Sea Kayak Round the Needles!!!

Hello again!!! When Colby and Cara came to visit, Dan had the week off so we decided we had to embark on some amazing adventure. We went on a 3 day sea kayak mission around the top of Great Barrier. I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous at the thought... I'd never really been kayaking before. I trust Dan fully - he takes children on kayak adventures for a living, but I am a worrier! The most daunting part was knowing that nobody lives in the north of the island, in fact there are no roads that go up there - so I knew we had to be careful and not get hurt. We took lots of safety gear from Dan's work, including a radio and a GPS device that sends a signal if you need someone to send rescue. We packed up food, fishing and camping gear and got on the water early Monday afternoon. I've included the following maps to give you all an idea of this journey... The first is a map of Great Barrier Island as a whole, and the second is zoomed in on the part that we kayaked - I live where it says "Home." The light green line shows the route we took around the island.

DAY ONE:

This is me, in total awe at the amazing cave that we are paddling through at Ahariri Point. Because it was low tide, to get into the cave we had to time our paddling with the waves so we could make it over a rock blocking the entrance. It was absolutely amazing in there - the water was crystal clear and you could see all kinds of fish and this pink and orange stuff growing on the rocks. The best part was that while we were sitting in there, the water would rise and fall about 3-4 feet every couple seconds. It was very very cool. 

Once we arrived at Miner's Head where we were spending the night on our first night, we went for a fish. Cara and Colby caught Snapper! I caught a fish called a Wrasse, which was very surprising and very fun to bring in. It is in the picture below...

After catching enough fish for dinner we headed to the camp spot. Cara and Colby are unpacking their Kayak getting ready to set up camp.

Camp! Dan's filleting the fish and the rest of us are getting camp set. 

The incredible sunset. 

DAY TWO:

We left Miner's Head in the morning and headed north, checking out old copper mines along the coast as we paddled. The geography changed a lot from where we live, and I started to understand why the north of the island is uninhabited. There are no beaches to land on! It is all sheer cliff faces.

This is one of the old Copper mines - note the green tint to the surrounding rocks...

Me paddling with The Needles in the background. The Needles is a group of very small and very pointy islands that make up the northern most tip of Great Barrier.

Here's a closer picture of The Needles - they're on the left..

Once we got to the top of the island we had a few options. The first was to attempt to paddle through a very small channel. We had heard that it could be done with small swell and little wind so we went to check it out. The Western side of the island, which is where we were, is very sheltered - it is in the Hauraki Gulf. The Eastern side of the island faces the vast Pacific and gets hit with anything that the Pacific feels like throwing this way. Where we were, the seas were calm and the wind was light, so we thought the channel would be fine. We paddled up to it and sat watching it for a few minutes to see if it was possible. The channel is about 15 feet wide and has sheer, very tall cliffs on either side. A very daunting place, I think. We were considering heading through until all of a sudden a wave came through from the other side and met up with a smaller wave from our side - they essentially clapped together and extended upwards about 10 feet. Upon seeing this, we very quickly decided that the first channel was a no go. 

Our other two options were a second, wider channel about a half a kilometer north, or to attempt to paddle all the way around the Needles, which was a rather far paddle, and had the potential to be a nasty mix of calm and not-so-calm sea at the tip. While we were heading north to see what was in store at Channel number two, Dan spotted a shark. Of Course. It was only a little one, but it still made the challenge that we were facing a bit more scary! 

When we got to the second channel we were happy to see that it was much wider than the first, and was definitely crossable. We still sat and watched it, because there was a sand bar in the middle and waves were coming through from the other side. We paddled our little hearts out (or at least I did) to make it across and entered the Pacific Ocean, which was feeling a little testy that day. I definitely left my comfort zone on the other side of the island, but I was ready to push forward and really challenge myself. So, off we went, up and down the wave faces, paddling against the wind, with the thought of finally taking a break, eating something and drying off keeping me going. Eventually I got used to the roller coaster of waves - being up and seeing everything one second, and then being down and only seeing the next wave coming towards us the next. It was definitely something I had never experienced before! 

This is our camp on the second night in Wreck Bay. Nice sandy beach, protected from the wind and swell....

While exploring the camp, Colby found a severely injured Kingfisher. He had a broken neck and was not going to make it - a very beautiful bird though...

This is a very cool Pohutukawa that watches over the beach at our camp.

DAY THREE:

We woke up early on the last day because our final mission was to make it back to Whangapoua Estuary before low tide. We were planning on making it into the estuary and paddling up to the beach where we wouldn't have to drag our 1 ton kayaks for miles. If we missed high tide and arrived at low, not only would we have quite the mission getting our kayaks to were a truck was meeting us, but we would have to also battle through the crashing waves at the entrance to the estuary. 

Me, packing up our kayak and mentally preparing for the day ahead

When we got past the point that created the bay we were staying in, we were greeted with a very black rainy cloud, strong winds and a pretty big swell - all going against us. We paddled very hard for about 30 minutes, then I looked up to see how much progress we had made to realize we only moved about 50 feet down the coast. We had a talk to decide if we should turn back, but decided to push on and see how far we could get. When you stopped paddling, the boat would move backwards. It was intense and very tiring. Slowly but surely we made our way down the coast, and finally saw the white sandy beach that lies adjacent to the estuary. The tide was definitely on its way out, but we made it to the channel in time and didn't have to fight many big waves to get through!

Once in the estuary it was too shallow to paddle with both people in the boats, so Colby dragged Cara to the beach

Dan and I - very happy we made it in time, and happy to be standing up!!

The four of us - proud to have made it round the Needles!!!