March 8th; Coast of Volcanic Past

Log

Date: March 8th

Weather: Sunny

Swell: small E

Wind: moderate to light SE

Distance: 21 NM

Camp: beach with no name

Back Country Cuisine Food Review

www.backcountrycuisine.co.nz

Meal: Fish Pie

Impression: looked good, smelt good, though tasted bland, not quite as filling as other dishes. Needed lots of salt and pepper added. The cheese it comes with would be better added straight away than put on before eating, as it tends to be crunchy that way. Not the best dish so far

Stars: 6 out of 10

Blog

March 8^th; Coast of Volcanic Past

Ok first words, it is getting colder! Winter is coming, the sun comes up later and goes down sooner, at night the fleece jacket always goes on, in the morning it is cold and the dew is icy on the feet. We are quickly cooling down and more clothes are layering on.

By 8 am this morning the tractor came to pick us and the boats up and drop us off at the beach. We thanked Mike and the crew; Pete, Hayden, Mark, Ross, Nick for having us and pushed of across, the still , warm water and paddled south into the rising headwind. This stretch of coastline has to be the most spectacular yet, big spurs and pillars of rock standing in the water, random shapes and sea caves all over the place, total geologists fantasy scape. We paddled into one large and beautiful cave, that had a neon blue glowing pool of water within it that we bobbed about upon taking in the stunning grandeur, while the waves crashed about further out.

Paddling on we passed, great cliffs and stunning little pocket beaches, all asking to be explored, though unfortunately we had to thank them for the invite and push on, though some where a little more persuasive than others.

Eventually near the end of the day as we neared a town called Whangamata, we came across a wonderful stretch of beach with grove of Pohutukawa trees that we could camp under. It is a scarcely used beach, though high above us behind the trees, are some pretty impressive mansion like houses. The area is grassy and flat, with large trees all around and looks out at the sea and a great little island. We devoured our meals tonight night, and via cell phone organized the next days stay with some friends of Ruth (who I visited a couple of days earlier in Whitianga). Lynnette and Doug are worldly travelers who lived near Tauranga, a booming port city further south. There place was located inside a large estuary area behind Matakana Island, we would have to paddle into the northern entrance and through the estuary to get to their house. It is about 27 NM from where we are now, so we assume we will get there about 6pm.

They are excited to meet us and have a big meal planned for our arrival. Wow awesome, people just love adventures and being involved, very cool, we love sharing the story and hearing peoples stories of their adventures as well, I think this is the highlight of the trip really, all the great characters we are meeting along the way.