What do jet skis and dolphins have in common? Not much, but they both formed part of an experience for me this week that I will never forget.
On Good Friday I drove out to Blueskin Bay with my mate Lyndon and his jet ski. It was my first time surfing from a jet ski and conditions were so perfect it was ridiculous. From the moment we put the ski in the glassy water and cruised out across the bar it was like entering another world.
The entire North Coast was our playground and we literally meandered up and down checking out surf break after surf break before settling on the wave we'd surf for the morning. Every line-up we saw was new to me and each looked impressive with four foot of swell, glassy surface conditions and an azure sky overhead. Each break already had people out enjoying the morning – the first day of the Easter weekend.
Choosing a wave to surf was like making a selection from a basket of Easter eggs – you know they'll all taste good, but which would be the best! We settled on a righthand wave that was breaking on a ledge and then peeling down a boulder-strewn coastline. It was a good choice as the line-up emptied of surfers who'd already enjoyed a few hours before we arrived, leaving the green walls to just me and Lyndon to enjoy by ourselves ... well, not exactly. Each time we returned the ski to the side of the wave we'd be joined by a pod of about 25 Hector's dolphins who thought we were pretty cool to hang out with. They'd literally play, leap and swim within arm's reach of the ski. It was a pretty surreal experience with them following us around everywhere.
Even waiting out the back for a wave, we were joined by a group of them just swimming by within a metre of where we floated and eyeing us with these big grins on.
At one point Lyndon took off on a large set wave and was escorted down the wave face by four or five of these dolphins and on each subsequent wave in that set another four or five dolphins would surf it all the way to where we were in the middle of the bay. Life doesn't get much better than three hours like that.
We hope your Easter was just as exciting as ours! If you haven't completed our survey yet then please do it now – it closes on Wednesday at 5pm. It will only take five minutes, but will help us make Dunedin Light even better! Go on, click on the "Start survey" button over there on the right.
See you at the beach ...
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