Sea-kayaking and more

Note:  All photos on this page have not been manually edited or enhanced (except for the one as indicated) because they were rather stunning already!

Sea-kayaking

I had put off my sea-kayaking here until the weather was good.  When I was satisfied with yesterday’s weather and the forecast had indicated that today would be good, I made the booking by phone yesterday afternoon.

I got to Tata Beach, about 20 mins away, around 0830 in time for the 0845 reporting time and 0900 start.  I had been compelled to do a half-day sea-kayaking tour because they don’t rent out to single customers for safety reasons.  Fair enough but such a pity I couldn’t find others to join me as it would be cheaper.

Arriving at Tata Beach.

In my group were four retired and nearly-retired women from New Plymouth.  We were given the choice of a young male guide (whom I noticed was very good and patient with young children) or an older man.  The women chose the latter.

Our guide, Bruce Telford, was a man of big proportions.  While not much taller than me, he seemingly had big everything from nose, neck, shoulders, chest, arms, fingers, legs … but not beer gut.  I thought he was a retired All Black but I later learned that he was a cop.

We got set up into three kayaks in pairs.  I teamed up with Wendy, a physical education teacher.  She took the back seat which meant that she operated the rudder using her feet.  With such a calm day, we dispensed with the skirt or protective cover around the waist that would prevent water getting into the kayak.

Bruce led us to Wainui Bay with stops along the way telling us about the history, settlement and wildlife.  We were led through a couple of tricky bits, the first being a narrow archway, to test our manouvering skills.  With Wendy steering, we passed with flying colours.

Less than 2h after setting off, we were at Wainui Bay where we took a coffee break.  We were offered cookies and apricot balls.  Both were yummy.  We chatted a fair bit and people here aren’t into political correctness.  Some of the questions were rather personal eg. marital status, children etc.

It was nice to learn that one of the older ladies had backpacked around the world through Afghanistan when the world was a much safer place.  From my yoga class, in which one of the “little old ladies” had been a marathon runner, I was already very aware that some old people have a lot of amazing history in their lives.

Before our return trip I took some sunblock from Wendy.  The sun had been scorching and I was worried that I may burn on the forehead without a hat.

The trip back was supposed to be faster than the outbound journey.  It was meant to have been approximately an hour but it sure felt like less.  We landed back where we had started after midday.

Once we had thanked our guide and said our goodbyes, I took a much-needed refreshing swim in the sea at Tata Beach.  It seems to be the best swimming beach in the area.  It has a nice gradient which offered a pleasant depth.  And to top it off, it had nice golden sand.

Others beaches, mostly grey, seem to be rather shallow and one would have to walk out forever and still be knee deep.

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Grove Scenic Reserve

A very special place from my last visit was the Grove Scenic Reserve on the way back to my accommodation.  I dearly wanted to pay another visit there and had enough energy for the short walk.

But I needed food first.  I had been told there wasn’t much around until the restaurants in Pohara so when I stumbled upon a food cart along the way I jumped at it.

It was nearly closing and I was left with only a bacon and egg buttie (sandwich) for a reasonable price.  I needed a cold drink and chose an iced chai latte.  That was a big mistake as it was just a large glass of iced milk with bottled chai latte syrup, dusted with cinnamon on top.  NZD7!  Seven bloody bucks for a glass of milk.

At the Grove Scenic Reserve, I walked through the gorgeous palms and other foliage to reach the viewpoint.  It was every bit as beautiful as I remember.  The irony is that from the viewpoint one sees beautiful green pastures which, in New Zealand, is the result of large-scale deforestation of the native bush.  Again, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

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After a rest and swim back at the accommodation, I took a drive to visit Peter who is English and normally lives in the UK but had come to New Zealand as he has residency here.  We had a nice catch up about the goings-on in the last year and exchange about our managed isolation experiences.

I had my first meal at Takaka this trip, at the local takeaway.  The Nan Bread wrap with fried chicken breast was pretty delicious.

It was quiet night at Autumn Farm with me in the dorm and Tony on his bus in the campground.  That’s excluding the four working volunteers.