Thursday, March 28: A short burst of rain as a wake up call, overcast for a lot of the day with a bit of sun returning in the afternoon
Kayaking: 25.2 km
Motukawanui Hut (Doc, $15)
It was very dark this morning as we awoke and the rain burst sounded very hard indeed. Breakfast was porridge with muesli and sultanas, followed by fruit salad. I made avail of the French press coffee, which was reasonable. Today everything had to be packed up, as we were departing the hut on a longer stretch along the coast to the Cavalli Islands.
As usual, everything packed much better this time, and I volunteered to sweep, which was accepted. Also everything fit into the boat better, but that was possibly also due to the provisions being exhausted. We took leave of the pigs and set out on our very direct route, all except Ana who was going to reprovision and move the van to rejoin us later.
Inside the bay the water was very calm, but once outside the swell returned – not as wild as yesterday, and the wind had settled considerably so that the going was OK.
We first aimed for a set of small islands of Permian sandstone/limestone/marble rocks for a tea break. Here the water was quite sheltered. Then we took off down the open coast which was quite strenuous towards Flat Island where we turned into the rather sheltered bay at Mahinepua for a stop for lunch. Ana was already waiting for us, and the lunch was wraps with tuna salad, avocados and cheese.
By now we had covered most of the day’s program and now had Ana back on board. The camping ground there is not only idyllic with a lovely estuary with its own campsites that Magnus sometimes uses, but it can’t be found on campermate, so this is a real hidden secret.
The last section was a bit rough in parts but it was not so long and soon we were in the sheltered Waiiti Bay. I surfed in on a small wave and had my spray skirt off and was washed over by the next bigger wave and got everything wet.
Interactive Map
Boats were dragged up above the high water mark and everything dragged up to the hut which was already occupied by two spear fishermen. While the others went for a swim I tried to wash the salt out of my clothes, then off of me, and put on the spiderman suit.
We were given half a dozen snapper filets by the fishing guys, so dinner was that with the original penne (but only half of the original amount), ratatouille with lemon, salt & pepper. Ate more than enough so this may well be the first tour I come off weighing more than at the beginning.
Before dinner had time to set up the A1300 to try to shoot the sunset without any boats bobbing around.
On a more serious note I finally solved the problem in the origin of the novel hybrid species. All that has to happen is to make the species definition just a touch more specific: Populations that produce fertile offspring with haploid gametes. That’s it. Now the founder hybrid would already belong to a new species.
| Where | When |
| Leave Lane Cove | 9:15 |
| Island stopover, morning tea | 10:45-11:15 |
| Mahinepua Bay lunch break | 13:00-14:00 |
| Arrive Motukawanui Island | 15:45 |
