Picked up Dean then Luke and Duncan. We had to rearrange everything in the car due to the fact that I had brought my Parent's old but very stylish tent that weighs several tonnes and takes up the whole boot space.
Despite being well into the shitty part of the year (weather wise) it was fine and a nice drive. We stopped at a bottle store in Masterton and filled up any remaining space in the car with beer, port and Mississippi Moonshine which the friendly lady at the bottle store told us that a couple of her regulars swore by.
We looked around Castlepoint for a place to park. We shunned the pay-to-camp area ($8 each) and after some hunting around Dean found a sheltered spot in some pine trees close to Cove and the no-camping sign.
Getting the tent up turned into an epic. I hadn't brought any pegs (which never helps) and the tent was bent from the last time it was used (5-6yrs ago). However we are gods and we eventually erected our glorious Technicolor Pantheon.
Time to surf...
The Cove is surrounded by a low wall but for a 100m gap which allows an even swell to come through. You can skirt the waves on either side of the gap which makes paddling back through breaking surf unnecessary.
A 1-2m swell was coming though the gap when we eventually hit the water, the sun was shining and a vigorous but not cold, off-shore breeze made conditions agreeable.
Every now and again a set of 3 metre monsters would come through and you'd turn after chatting to someone and you'd see this fucking big wall of water screaming down on you and you'd know it was too late to run and there was no where to hide. A couple of times I got caught facing the shore but with no boat speed and I got picked up and thrown upside down then right side up and then upside down.. you get the idea. It ripped my skirt off too but I liked knowing that I had met a wave and even though it trashed me - it did no damage.
Luke and Dean got stuck in despite it being their first time. They both swam a bit and Dean put a wee hole in the nose of his boat somehow.
We caught the end of the rugby on the radio and then cooked tea, ate it, and started playing Dean's favourite drinking games.
After we had finished all the booze, Dean and I went for a wander up the hill while Duncan and Luke hit the hay. We went all the way to the top of this bluff and looked out and then got lost on the way back down. We found a patch of very bouncy grass which Dean bounced on and wanted to sleep on, but I was longing for the shelter of the tent that I had spent many happy nights in when I was young and so much time putting up.
We were gone two hours and looking back in the morning it seemed incredible that we made it back it all.
We were a little slow to get up the next morning and cooking sausages and eggs took quite a while.
After, we walked to a cave under the lighthouse where the water surges in from one side and pumps air out the other. We saw some sea lion pups and their angry mum as well.
We were sort of thinking about getting in the water, even though the swell was down but a southerly came up and that was that.
We stopped by the Hutt Gorge on our way back and it looked big, probably too big - as well as being late and cold.
Mark