Last Wednesday saw the return of a North swell that set Aramoana and the entire North Coast on fire. It was amazing – just great sets rolling in through the rain and perfect peaks offering surfers some memorable rides. Where are the photos you ask? Well, Wednesday's waves were about 9 out of 10 on the incredibly accurate stoke meter, but Thursday was rumoured to be 10 out of 10. So, I ditched the cameras and surfed my brains out on Wednesday.
It was a treat to myself for spending so much time shooting others indulging and the flat light was the decider. So I joined the 50 or so other surfers stoking on the conditions. I feasted on waves until my arms could no longer drag me in to any more. The session was a standout for many reasons but one was the abundance of wildlife in the ocean. We had several groups of three to five yellow-eyed penguins, or Hoiho, swimming around out the back with us. They didn't seem fazed by us – just swimming around porpoising through the line-up and chasing fish around the place.
We even had a few seals cruise through as if they were keeping everything in order at this convergence of species.
Between the sea lions on the south coast, the Hector dolphins on the north coast, the bottlenose dolphins in the harbour and the albatross circling Taiaroa Head you start to realise that we're in a pretty amazing part of the world. There are not many places where so many unusual species get to immerse themselves in nature together.
Of course, the Thursday was nothing like a 10. The wind knocked the swell to bits and so I trained my lens on my new curiosity for these strange little Hoiho that are so active at Aramoana right now.
See you at the beach!
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