Summer 2011 I aim to paddle the length of NZ from northern tip to southern tip, Cape Reinga, North Island to south cape, Stewart Island. The trip will follow the east coast and 4+ months will be allocated to the trip from the end of Dec 2010 - to end of Aprill 2011. I have hopes of filming the entirety to make and interesting documentary on the coastal culture of my home land New Zealand.
I will use a folding Trak T-1600 kayak to paddle the 1st leg, from the cape Reinga to Auckland.At the begining of Leg 2, I aim to incorporate a couple of hard shell kayaks as primary expedition boats (for myself and my expedition partner who joins me at this point), for this my largest expedition to date.
The folding Trak kayak will still play a large part in the trip, being the boat that guest paddlers (self equiped, capable guests, who wish to join us for varied time frames) can use to take part in some of the adventure. I am not relying on the Trak personaly for doing the whole trip as I need to carry alot more gear than the Trak allows me to carry!
The Trak kayak can be easily posted or shipped to those adventurous souls who wish to join for part of the trip.
there will be 6 legs of the trip.
1- Northern end of 90mile Beach to Auckland
2- Auckland to Napier
3- Napier to wellington
4- Wellington to Christchurch
5- Christchurch to Dunedin
6- Dunedin around southern tip (possible circumnavigation) of Stewart Island to Halfmoon Bay
The trip along the east coast of NZ, North to South is roughly 1474.8 Nautical Miles total.
At an average of 20 knots a day and 5 paddling days a week with two days off. That makes a trip of 104days with 30 rest or bad weather days, giving me 14 extra days of sway in the 120 day 4 month period I have allocated.
