Big Bay New Zealand
Cost: Anything from $200 to $2500 depending on whether you want to walk, fly or chopper into and out of Big Bay
Accommodation:
Doc Hut $5 per night or free if you have a backcountry pass.
Camping.
Best to stay in DOC hut though because there are a huge amount of sandflies.
There are several options for getting to Big Bay:
Walking for 4 days down the Hollyford track, round martins bay and into big bay (free)!
-Fly in ($700 for four people) and then walk out.
-Flying both ways ($1400 return for 4 people)
-Helicopter both ways approx ($1200 one way)
Big bay is located on the south western side of the south island and is one of the most isolated parts of New Zealand. Hence, there are no people. As far as surf goes there are always waves and to get the right conditions it is more of a case of waiting for things to calm down and the winds to go off shore. As far as a plan of attack the best thing to do in my opinion is the following:
- Have a window of when you would like to go
- Wait until you have a forecast for light winds, or SE to NE winds.
- Get you and three mates booked on a plane.
- Plan to stay in the DOC hut at Big Bay.
- Take enough food - Take plenty of insect repellent
- Organise for the plane to pick you up right before the weather goes shit.
When we were there we surfed an A frame peak called ‘orchards’ that was located 200m up on the north side of the bay, it seemed to be a bit of swell magnet. There was also a short fun right hander about 100m further up the north side of the bay. There seemed to be more potential further up as well but the swell was not big enough to light anything up ……………………………. Who knows????