46. Whangaroa Harbour – Lane Cove (CC1)

Tuesday, March 26: Sunny with a couple of clouds

Kayaking: 9.5 km

Lane Cove Cottage (Doc, $15)

We were all up at around 7:30 and I had everything together fairly quickly and had an opportunity to watch a bit of news on the telly.

Putting all of the stuff into the duffle bag/pack made it feel quite heavy, and it was not that easy to carry as a backpack. I was soon down at Anchorage Motel where we were being picked up from. The other two made an appearance fairly soon and that was followed by the kayakers. Then we were on the road to Kerikeri and Whangaroa Harbour.

Here I required one more dry bag and managed to get all of my stuff into the front compartment except for the gimbal and the wine. The common equipment fit into the back compartment with space to spare so that the gimbal fit in there fairly easily; the wine went in between my legs. Camera and GPS went into the pocket of the spray skirt. Around 11:00 we were ready to go.

We made our way across the bay. These boats were very much lower than the ones we had on the Whanganui. At some point I could see some fish fins near the shore and it turns out it was kahawai who hunt pipers. Magnus got out and tried to catch one but it got away. Could see a couple more of these as we went along, as they were making quite a splash.

Slide Show

We were at the hut pretty soon and the unloading of the boats could begin. A class of schoolkids were running about – they had walked in on a track and were soon on their way back.

Our lunch was sandwiches with cheese and ham and a selection of salads. After that it was time to paddle up the one tidal river and back down again. This was followed by capsize practice. I learned a new way of getting into the boat again – close arm over to the rescuer’s boat, far foot into the cockpit and then haul yourself over, turning towards the rescuer. Got a second chance to practice it and it was quite easy.

Interactive Map

The others attempted various full and half rolls and eventually we got back out again and showered. Appetisers were being served and dinner will be ready any minute now.

Dinner was chicken drumsticks in coconut milk with potato, tomato and onion with rice. This was followed by a bit of a gap to prepare the molten chocolate for kiwi, banana and orange pieces to be dipped into. Had to take a photo to show Philipp how to prepare dessert. After that Edgar & Delsie went to bed and I stayed up for as long as I could to try to get the time lapse into the night.

Battery was down to 10% but rawopint #4 was apparently not present on the card. Have to try to see what is wrong with that.

Edgar was indeed a bit of a snorer but their room was separated from mine by one rather solid door and I was able to sleep fairly well for a good ten hours.