week 3! a quarter of the trip done!

Day 15 - 22nd december -

After 2 days resting and eating in Dunedin we were psyched to get going again! We had an absolutely awesome paddle round the peninsula with some really cool cliffs all around! we surfed into the beach just afterwards to camp. The surf picked up a lot as low tide came in and we spent the evening wathcing the surfers out at play. Just before bed a surfer warned us the tide might rise a fair old bit tonight and get near our tent!!! We made the decision to brave it rather than move it up on the stones! i had nightmares about our tent been flooded but we were all good!!

Day 16 - 23/12 calm calm conditions we crossed for about 5 hours to the headland in the distance. It was boring and long!!! We then followed the rocky outcrops around to a long sandy beach. The wind suddenly picked up and we were hooning with a 20 - 25know tail wind! eventually tired not wanting to overdo it we landed on a sandy and WINDY beach!

Day 17 24/12- no winds again! we crossed al the way to nugget point! the crossing was boring, but when we got to nugget point the scenery was FANTASTIC! HUGE CLIFFS AND CAVES! awesome!!! best part so far!!! we really enjoyed paddling close to the cliffs and through some arches! We then crossed from headland to headland, and as we were crossing one headland we noticed a THICK grey cloud hooning across the sea towards us! 'uh oh whats this!!?' we thought!! It was a thick fog that suddenly engulfed us as soon as we reached the headland! good timing, would have been scary out at sea in thick fog! we followed the cliffs real close as visibility was poor (like 5 meters!) eventualy we decided we werent making much progress having to follow every inch of coastline in and out, so found a cool beach to puul up on and ddecided to save energy for tomorrow and hey it was xmas eve!! we chilled out with an xmas eve beer watching the seals play that evening.

Day 18 - xmas day!!

cool scenery all day with a few crossings!!! as rounding one headland the wind picked up from 10nots to about 25knots! creating some pretty choppy seas! it was great to have some chop after so much flat we enjoyed it!!! we flew with the wind and eventually landed on a long totally remote sandy beach! As i was putting the tent up, james was shouting at me!! i couldnt make out what he was shouting over the surf and the wind, so i ignorned him. He carried on shouting, and pointing .... what is he on about i thought, restlting with the windy tent! I turned around where he was pointing and oh my god a HUGE sea lion was coming out of the sea just behind me roaring at me!!! i may have pooed myself a little bit!!! this thing was huge and scary!!!! i gave him lots of space!!! eventually he went to sleep and got over us been there, ocassionally getting up to look at us if we got too close!! We chilled out with a couple of beers! XMAS DSy and we are a quarter through whoo!

Day 19 - a long old crossing to bluff!!!! the wind picked up pretty strong!!!! we got there though 63 km later!! resting at Taras house and a shower is ace!!

We now have some hard hard months ahead of us! The ffiordland coast and the narly west coast surf! no blog updates for a while sadly!! this is going to be the hardest part of the trip for sure!