Launched in 2020, Hydro Surf Safaris is our vehicle to share the special place that we call home through guided surf tours. We wanted to offer a unique experience that was removed from the standard surf trip of palm trees & tiki torches. Cold water & wild weather is not for everyone but it creates beautiful landscapes, epic waves & keeps the crowds down.

New Zealand, especially the South Island can be a difficult place to navigate. What looks like a short trip from A to B on a map can turn out to be a half day mission through a labyrinth of dusty backroads. Knowing this land & sea like the back of our hands, our goal is to share our hard earned knowledge to ensure visitors leave this place with a smile, having enjoyed the best New Zealand surf tour possible.

Over the past 90+ years thousands have enjoyed The Hydro. In the 20’s as The Hydro Grand Hotel, stylish dine and dance parties and weddings at the Hydro Tearooms in the 30’s & 40’s, then courting and chocolate sundaes at the Kandlight Coffee Lounge during the 60’s and 70’s.

Purchasing the building in 1985, we opened Hydro Surf Shop, Dunedin’s first surf shop. Today the building stands fully restored and boasts not only the surf shop, but Dunedin’s finest Italian Restaurant, The Esplanade, and the magnificent ever popular Hydro Esplanade Apartments, for vacations overlooking the sea. Our Apartments are the perfect surf accommodation for surfers traveling through New Zealand’s South Island, right on the beach at St Clair.

Don't worry if you can't bring your own surf equipment! Our Hydro surf shop can offer the best rental surf gear available to cover all you needs. We have rental surfboards to suit beginner surfers in small waves, all the way to surfboards for high performance surfers tackling large swells. Plus you can swap boards when the surf conditions change.

Wetsuit hire is available too. We’ll make sure you hire the right wetsuit and wetsuit accessories for the water temperature at any given time of the year.