NORTHLAND SURFARI 2022

Trip Report

Two fully booked Surfaris this winter, and what better place than in beautiful Northland!

For our Midwinter Surfari in June, all our guests decided to take Thursday off work as well and travel up North early. As we were already in Northland, we could keep everyone updated with the current conditions and which place would be the best one to get on the water. Around lunch time the first ones arrived, making the most of the Southwesterly. It was great to have company on the water again, and good to see a mix of slalom windsurfers, windsurfers with wave gear and wingfoilers all mixing it up.

Dinner tasted delicious after an action packed day, and everyone retired to bed reasonably early in anticipation of another good day.

Friday, the first official day of our Surfari delivered lighter winds – so it was all about foiling and the big slalom gear! Joe was blasting on his slalom gear, Julius took the windfoil out and the rest of us tried their luck winging. It was great having more advanced wingfoilers who could give advice to those in their earlier learning stages, swapping gear and helping each other out. Big thanks again to Richard who talked me into trying his small board – now I need one! It was so much fun!

Unfortunately on Saturday and Sunday the wind didn’t come through enough. Might as well, as everyone was reasonably tired from 2 stunning days on the water! We went for some stunning beach walks in and had lunch in Maitai Bay, one of the jewels in the crown of the Karikari Peninsula.

Our second winter Surfari in mid July was a record breaking one regarding a few things: We had guests from all over the country (Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Wanaka) with a lot of different toys (Wingfoil, Windfoil, Windsurf, Kitefoil, Kite, Pronefoil). Yes, they took us serious when we said: Bring all your toys! And I believe, all the toys did get wet. Friday started off with some prone foiling in Tokerau for Greg while the rest of us enjoyed the show. It was a stunner of a day. After lunch, the wind came in and we moved over to Rangiputa. Perfect foiling conditions for all of us! Graeme tried the windfoil, Tom wizzed around on his kitefoil, and the rest of us splashed inbetween with the wings. Not entirely true: Greg was not splashing too much. Gavin rigged his new sail and was hoping for just that little bit more wind to take it out.

Saturday the wind started rather light, but come lunch time we had some good gusts come through. They made everyone scramble for smaller kit and ditch the foils.

It proved again, that it doesn’t matter what you are riding, as long as you have fun. Do it all, keep your options open.

Check out our latest Surfari Trips to Northland.

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