Sea Kayak

At last the sea kayaking. The troops and kit were all piled into water taxis and we set off for our destination, Onetahuti. Our group of six was Hazel and I, Dave and Holly, Molly and Max with Stephan our guide. After some basic training we were in the water and off. Given the rains of the day before we were spoilt with glorious sunshine and a light breeze. After a while to get used to the synchronised paddling and steering with a rudder we landed on a beach for lunch. After lunch we rode the tide up a couple of estuaries (Bark Bay and Sandfly Bay). A neat trick was the water temperature. Put your hand into the surface water and the fresh snow melt stream was freezing. Put your hand deeper and the salt water sea was warm in comparison. The fresh water flowed over the sea! Raise your arm over your head to paddle and the freezing water trapped in your sleeve runs down your arm and back! The paddle into (and even more so out) of each estuary was fun, there was just a small channel left open as the tide fell with a strong current flowing out. Getting the correct line was important, lucky we’d got some practise at controlling the kayaks by then.
After landing and pitching camp at Bark Bay for the evening four of us walked back to the bridge over the estuary at Sandfly Bay that we had seen earlier in the day (about a 40min round trip). Max and Molly did their own walk (newlyweds). We were surprised to see that without the tide we couldn’t have paddled up the estuary at all. It was clogged with fallen trees which had earlier been just vague shapes underwater.  Also the people we were laughing at wobbling across the bridge high above the estuary did have a reason to look frightened. Camping in style the meal was a Thai curry in both meat and vegetarian variants with wine, beer and a fruit chocolate fondue for dessert. Thankfully by sunset the sand flies went to bed and also did us.