This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
By Tony Stone
Thoughts of spending a week kayaking in the Sounds had been going through my mind ever since my last trip down there. The big problem was finding people who could spend a week away. Eventually only Sarah and I ended up down there. Even then issues like school holidays. Sarah's mother coming down, Tony's canoe polo and AIC instruction commitments caused problems.
The shopping was finally done on Saturday 26 June and we were on our way on the 10am ferry the next day. After the usual boring 3 hour ferry trip, the 2 hour padadle that afternoon to Kumutoto Bay was very enjoyable and there were a large number of blue penguins and gannets to be seen. The problem with midwinter trips is short days and by 5.30 the gas lantern was proving its worth. The wind got up during the night and the luxury of a tunnel tent plus a big fly was appreciated. Come morning, we could see the crests of the waves being whipped off by the wind and decided not to paddle. The day was spent eating, reading and exploring the tracks around the bay. Later in the day a weka came to say hello as well. We weren't too concerned about the weather as we had a mountain radio with us and the forecast was for improving weather for the rest of the week.
Tuesday dawned bright, clear and cold with snow on the hills around Picton. It was a chilly paddle out of the bay but quite calm. As we headed east into Kaipapa Bay however, the wind started to get up again from the south and as we rounded Golden Point and headed up the Sounds, life was getting interesting as we were being hit beam-on by very strong southerlies so we made the decision that it would be prudent to head into Blackwood Bay. We were a bit surprised to see seals on the rocks as we headed into the bay. That night's radio sched gave us a forecast of a fine Wednesday morning with southerlies getting up again in the afternoon.
Sure enough Wednesday was a fine morning and we set off up the Sounds heading for at least Ruakaka Bay and if possible Blumine Island. The problem was that we saw a school of dolphins on the south side of the Sound and went off to have a look. They were swimming faster than we could paddle so we had to give them up as a bad job.
By this time we were off Curious Cove and could see the southerly front coming down and as we looked, Blumine Island disappeared. We decided to stay on the south side of the Sounds so even if the weather packed in badly we ‘would still be able to paddie. The other points we had to consider were that with the mid-term break coming up we might have trouble getting a later ferry and Tony had a commitment to instruct on Rope 2 on the Saturday coming. All this, combined with a very iffy outlook with regards to the weather, made us decide to head into Picton a day early. If it hadn't been for these points, we would have headed out again as we could have sheltered in a bay quite comfortably.
People on the trip - Sarah Hooker and Tony Stone.