Sea Kayak Wilderness Adventure

Our final adventure was a 3 day sea kayaking camping in the wilderness trip in the Pelorus Sounds, part of

the beautiful Marlborough sounds.

We set of in 2 double fibreglass kayaks, all dressed in fetching, spray jackets and rubber skirts, with all our camping gear, food and dry clothes packed into the compartments - everything pared even more to the minimum!

The first day kayak teams were Barbara and Steve, Amy and Malcolm and Rob and Shona. We had a leisurely paddle across to a lunchtime stop where some of the compartments were reorganised.

 

 After this comfortable start - some of the team were raring to go again!

BUTTTTT - little did we know that the headwind and tide were now very much against us with a LONGGG way to go. After much hard paddling and some very near sense of humour failures (both Shona and Barbara resorted to counting paddle strokes in order to keep going!) We made it to our camp site at Jackson Bay.
PHEW!

After a restorative cup of tea and pitching the tents we set about camp cooking.

And all slept very well that night (except Amy who thought something was rustling in the canoes near her tent!)

Next day was a beautiful paddling day up to see if the place marked on the map as selling fuel also sold coffee - Shona was already getting a bit grumpy after 24hours without a flat white!

And lo and behold we found a wonderful lodge run by a German family where we had coffee, sausage sarnies chips and beer, before paddling home to our wee tents as very happy campers. The afternoon wind was now blowing us home!.

 A nice idea for old teapots!

We all felt so relaxed and happy we went for a very bracing swim!

After 2 nights in a camp site you can only reach by water, we had to head home, again it was a perfect day with the wind behind us and calm to start with. The teams had changed for this trip, Malcolm and Shona, Barbara and Steve and Amy with Rob.

We had lunch at the same beach as on the way out - this time much more experienced and stronger paddlers! (if a little more dishevelled and unkempt!)

One team however was not content to pootle back home oh no they decided to add some 'go faster' modifications to their kayak!

And yes it did work and yes they did beat us (Steve did put the rudder down too!)

All in all a superb Swallows and Amazons adventure.

'And so we say farewell'.
Our last couple of days of the South Island holiday sped past with a very rainy night in Havelock where we had a tasty meal of mussels at the Mussel Pot. Then a quick trip to Picton to put Rob on the ferry and back to the farm in Dannevirke, before the long run down to Christchurch via a couple of wine tastings in Blenheim and a very windy walk at Kaikoura, and finally spending the night in Christchurch jail.

Then it was farewell to the Gammans at Christchurch airport and we headed back up to Auckland.

What a holiday!