bluff to milford

Leaving bluff we were excited to get round the south of the island and enter the ffiordland part. However, we were plauged by strong westerly winds and it took a lot longer than expected!! Heres what happened:

Leaving bluff we found ourselves paddling into a 20knot westerly wind, after a while the tide turned and at least the tide gave us some assistance. The sea was fairly rough and rounding the headlands we had to give everything a wide birth to avoid bog breakers! Approaching one headland, we could see masses of whitecaps extending out to sea far away, we started paddling out round them, and as we got closer realized it wasn't a reef causing this, it was the sea going mad! wind, swell and tide were all colliding causing the maddest sea either of us have ever experienced!! waves were crashing at each other from all directions making it actually pretty hard to stay upright! we perservered kept paddling and got through the worst of it. On rounding the final headland between omaui island, we were discouraged to see a mass of BIG waves breaking for what seemed like ever towards the beech! we paddled closer and guiessed it was the river bar causing this mess. we paddled to a sheltered beech on the eastern side for and easy landing to camp.

The next day we had to pretty much paddle back 2km to omaiu island to get round the big breakers! eventually round we crossed straight to riverton, we paddled round to the south side away from roads and houses and got ready to land through some munch surf. After a big set passed we paddled hard into the beach ... then uh oh here comes the first wave of the next set!!! it was ready to break! i instinctively backpaddled hard, just popping through the back of it and james instivtively forward paddled like mad hoping the white part wouldnt be as bad! i paddled foreward like mad after the wave broke to escape the breaking part of the next wave. as i followed the wave in, the beech seemed a long way... DOWN. uh oh there was a line of BIG DUMPERS!!! i was right behind one so paddled in like mad to get to the beech!! the next wave was rearing uyp behind me and BOOOOM it crashed, luckily i was beyond the death zone .. i sidesurfed the white mess into the beech. dragged my boat up. me and james found ourselves laughing as we turned around and looked at the surf (a huge roaring boat and body breaking set was now coming in!!).

strong winds meant we had to wait a few days.

we then got going, only to get stuck again on a tiny stony beech with a dead whale! the weather was bad for 3 days making crossing tewaiwai bay impossible! however a stroke of good luck, belinda and stanley mulvany who followed our spot came to find us in the motor home bringing us food! it was fantastic!!!!

the weather improved enough for us to cross tewaiwai bay to port craig. the winds were calm but the swell was pretty big!! rounding the rocky section beforehand the swell would occasionally cause big freak breakers to erupt randomly!!! we saw sharks round here again, they always shit us up a bit! not our favourite animal!

crossing tewaiwai bay went well, we went fairly close to shore halfway through as the winds were due to pick up so we thought we would cloise in just incase we needed to land, the big swell was causing huge surf (i reckon 15foot+) to pound the shore heavily way offshore. we realized we had to make it to port craig, there was no way we could land through this kind of surf!! eventually we got pretty close, then the westerly wind picked up strong!! making the last 2 hours a real slog but we made it!

we waited in port craig for 3 days with strong westerly winds making it impossible to get into firdland! it wasn't too bad, we did some walking round the area, caught paua, and chileld out, meeting lots of cool people. eventually we got bored waiting ... a 20knot westerly was forecastm, but where we were the seas seemd dead calm so we decided to give it a bash. But as soon as we got out of the bay round teh first headland the winds hit us face on!!! we paddled as hard as we could but barley made any distance so decided to land at sandhill beech through some medium (but very windy and messy!) surf, decideing at least we were slightly closer! we both took one roll coming in but it was all good.

the next days forecast was encouraging we got on bashed through teh surf and gave it a go! bloody 20knot winds picked up as soon as we got out! battled into them for 2-3 hours making some distance knowing it would improve! and it did! the winds eased and we made good distance to green islets! for most of the day we were about 2km off shore to avoid the huge breakers on the reefs!

forecast good again the next day, with northerlies due to arrive in the evening. we rounded the notorious puysager point with great conditions!!! a spot renowned by any expediion paddlers and a very narly place! it is the south westernly point of the island and is exposed to all swell! we had a south easterly breeze and swell helping us go, and surf waves side by side past puysager point! it was an epic moment!! from here, conditions seemed great, not a sign of any bad weather, so we paddled on the open sea all the way to chalkey island. Here we crossed to the next land hoping to make it up to dusky that eveniing before the einds came... and a 15knot NE started blowing. we decdied to pull into landing bay as this must be the start of the northerlies. as we started paddling the 3km into landing bay the wind picked up to 'i dont know how many' knots!!1 it was blowing us out to sea!! we paddled as hard as we could into landing bay but lost sight of each other pretty quickly in the madness. the wind was so strong we could barley open our eyes paddling as the sea was spreying with the wind in our faces. we were paddling with every muscle in our body. between gustss seemed the oinly way to make any distance, and during gusts i think forward progress was nothing or backwards. it took us nearly 2 hours of serious survival paddling to get in and we were glad to reach land and eat lots of food! it taught us a serious lesson about the 'roaring forties' bnot to be taken lightly!.

3 days of strong northerlies we waited inlanding bay. no radio signal now so we were going off intuition, reading the clouds, and/or luck!

after 3 days the winds seemed have eased late morning so after a lie in we got on the sea and condfitions were good. there was a fair old swell but the winds were calm so we paddled well all the way to dusky sound. here we decided to go up the inside of resolution island for 2 reasons (1. its safer, and we have no weather forecats didnt want a repeat of last time ... 2. we wwanted to explore inside the fiords and get a different view). we paddled up the ancheron passage late evening with teh tide helping us, and rounded the corner towards dissapointment cove. it was an awesome moment with the sun setting behind the mountains as we paddled round the small island into it. we wont forget that moment! we found a cool doc hut to stay in for the night and slept WELL!

weather seemed good again so we were on the sea by 7am ready for another long day! we paddled up the exposed sea all the way to doubful. the whole way continuously scanning the sky for clues of weather chages (paranoid another roaring 40 storm was guna come!). but we were all good and made it to doubtful in good time. we then paddled up the inside of secretert island to the doc hut at the top. here we were amazed that we met our two friends Jilly and Luke who were out here on a sea kayaking holiday! even better,,, they had RUM and CHOCOLATE!!! we drank rum and ate chocolate and chatted till late catching up on each others stories till late that night! it was a great evening!!!

another good weather day, getting tired now but we pushed on hard again!!! paddling on another big day to a bay just before bligh sound. we were luck enough to meet some fisherman today who gave us the forecast of 2 days of good weather! we were happy we'd be able to get to millford by then!

leaving early morning whilst been eaten alive by the worst sandflys ever encountered! we were on our way on a flat calm sea to milford! there wasnt even a breath of wind today, eventually as we entered milford, the good old westerly wind picked up and helped us get into the sound!! here we met soem guys from roscos kayaks who gave us a bed for the next few nights! we ate lots of food and drank lots of beer to celebrate our progress up the coast!!