It gets the southern winter swells from the Southern Ocean and these wrap nicely onto the east coast of Australia but they blast the west coast of New Zealand.
See the approaching swell for this area in the model at:
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves
The wave period is a measure of the quality of the wave and how far it has travelled:
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/viewer The wind is also a factor so it is a good idea to look at this:
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/viewer.shtml
