week 2 - making great progress

Day 7: 14/12/14- 30km

After waking up at 5, the dumpers were mad! big big waves slamming onto the gravell steep beech! kind of made us feel sick looking at them! the weather was good, but the southerly swell from the previous days had bough bad dumpers. If we could eventaually get out through them we could make distance. The slightest error in launching would result in a pounding on thhe gravel by a 8 foot wave! this would be hrrible and stuff could get broken!! we decided to wait for a bit and see if it eased.

As we were waiting ur stove broke dammit!!!! Texting a local man called Dave Cook for possible help, he came to our rescue on his quad bike and kindly took us to his house not far away. Him and his wife were so kind to us and gave us his stove for the remainder of our expedition ... something that has helped us out a lot!!!! They then drove us into town to a shop so we could restock our food supplys. They then very kindly bought us a full cooked breakfast at a cafe!!!!! These people are so nice wr ate very very gratefull for their help!

Anyway, later that day, the dumpers were still thumping down big and hard, but had eased a bit!! We decided to go for it!!! Dave and his wife helped us launch with a push through the waves and whoooo we were off!!! A 30km afternoon paddle was good!!! We eventually landed on a beech (mostly successfully!) at about 7.30pm! Felt great to be on the go again!!!

(Fi)

Day 8: 15/12/14- 65km

we woke up at our standard 5am times ready to get onto the sea by 7:30 after some incredibly dull porrige. We set out through the dumpers and today was my turn for a easy push exit which went off fine. Fi set off after me but sadly timed it slightly wrong and had no time to put her deck on and by the time she reached the back her kayak was swamped. so we had a long old pumping session then set off!

The sea was slightly choppy so i decided to give Fi some space, as I paddled I saw a big fin very close to my boat. I instently thought shark and started worring knowing being in a group is the best defence against attack so started pooping myself a little. Next thing I knew a killer whale surfeced right next to boat closer enough to touch. I saw the white around his eyes and could feel the puff of spray from his blow hole, he was then gone back to the deep. I shouted "FI ITS A F*****G KILLER WHALE!" and paddled as fast as i could towards Fi and told her the whole story, wondering if she actullay belived me! 5 mins later Fi shouted "Killer whale". next thing we knew there were killer whales all around us a whole family unit with big ones smaller ones and even a bady one following its mum! These whales were within 20m and were rolling out of the sea like you see ona david attenbough tv programme.

the rest off the day was very uneventfull still strugalling through the dull canterbury bite area of endless gravel beaches and dumping surf. We got our heads down and made excelent distence and made it to just outside of timaru.

Amazing day

(james)

Day 9: 16/12/14 -50km

On the water early this morning, the most successul launch so far through the dumpers. The mist was thick, visibility maybe 50m at times. It felt pretty cool. We paddled on and stopped by a bunch of houses at the south end of Timaru. Here we met sme locals interested in our trip and filled up our water supplys. Back on the water, rounding the headlands the scenery got slightly more interesting with sandy cliffs along the coast! The water was brught blue and it was a hot hot day! felt tropical! We saw penguins on the beech and by our kayaks, pretty cool! Eventually, we landed with ease through the dumpers by a river .... after a long day where we jumped in for a refreshing swim!! succesful day!

(fi)

Day 10: 17/12/14- 45km

The weather forcast was 30 knots NE with sea becoming rough, so we spent a while in the morning debating if we should go or stay. The sea looked calm but there were signs of grim weather coming. we though we could risk it and then land straight away if it started looking dogey! We set off and paddled hard and were hitting roughly 7km per hour, which with a fully laden kayak was pretty good. We saw the town omaru and felt amazing!!! the end of the gravel dumping beaches!! we made it across and landed on bushy beach. we got changed set up camp and though lets treat our selves to fish and chips and walk into town, as we made it up the hill and then we noticed a sign saying "penguin nesting spot, no people on beach between 3pm-9am. :l we ran down the beach and had to dekit quickly and put back on wet clothes and set off again. we only paddled for a small time then landed again and cooked dinner on a fire and went to bed!

(james)

Day 11 18/12/14 - 50km

we shoved a guesome bowl of porridge down and launched through small surf (that was actually bigger than we thought!). both getting dreched by 3 breaking waves a lovely starrt to the day! the map and case got ripped off the deck! meaning we had to guess where we were all day oh well! the foreast was 15knot southerly all day, our first headwind for a while! it wasnt too bad though and we made good progress still. The scenery was now big rocky cliffs all down the coast and was awesome!!! round every headland a reef extended out to sea, with big rolling waves breaking ... we gave them all a wide birth! it was all prett cool.

Crossing about 13km across a bay to shag point a southerly swell started to roll in, colliding with the northely swell crating steep and confused waves. shortly after as we were about halfway across the way the southely immediatly picked up to 20-25knots!! this was hard to paddle into and the confused seas made it harder! anyway our heads went down and we plugged on and eventually reached shag point! a bigg reef extended here with crashing waves we pumped into the southerly a while out to give it a wide birth. the swell was bigger and more confused round here. Occasionally rising on top of the choppy waves we were able to get glimpses of where the reefs were and paddle the right way. we got round and found our planned campspot for the day on the beech behind it. Paddling in behind some steep breaking waves we landed at an amazing campspot!! Big cliffs surrounded it on the north side and a huge estuary was begind us, on a lovely sandy beech. it was really beutiful!

a quick swim in the estary, we set up camp, cooked food on a fire and chilled out with a beitiful sunset. happy days!!

(fi)

Day 12,13,14- 19/12/14- 30km

we woke up stiff and tired, but got on and paddled through as we knew that we were staying in Dunedin at some people called Jilli and lukes place, so the thought of a shower spured us on. we got on and the mist was everywhere and the views (that you could see) was amazing. apart from a cheecky fur seal who played around my boat the day was pretty uneventful. we arrived in doctors bay and met Jilli and loaded up our kayaked on her car roof using foam and a slack line and cleaned off our kit then chilled with a cracking beer home brewed by luke himself! we have also been treated to amazing food such has own caught seafood and bbqed chicken. so have spent the last couple of day sorting as a ba`d weather day flys over then early bird start toromorow as we could be in the fiords by new years if we get moving!