Highway to the surf

STEVE SOLE spills the beans on Taranaki's best-kept secret. The surf's up today and tomorrow ... and the next.

We boys went surfing so frequently, the surfboards could have been bolted to the Holden's roof rack.

We thought surfing would make us more alluring to the girls, but catching their attention was harder than catching waves. It was fun though.

This was 1970 and we strutted our stuff at Ohawe, a boulder-strewn beach 8km north of our home town, Hawera.

Sometimes we ventured 42km north to the boulder-free Opunake Beach. Next to Oakura Beach, 15km south of New Plymouth, Opunake is Highway 45's most popular haunt. When we forgot about our futile pursuit of the ladies, we cruised Highway 45, turned down a no-exit road, parked at the fence, walked over a paddock or two, scrambled down the cliff and tried not to surf into the rocks.

I'd go to similar locations at low tide with my family on summer weekends with sacks and knives to collect paua and kina. We ate them for dinner with corn on the cob, lettuce salad drenched with condensed-milk dressing, and bacon and egg pie. Often to the smell of freshly cut grass.

Under pseudo-duress, I'd go with my parents to company barbecues at Kaupokonui Beach where we'd enter three-legged races, see who could hit a 6-inch nail into a piece of wood with the least number of strokes, enjoy watching the beauty pageants, and tangle our fishing lines in contests off the swing bridge.

Returning from a 30-year absence, I have found families still crowd the beaches for fun, food and fantasy. But the 105km-long Highway 45, between New Plymouth and Hawera is now called the Surf Highway. For good reason. I didn't know it in 1970, but Taranaki's coast offered the most consistent surf in New Zealand. Still does.

Californian Dennis Conquest has been surfing for 47 years, has lived in Raglan for the past 31, and is so impressed with Taranaki since discovering it 12 months ago, he was reluctant to talk about it for fear of popularising it. The 58-year-old says, "Taranaki's just amazing. Through the binoculars, I can look at point after point with nobody out. If this was in California, you'd have 100 guys at each break. It's so beautiful and virtually undiscovered. Even New Zealanders don't really know."

But Heather Dent, another Californian, has been living in Taranaki for nine years because of the surf. She was New Zealand national surfing champ three times and says, "You can always find surf somewhere here. And when the conditions are good, it provides something magical, some of the best I've had."

Last year's New Zealand surf champs were in Taranaki. Everybody I spoke to paraphrased the words of Scott Casey, who came down from Whangamata: "The waves are as good as they get but to have them in a champ is just amazing."

For people like me who have always found standing on a board that's propelled by an ocean too difficult to surmount but too exciting to ignore, Dent started the Vertigo Surf School three years ago at Oakura Beach, New Plymouth's satellite suburb.

She says, "I teach any shape, any gender, any age."

In her two-hour lesson, Dent explains "ocean awareness" - understanding rips, how waves break, what they're breaking over, where the swell's coming from, what the winds do. You'll also learn how surfboards are made, how to care for them and what to look for when buying.

After learning a few techniques on the beach, you put that to practice in the surf. She says, "When you get the timing of the waves down, that's half your battle won. We're in the surf for about an hour. That's about the most that people can handle if they don't have surfing fitness."

She taught 250 potential surfers last summer.

"Just about every person that comes through will be standing up at the end. And once you stand up on a board and ride on the green face of a wave, it's unbelievable."

If you're just after the thrill of riding a wave, Greg Page, also based at Oakura Beach, offers New Zealand's only tandem surf riding opportunity. Yep, two people on the same board at the same time. Page, also a long-time surfer, goes through the basics on the beach before both of you paddle out on the specially made 3.6m tandem board.

You wear a harness that helps Page get you to your feet at the crucial time. After that first ride, he says everybody is, "smiling from ear to ear. It's just fantastic fun".

Kaupokonui Carnival is typical of the fun festivals that happen along the entire length of the Surf Highway over summer. People like Dean Kira, a baker from Hawera, bring their families because, "it's just a good day out really. The kids loving swimming in the river and we watch a bit of that stuff up there". He points to the flat area above the river, to an articulated trailer, which is today's stage.

Hundreds of people shade under umbrellas or sprawl out in the sun, enjoying a day's entertainment Taranaki-style. There's a talent quest for anybody who wants to stand up and have a go, and various other family-oriented activities.

As girls prepare themselves backstage for the beauty contest, master of ceremony Mike Ryan tells them, "If you've got a bikini, you should be wearing it because you'll be judged on first impressions" and "The girl who wins Miss Kaupokonui will be proud of it for the rest of their life."

The girls do the walk, answer the questions and 16-year-old Kate Julian wins the day. The crowd applauds when Ryan says, "Just because these girls come from Taranaki, doesn't mean they haven't got what it takes. They do!"

When we return home at the end of the day, we all drive the road that connects Taranaki's spherical coast - the Surf Highway.

Tourisim Taranaki

WindWand Taranaki


Case notes

Accommodation

Ahu Ahu Villas: This lodge with four self-contained units is built from demolition materials in a stunning coastal location just south of Oakura. Prices are $135 a couple or $175 for four people a night. Ph (06) 752 7370.

Oakura Beach Camp: From tent sites at $7.50 a person and children $3.50, with a minimum fee of $15 each night. Cabins cost $40 a night for two adults. Children under 5 are free. Ph (06) 752 7861.

Opunake Beach Camp: Tent sites are $9 an adult and kids $5.50. Caravans are $35 for two people. Additional people at tent site rates. Kids under 5 free. Ph 0800 758 009.

Surf tours/schools

Vertigo Surf School, Heather Dent: For one or two people, $60 each. Three or more, $40 each. Group rates available. Ph (06) 752 8283, email symon@blackdiamondsafaris.co.nz.

Tandem Surfing: $75 for about one hour. Call Greg Page, ph (06) 752 7734, email gregpage@cookietime.co.nz

Tangaroa Adventures: Doyle Harris offers surfing tours at locations to suit your experience. Will pick up and drop off. Half-day $80, full day $120. Includes transport, equipment, hot food and refreshments. Ph (06) 278 1285, email tangaroa.adventures@xtra.co.nz. Based in Hawera.