Gisborne

Hi heres a few pics and words about our trip. We moved south from Mount Manganui and headed to Gisborne which has often been said to be one of the most consistent areas for surf in New Zealand. Gisborne has beaches which pick up east and south swells and work on different winds.There is normally swell at one of the spots.
When you drive to Gisborne you start to understand its remoteness. The drive is through gorges and gullies and along rivers that meander between mountains. The landscape is beautiful but its not the sort of road you are going to drive everyday. The town sits quite isolated from the rest of New Zealand by these physical barriers which means there isn’t loads of visiting surfers. This along with the fact it enjoys a ‘Mediterranean’ climate makes it a great surf trip destination

I had heard a fair bit about Gissy before I arrived and was initially surprised at its size (I was told it was about the size of Ballyshannon). The town is actually a small city which is fairly featureless apart from a nice harbour. Palm trees aside the town is actually quite dull with its wide streets and its new world blocks and avenues. Works great for driving around but it lacks any vibe as there is no real centre. Initially I was temped to move on as it looked nothing special but the longer you stay the more you appreciate its charms. The campsite in town is great for access to the Midway/pipe beach which was a little like a good day at Rossnowalgh while I was there but is supposed to turn on in bigger south swells when it turns into an insane barrelling beachie. Why cant Rossnowalgh do that. The campsite is right on the beach in Gisbone and is great value with all the facilities. A tent site is just over €10 and a cabin €18 euros which is cheap when split between 2.
The east coast beaches were huge when we arrived and looked like the North Shore in Hawaii but were onshore. The waves jack up on outer sandbars quickly and break on shallow banks which means they can barrel. They reckon the beachies can get like hossegor as the swells arrive out of deep water. The beaches to the North picked up the east swell which tends to come in January to March from Tropical Cyclones dropping from the tropics. The east swell and wind died after the first day and the beaches shaped up. There were a lot of closeouts while we were there and waves that missed the outer banks broke in deep water and could go fat. There was a good few surfers about but there were loads of peaks. The atmosphere in the water was fairly like an average day at the more popular waves at home. Kiwi surfers tend to be friendly and a few words in the line-up go along way. There is quite a decent standard of surfing in New Zealand but not that much higher than the better spots in Ireland and there are lots of beginner/intermediates as well. There are also heaps of breaks up the coast which would be empty but require a bit of trekking and a lot of driving. Great if you up for feral camping. There were other reefs such as the island which didn’t work while I was there that looked great and it seemed Gisborne would be a great place to go on a surf trip any time of the year.

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