Blogs

With all the negative hype surrounding Japan at the moment, and possibly a lot more to come, I thought it might be time to take a look at some of her remaining beauty. For surfers, avoid Fukushima and surrounds like the plague, but if you like the idea of heading a little south and further offshore than rock-bottom ticket air ticket sales to the island nation will surely attract your attention.

I’m calling this blog series ‘Journey Japan’, and will do a succession of posts relating to safer surf travel destinations in the South. Remember the Fukushima situation is one that will take years to contain, so please travel safe and use this only as a guide. At the end of the day, trust in your own instincts and don’t go anywhere you feel might not be safe.

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No matter what your personal taste and budget New Zealand will have a camp site to suit. Listing the 'best of' anything will always be subjective as individually what we seek varies but I personally use the following criteria to decide:

• it must be somewhere beautiful
• it must be cheap
• there must be surf immediately accessible or nearby
• it must be uncrowded

The Best Two

In my book there are 2 camp sites which far surpass any others in New Zealand. They tick all my criteria boxes and then add a great deal extra; in both cases offering something that can't be found anywhere else in the country. One is way up north on the North Island and the other is as far south as you can go on the South Island.

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Here and happy in Byron Bay healing town. My one-year-old son Ryder and I together with friend Tomo and her two kids escaped wintery Japan just in the nick of time with the barometer dropping low as we were boarding the plane to sunny Australia a few weeks ago.

To my surprise the usually humid climate of Australia's east coast had copped three months of solid rain prior to our arrival but the clouds literally fled the morning we drove into the bustling surf town providing us with welcoming clear blue skies and steamy sunbeams.

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