Way overdue post as I did this in January, but it's a great weekend worth remembering so had to get around to writing about it. So, after a failed attempt to kayak a few weeks prior (was too windy so they wouldn't rent us kayaks) we decided to rent kayaks from the university club and bring them to Akaroa ourselves. This proved to be a great idea as we then had the freedom to paddle as long as we wanted and go to different areas of Banks Peninsula.
The first day we decided to go to Pigeon bay as the waves were quite high in other areas and not even the guys wanted to attempt 5 meter high ones. After demonstrating the latest in kayak fashion which the boys executed very entertainingly we got going. We paddled to some caves one of which was quite a tight squeeze, but cool to go through as it was completely dark at times despite not being all that long. There was an extra challenge for me to go through caves and climb rocks as I was wearing flip-flops (the ultimate comfort shoe for such expeditions). I believe I completely broke them on this trip :P Visited a couple more caves where you could kayak in before heading to the end of the fiord and turning back.
We stayed at a campsite right by the water and had quite the near miss at dinner. So we were boiling our pasta on a gas cooker which looked like a hotplate unlike most of the gas cookers we typically used on trips. It wasn't functioning well in the beginning, but we finally managed to get it going and cooked our pasta. Just as we had finished, took the pot off and turned of the cooker it exploded. Yes, we were all sitting just a meter away and no, none of us got hurt. But we were really lucky as we found a large metal piece of it about 10 meters away the next morning (imagine if that had flown at one of us!) Instead we were completely unharmed apart from the ringing in our ears from the loud bang. Glad to have finished the day without any casualties we went to bed anxiously awaiting the next morning.
The next day we drove to Akaroa wanting to see a cave just outside the bay. However, we were quite tired and let the guys go the distance while we relaxed about half way. Just as we decided to start heading back the wind changed and the water became unsettled. For those who don't know I have a fear of small unstable ships so this wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me. I did freak out slightly as the waves got bigger and started pouring into our kayak and so we decided to head to the shore a bit closer to us instead of going all the way back. Luckily the guys saw us on their way back and then drove the car over to us while we waited. They had gone all the way out to the cave and seen penguins, but also mentioned that the waves were extremely high so I was quite glad for not have tried to go out that far. Was quite happy to be back on stable ground.
All in all a weekend well spent with some great people some of which are leaving NZ soon, but who I'll hopefully get a chance to visit back in Europe :)
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