets

Nat gets to surf fun waves like this in Dunedin everyday

Day 3 - St Kilda

Alex & Mikey jump straight in the back of their camper and we motor back up the beach to St Kilda. There are some fun peaks and the whole crew get out there, but the incoming tide slows the session down a little. It's not long until everyones back in and getting amongst some cereal.

Nat reckons we should all go in cause it'll be better 100m up the beach

Laura

Day 3 - St Clair

We awake nice and early. Sleeping quarters in the campers is tight. When they say it's a 4-berth camper, that means there's 2 double beds, so it was pretty intimate. Everyone's got to top n' tail or if you are like Alex and Mikey you spoon!? The girls are sleeping in the back of the Britz Rookie and Silas is the only person that gets to sleep solo, but unfortunately he's on the floor. Although we all had a pretty solid sleep except for Kara who complains Laura's awful wriggly.

Everyone is amped for our first full day in Dunedin. The swells dropped a little but it's clean and looks super fun. We pull up at St Clair and although the early morning air has a fresh bite to it, the groms are straight out there.

There is a fun right, but with the sun straight in your eyes and a bit of backwash coming off the breakwall, the groms are soon back in the carpark and keen to check somewhere else.

Laura loves that sleeping bag

Mikey and Alex getting blinded by the early morning sun

Alex "big spoon" Dive

Mikey "little spoon" Mallalieu

Day 2 - St Kilda

Wow what a crazy day of traveling. Even though we had to get up way before dawn in Auckland, we only just managed to make it to Dunedin half an hour before dark.

We convince the Virgin Blue check in staff that we are a sports team so they give us extra baggage allowance, it's a good scam and it probably saved us about $500 in excess baggage charges. We fly from Auckland to Christchurch and for some reason the check in staff decide that it’s a good idea to put the safety of the entire flight in the hands of 2 grommets by putting Mikey and Alex in charge of the emergency exit. The rather hot air hostess gives Alex a pretty good telling off for not paying attention as she gives them a run down of his duties. Silas is clearly impressed and proceeds to ask her out.

On arrival in Christchutch we pick up 2 slick Britz campers. These will be our homes for the next 10 days.

We got the call up from Natty Parsons that it was pumping at St Kilda, and we pulled up to see solid 4-5ft peaks fanned by a strong offshore wind.

Nat, Danny Carse and Ricardo Christie were already out there ripping, but unfortunately by the time we unloaded all our boards and everyone found the right fins and wetsuits there was only time for a few waves before dark.

Silas noticed that the water had a soapy texture and kinda smelt like detergent. We learned later that St Kilda beach was actually officially closed because of high sewage levels, but they don't put a sign up or anything, apparently you have to ring the council and ask them to find out. What the heck!?

Zennor got a sneaky shack right on dark

Natty doesn't care if there is poo in the water, if the waves are good he's out there bathing in the stuff!

Dunedin local Danny Carse pulls into a long section

Day 1 - Auckland

Tomorrow we catch a flight from Auckland to Christchurch at 6:30am. Yeah that's crazy early but at least we'll get to Christchurch at around 8:30am, so we'll be straight off to the beach. We've got 2 Britz campervans booked and no real plan other than we have to drop the campers back in Auckland in 11 days and gather a bunch of material for a Kiwisurf article on the way.

We'll be blogging our progress as we clock up the k's in search of waves and hopefully we should have some fresh photos and videos each day, but who knows how the internet coverage is guna be when you're living out of a camper?

Below is a little movie introducing each of our crew (except for Nat Parsons who we'll be meeting up with tomorrow in Dunedin). Alex bought quite possibly the worse knock knock book ever, so we thought we'd torment you with a terrible joke each. Unfortunately there was some furious foosball games going on in the room next door and a gigantic black dog wandering around while we were filming so it may be a little noisy, but that's just the sort of chaos we expect on this trip.