Surfing with the Dolphins of Curio Bay, New Zealand

A giant wall of water crashes onto the rock plateau and with it comes.......a penguin. But this is no ordinary penguin and these are no ordinary rocks. In fact very little about Curio Bay, which sits right at the bottom of New Zealand's South Island, can be described as commonplace.

At nights, cosied up in my van nestled among the flax, I can literally feel the ground beneath me tremble as the might of the Southern Ocean, travelling all the way from the Antarctic, expends her force on these rocky shores. 

180 million years ago those rocks were a vast forested area - part of the super-continent known as Gondwana. Cataclysmic floods of volcanic debris buried the forest at least four times over but actually it is still here. Twice a day, at low tide, you can see it for yourself. But today that forest is made of stone – a petrified forest of stumps and trees so full of detail that sometimes you have to touch them to be sure they are indeed rock and not wood.

As dusk settles over the land rare yellow-eyed penguins hop ashore before shuffling through the fossilised forest to their nests. To my eyes they look just like weary little old men in raincoats. They are shy and easily spooked but a viewing platform provides the perfect view without intrusion. The hours I have spent here are not always rewarded with penguins but to my mind the prize, when it comes, is worth many, many hours of waiting.The pounding ocean, the ancient forest, the penguins – this is nature in all its primeval rawness. It is both awe-inspiring and humbling.

But the extraordinary nature of this place doesn't end here. In the sheltered waters of Porpoise Bay, on the other side of my camping headland, live the world’s smallest and rarest marine cetaceans – the Hector's Dolphin. I've been told this species doesn't make the spectacular aerial leaps of other dolphin species.......I beg to differ. I have spent long, long hours – lost whole days in fact – watching these dolphins play, fish and cruise around and with leaps and spins of the spectacular variety most definitely included in the repertoire. There is something else too. These dolphins just LOVE to surf. If there is anything more wonderful than watching these tiny dolphins teach their even tinier rugby ball sized babies to surf I am yet to experience it.

I too have come to surf and from my own view point there are a few things in the minus column. The surf here can be heavy, hollow and unforgiving – this is big wave, tow-in surfers' territory for much of the time. Additionally, the waters here are frost-bite inducingly cold, patrolled by sea-lions which are most definitely not the cuddly creatures many think them to be and great white sharks call it home. This latter doesn't overly bother me. The waters off the coast of New Zealand are so rich in life that sharks are incredibly well fed and have no need to snack on humans. There hasn't been a fatal shark attack on the South Island since 1968.

Still, I suppose it is understandable that people should ask me why here is my favourite place on the entire planet – my favourite simply to be and my favourite to surf. Easy question - here's why........

Today I grab my board, squirm into a soggy wetsuit and jog down to the water's edge. Today, although I don’t know it yet, the most special moments of my life are about to be handed to me on a plate. 

I take off on a wave with the full knowledge - just a second too late - that it is beyond my skill level and a serious dunking is inevitable. Against all the odds I get to my feet at the exact same moment I realise at least 3 dolphins are sharing the wave with me. Their elegant, effortless weaving inside the wave makes me look and feel like a complete amateur. It must be only split seconds before the dolphins leap in a graceful arc from the wave's back but, as with all of life's most heart-stopping moments, time seems to hang.......and hang.

I don't want to attempt to describe how I felt, even if it was possible. This moment was mine – I don't want to share. The dolphins' timely exit corresponded exactly with the moment where, as predicted, I took my icy crash. Oddly, I didn't feel a thing.

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