Drew Brophy - Surf Lifestyle Artist» raglan

NZ Travel Log 0308 – Big Waves and a Happy Birthday!

Maria "Spunk" Brophy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:44:17 +0000

The Waves Came – and they were BIG. Just in time for Drew’s 38th birthday. His first surf at Indicators was super – the waves were triple overhead and FAST. He was having the best surf of the trip, until…..

Whale Bay

Indicators Point

His fins broke out of his board. To get his other board out of the van would be another hour, due to the required hike around the point. So he waited until later, and paddled back out for the evening session – on his brand new, never been waxed Ron House 6’8” gun.

Drew surfed for hours and caught some of the longest waves he may have ever ridden – one was about a quarter mile. Eager to catch one last bomb before calling it a day, he hiked the point once again, jumped into the pumping waves, and hit a rock – and broke out yet another fin box.

Now out of surfboards, and with the swell picking up even more, we were in trouble. It was about 8:30 at night, and surf shops in Raglan don’t open until after 9:00 the next day, which means he’d miss the morning session, the best of the day.

Wiggs painting Drew's new Board

Then we got lucky. We drove through the lot to check the waves at Manu Bay and ran into Craig Hughes, owner of Raglan Surf Co. He was loading up his wife & kids after a surf when we saw him. Being the generous Kiwi he is, he offered to take Drew to his shop then & there to pick out a new board. It’s so nice to know cool people!

For Drew’s Birthday, he bought himself a new Craig Hughes T&C board and caught more great surf the next morning, which happened to be his birthday. What added to the magic of this surf spot is that Drew met a few different people in the surf who had bought his video and paint pens. One was a young Frenchman name Moc, who shamelessly admitted that he’s been copying Drew’s art since he was 12 years old. The other was an older surfer visiting from Oz who just bought the paint pen kit online about 6 weeks ago. Our world just gets smaller and smaller…..

Bridal Veil Falls

Another fun thing in Raglan was hiking to Bridal Veil Falls. We love the rainforest treks, where you can be hot as hell one minute, walk into the forest shade and be cold, then rain will come, then sun again. One Kiwi explained their weather like this: “We get all four seasons in a day here, Mate!”

We leave for Auckland today. Raglan’s been good to us – we know half the town now and we’ve made great friends. For the next two days, instead of surf we’ll be enjoying city life. It will be a nice change!

Drew and Wiggs at Falls

Wiggs looking at Drew's painting in Raglan Surf Co

Entry to big waves

The "road" to getting boards repaired

Drew's Birthday Dinner in Raglan

Life is Good – Drew and His Crew xxoo

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NZ Travel Log 0305 – Shipwreck Bay and Wallyworld

Maria "Spunk" Brophy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:40:21 +0000

Remember the movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation” with Chevy Chase? They drove days and days to get to the famed Wallyworld for their big yearly vacation. They traveled through bad weather, survived car trouble and even Aunt Edna’s death, only to find that Wallyworld was closed – and a big disappointment.

Here is our NZ equivalent of Wallyworld: Wiggs was so excited to go to the well advertised Hot Spring Pools and Waterslides. The brochure pictures kids having fun on water bumper cars and big slides.

We drove hours in pitch blackness through country roads, all night long. Drew wanted Wiggs to wake up to this wonderland of fun, so we free-camped in a turnout across the road with a plan that when the gates opened, we’d be ready. And when the sun came up – well, we found

False Advertising!

WALLYWORLD! It looked nothing like the brochure! An old inn-

The real deal!

keeper that has worked one too many years grumpily took our money. We pulled into a run-down, abandoned theme park with about 6 people present, all over the age of 80. The wind was howling and it was cold, which added to the ominous feeling.

Not easily daunted, and in typical Brophy fashion, we put on our swimsuits and jumped in. Wiggs didn’t know the difference – to him, it was the most fun he’d had all month!

SHIPWRECK BAY: Prior to our Wallyworld pilgrimage, we were in the Northland at Shipwreck Bay. Famed for its long left hand waves that wrap around the point, its beauty was stunning.

The coolest thing about Shipwreck Bay is that you can actually drive around the point, if you dare. There is no road, just a beautiful, rocky point that wraps around and leads to uncharted lands on the other side. We drove a short distance on the point, until we hit a large rocky outcrop, and decided to stop there because: A) We were almost out of fuel and B) it looked like we needed a 4-wheel drive. It would suck getting stuck out there……

Shipwreck Bay has great waves, so we hear (it was flat for us). There were more pigs on the beach than there were waves.

Pigs on beach at Shipwreck Bay

With lack of waves, we did some paddle boarding in the warm, crystal clear water. Wigg’s even tried a little paddle boarding, too.

IS IT THE END OF THE DUMMY RUN?

We are now heading back to Raglan, where we know there are waves. And maybe we should have stayed there all along, but hey, then we wouldn’t have seen all that we’ve seen, eh? At this point, we feel we know the North Island like the back of our hands.

And we hope that this is the end of the Dummy Run.

Thanks for all your surf prayers – A huge swell is expected – just in time for Drew’s Birthday (March 8th). Let’s hope it delivers!

Wiggs found a piece of shipwreck!

Kauri Coast Lookout

Life is Good – Spunk and Drew & Wiggss xxoo

Paddleboarding in flat spells.....

PS: Follow Spunk on Twitter for more updates

PPS: Read Post titled “Don’t hate me because I’m American”.

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NZ Travel Log 0214 – Raglan and Valentines Day

Maria "Spunk" Brophy — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:59:46 +0000

It’s Valentine’s Day, but we forgot about it. That kind of thing usually happens when we travel – a few years back we were in Australia and forgot that it was Easter. Luckily, Becca, the cool chick we were staying with in Sydney, remembered and she hid a bunch of chocolate eggs for Wiggs, who was 4 at the time, all over her house. Thank God someone was thinking!

Our little piece of dirt in Raglan!

We’ve been in Raglan for 3 days now – been staying at Solscape, a lovely spot high up, overlooking Raglan Point. Drew is exhausted from getting too many 300 yard rides (lefts, mind you)! He’s been alternating between his MR Fish and his paddleboard. Wiggs’ been inventing computer hard drive technology, and I’ve been writing and reading a book titled SETTLE FOR EXCELLENCE.

Notable items:

The rain has come & gone, Drew sliced his foot up on rocks, and we’ve been camping out at Raglan Point surf spot all day.

We surf, make coffee, make lunch, relax, surf some more, make Wiggs do his school work, then drink some wine. Oh, and we take pictures for these posts!

We found bum-luck-egypt!

One really cool thing we did – drive a windy, gravel road on death-defying cliffs to a black sand beach with huge waves, surrounded by hills and nothing else.

BUT – It’s not all fun & games – tomorrow we work. Raglan Surf Co. will have Drew doing a painting demonstration. They told me they’ve been getting phone calls all week from groms wanting to come see him! It’s good to know that some people will show up.

Raglan Point - Loooong Lefts!

Hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day – we are a day ahead, so I think those of you in the states will be celebrating V Day tomorrow.

Life is Good – Drew & Maria xxoo (oh, and The Wigg)

“Life is Either A Daring Adventure, or Nothing.” Helen Keller

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