March 15th; Goodbye Bay of Plenty

Log

Date: March 15, 2010

Weather: Mixed sun and cloud

Swell: < 1 meter

Wind: NW 5 - 10

Distance: 28.2 nm

Camp: Hicks Bay

Back Country Cuisine Food Review

www.backcountrycuisine.co.nz

Meal: Beef and Pasta Hotpot

Impression: This meal is loaded up with beef…. certainly no cheaping out on ingredients. It has tasty peas and carrots and nice spicing (though I added some salt and pepper). The inclusion of pasta provides much needed carbohydrates to our diet and makes the meal that much more filling….. a good hardy meal. This was the second time that we’ve had this meal and my impressions are much the same though I think my rating is a bit lower (perhaps because we’ve now had so many other great Back Country Cuisine entries).

Stars: 8.0

Blog

It was a dark and stormy day….. ok, ok, it was another glorious day on the Bay of Plenty. Our rough estimate had us going 30 nm today so it was straight to business….. out of the tent, pack and on the water without much delay. By chance this turned out to be ideal timing as the waves, rolling into shore, started getting larger and larger as we departed. Our first target was a large headland called Cape Runaway, which was approximately 10 nm away. Unlike the previous 3 days of glassy water we had some reasonable size waves coming on our port side, but with the distance we had to travel today we appreciated the extra push. Within 3 hours we were rounding Cape Runaway and saying our goodbyes to the Bay of Plenty. We took a few moments to reflect on our time and travels on the Bay of Plenty….. wonderful weather, scenery, and amazing encounters with local New Zealanders.

As I’ve already mentioned today was mostly about getting to business….. kayaking a good distance. So, with minimal breaks and no idle chit-chat we went about kayaking….. each in solitude….. alone yet together on this journey. Again by chance our route today had headlands spaced roughly 10 nm apart, which made for nice benchmarks for our progress. The other nice thing about headlands is they are like little treasures because as you come around each one you are presented with a whole new view. For myself headlands very similar to climbing a hill or mountain and as you reach the top you look out on a new view. Of course you then look at the next peak and want to climb it to see what’s over that peak…. and on-and-on it goes.

With the favorable winds and waves continuing throughout the day we made excellent progress and arrived at our intended locale at 4:30 p.m…… 28.2 nm. Our campsite for the evening was excellent ….. a small protected east facing hillside with a few level benches, stunning scenery, beautiful trees and rock formations….. even the smell of goat shit couldn’t detract from making this our favorite camp location to date.

This evening as we look out from our hillside camp through the twisting limbs of silhouetted tress at the crimson light falling upon the East Cape headland we ponder what is still to come as we round the most easterly part of New Zealand and continue our journey south.