Surfing and Windsurfing in NZ

You can pretty much go surfing and windsurfing anywhere in NZ. New Zealand is a very windy country and has a great deal of shoreline. Anywhere you go along the coast will almost certainly have plenty of places to surf nearby.

If you’re really in to surfing and like big waves then a good place to go is Wellington. If you go surfing in Cook Strait (Wellington is on it), you will certainly find waves, big time (the wind exceeds 60 km/h on over half the days of the year in Wellington and exceeds 90 km/h on one out of every six or seven days of the year - and Wellington is sheltered - Cook Strait is worse). You should only try Cook Strait if you are very resistant to motion sickness.

If you want milder surfing conditions, try Eastbourne (a Wellington suburb on the harbor that Wellington is on - it borders both Cook Strait and Wellington harbor).

According to windsurfing experts, Dunedin Harbour is awesome for windsurfing. It tends to have a steady breeze most of the time, and it’s great if you like to go fast.

There is a book written by Wayne Warwicke called “Surfriding in New Zealand” in it’s 4th edition, which lists about 327 surfing spots in the North and South islands of New Zealand. It is no longer published, but you should still be able to get a used copy.