Farwell spit to Sumner (THE FINAL LEG!)

So we're finally getting round to writing up this final section, the final leg.

We got stuck on farewell spit with 3 days of southerly gales (and they really were gales!) the sea was a mess of whitecaps!

Our only water supply was a slow drop of water coming out of the cliffs from fossil point, taking a good couple of hours to fill the bottles! So our days were spent sat by the drop of water reading books in the heat. could have been better! WEe did manage to go for a few walks up over the hills and cliffs for some amazing views.

Eventually the weather seemed to be easing, we jumped into our boats out through the small surf and paddled into a slightly annoying 15knot headwind to the end of the spit. We timed it perfectly, reaching the end of the spit bang on high tide (meaning we saved a good amount of kilomenters off the journey than if we arrived at low tide!). we surfed accross the sandbanks and started crossing to abel tasman national park. the wind dropped right off as we crossed the calm sea, and we arrived at a lovely beech just south of seperation point late that eveening! being a popular touristy area, we found 'no camping signs' everywhere and a rather expensive campsite by the beech (out of our tight price range sadly!) so we slept out on the beech in just sleeping bags that night not wanting to draw attention to ourselves. It was a beuitiful clear starry night ad we even saw a shooting star!

The next morning we were up and on the sea nice and early. the easiest launch of the trip so far! a 2 inch surf!!! the day was hot! we paddled passed lots of big double yellow kayaks with mostly aisian tourists inside. it was weird, as we havent encountered many boats at all on the new zealand sea, definitely no kayaks! and here were hundreds of them!! a nice tail wind picked up and we landed early afternoon at motuaka. we needed to resupply here, and it was the day before jmames birthday so we got a pizza and beer!

the forecast was good for the next day with a 20knot southerly picking up late aternoon/early evening. we decided to take a gamble and bypass the nelson area crossing straight to peppin island (saving over a day of paddling). if the 20knot southerly came in early it would not have been good!!! and it it picked up more than 20knots it would have been terrible!!! but we took the gamble, getting on the water in the dark to beat it .. and arrived safely at peppi island early afternoon thankfully. we paddled to a small beech just before okains bay.

the forecast for the next few days was bad, especially bad on the first day (30knot southerlys!) no thanks! we had a rest day .. it was hot really hot and we spent a lot of time swimming in the sea.

the next day the winds were 25knot southerly. not ideal, but we would we sheltered fr most of the day if we hugged the land with the odd open crossing. the wind was doing some crazy things, it would be calm then all of a sudden strong gusts would be whipping round the island inj every direction. we made it to french pass just after slackwater as the tide had turned and paddled throgh without too much effort. However, when we got round the corner the brute force of the strong southerly hit us in the face!!! we battled the 1km to a landing at french pass ... continuouing into winds like this would have been mad! so we pulled up early that night .... and found a doc campsite that had a shower!! happy days!

the winds were due to ease to 20knots the next day (still not exactly ideal!) anyway we thought we'd go for it and see how it goes. The day consisted of short 6km crossings of the bays in the malborough sonds, with the 20knot wind blowing out ... a short rest at the headland then the same again! we did this untill we got to jacksons head, where finally the wind was too much to do the next 15km crossing. we paddled with difficulty (wind and tide against us!) down the south side of cape jackson, hoping to find a small place in one of the bays. we paddled into a small boat harbour at admirality bay ... where a lovely man owing a tourist business put us up for the night.

finally the nexty day was good weather forecast, even a northely in the afternoon. We got on eaerly and paddled towards the white cliffs straight across the 15km bay. from here a nice 15 to 20knot northely wind was behind us, as we started crossing to cape capmpbell. Not long after we stared crossing the wind really picked up much above the forecast 20knots! the sea was breaking everywhere (luckily there wasnt much swell of it could have been intersting!) anyway we hung on and had a wild ride to capecampbell (our speed was 7-8km an hour!) getting here, my back had pulled something badly bracing into the strong winds and waves, so we gt off the water early. our paddles flew across the beech. we looked behind us and the sea was white!!! we looked at each other and said "were we really just paddling in that!?"

the next day the winds had calmed and we had a long day paddling to clarence river mouth. not much happened this day, it was calm and we were tired! landing through some small dumpers, but onto big rocks wasnt the nicest way to finish the day.

good weather again, we pushed on a small day to kaikora arriving about midday. lots of dusky dolphins followed us through the day and flipped and cartsheeled alongside us it was awesome. we were tired .... we ate fish and chips and drank beer on the beech, not wanting to do much else!

my bad back declared a rest day the next day, where we restocked food and relaxed on the beech. the weather forecast gave us 3 more days of good weather and then some real strong southerly gales that would hold us for a long time. we decided we were guna have to paddle fast as we did not want to get stuck 1 day before the finish line!!!

the netx day we got up in the dark as it was hammering rain. just as we were about to launch we heard rumbles of thunder! bugger! we waited the thunder out and then were off. visibilty was very poor, and we crossed from kaikora head with niot much to go off, but we got there niecly. at this pint by back was real sore! ive had a couple of back injuries before, and had obviously just set something off in my back. i was in a hell of a lot of pain and every stroke was sending shooting pains down me. i was nt happy. james did a great job at motivatng me though and was very patient .... despite laughing at me as a sat there crying for chocolate at one point!

anyway we made a good 50something km day just short of gore bay.

the nexy day, an easy launch through small dumpers, i was dosed up on all kinds of painkillers and read to go feeling determined. we had a big day to amberly beech with a fantastic noreasterly wind helping us along greatly! we landed through medium surf and set up camp ... for the last time!!!!

the final day!!! we were very motivated and got up at 5am with ease! today wsa it we were finally guna finish!!

we launched through the medium surf nicely and off we paddled! a lovely northerly wind helping us down all the way. before we knew it, we were already at new brighton pier with the finish line in sight 6km away! the wind had changed more side on... and even changed almost into a head wind (maybe rebounding off banks peninsular or something!) we sped down the coast, the fasted we have paddled all trip .... and finally headed round the surf and landed at the sumner lifeboat startion , the place we set off almost 80 days go, a complete adventure, not knowing what was gunna happen .

and that was it ....

MISSION COMPLETE!!!!!!!