This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
s the Christmas break loomed
AX the horizon decisions had to be made about what to do. Karu and I managed to agree that a decent sea kayaking trip was the preferred option and made plans from there. We first thought about going around D’Urville Island but that ‘would only have taken 3-4 days and from experience of a past trip down there I knew that the camping spots left a lot to be desired. In addition, you only needed a decent northerly or north-west storm to roll in and life could get quite interesting.
We thought about Lake Waikaremoana but that is quite a short paddle as well. We settled on going down to Queen Charlotte Sound again and spending a week to ten days down there. The problem was that as the date for departure got closer the wind in that part of the country increased. We changed direction and headed up-country to do a trip around Lake Taupo. This had the added advantage that Karu’s parents live on the shore of the lake at a little place called Pukawa, 20 minutes west of Turangi. We finally got on the water on a beautiful fine morning and headed off around the lake in a clockwise direction. We went that way deliberately as the west side is the most rugged and scenic and therefore the most interesting, and if the weather packed up we would have seen the most interesting part first. The disadvantage is that road access in that area is few and far between.
We camped the first night on the beach in a little bay inside Te Hapua Bay. This was nice and private and away from the power boats which were on the beach in the main bay. We set off the next morning with a mild south-westerly pushing us along and lots of trout jumping around us. For some reason we hadn’t taken a fishing rod. As we got up to the Karangahape cliffs and round the point the full force of the wind hit us. The swell was a metre high, just starting to curl at the top. We had to abandon our plan to follow the coast as there was no way that you could paddle with the waves hitting you beam on. We paddled straight into it across the bay to Whanganui Bay. It I was hard, wet work as the front of I the boats were falling off the top of the wave you were on, into the front of the next one with the result that everything back as far as the cockpit went underwater. It was quite a relief to get to Whanganui Bay and into calm water. We got a really warm welcome from the Maori elder when we asked permission to stop and have lunch.
We radioed the coast guard for a weather forecast and based on that we decided to carry on up to Waihaha. This is quite a nice stretch with caves and waterfalls and interesting rock formations. Once again though, there were no beaches or anywhere that you could land a sea kayak if the weather packed up quickly or something else happened. As it turned out the wind picked up during the afternoon and as we got close to Waihaha we were surfing the boats with the attendant problem that sea kayaks are great to surf in a straight line but once they fall off that line they broach very quickly.
Getting onto the beach at Waihaha was a problem by the time we got there because of the waves. We were lucky in that a couple of groups that had booked campsites hadn’t turned _ up. Rather than trailer the boats along the soft sand we launched off the beach again (by this stage the surf was big enough to rip a light out of its mount on the front of my boat) and headed up the river. We were lucky and got a nice sheltered campsite as we had only been there about half an hour when a storm warning came over the radio.
Tony Stone A very strong easterly storm swept over the lake. You could see it coming and it only took about 5 minutes for it to start pushing 2-metre waves up on the beach. The boaties were running around burying anything they could find as extra anchors, and they were the ones anchored on the river side of the sand bar!
The lake was still too rough to paddle the next day so we spent the time reading, doing minor repairs like where the laminating on the map was starting to come adrift — good old duct tape came to the rescue. We also went for a walk up the river to see the waterfall. We could have paddled up but at the level the river was at we would have had trouble getting round some of the corners. It is a grovelly 114-hour walk up, but the waterfall is well worth seeing. We got away the next day and it started off fine and warm as we headed straight for the boat harbour without going into Waihora Bay. The boat harbour is a little enclosed bay just north of Kawakawa Point. There is enough room for about six boats to anchor on the beach. The boaties we talked to said that normally it is very sheltered but the swell from the storm had pushed a couple of boats up onto the rocks. We didn’t stay long as it was getting cold. One of the problems with Lake Taupo is the fact that with the cliffs and private land campsites are few and far between. It was really handy that one of the guys at the boat harbour was able to show us where there was a I spot for camping at Kinloch which was going to be our next stop. We paddled across Kawakawa Bay to Te Kauwae Point and to Kinloch, in Whangamata Bay. The wind pushed us along nicely but as we got further up the bay the lake started to rough up to the point that as we turned parallel to the beach heading for the campsite the swell was such that we couldn’t see each other. The campsite was disappointing as it was small, there was already another tent there, as well as a couple of derelict boats. We decided to go across to Kinloch and see if there was a camping ground. In addition to this it was Karu’s birthday and she was thinking about ringing her parents to come and get us so she could have a hot bath for her birthday. As it turned out things got taken out of our control as when I was surfing in my paddle broke. The fibres in the shaft split lengthwise about */ of the way down so I surfed the last 20 metres with a paddle that had a hinge part way down. That made for an interesting few moments. While we had splits with us it would have meant another 3-4 days’ paddling with no spare paddle. We called the support crew and they picked us up. The weather turned out to be so bad that we couldn’t have paddled for the next two days anyway. I managed to repair the paddle with epoxy glue and duct tape. It is just as rigid as it was before the break. (You will notice that the use of duct tape for repairs has appeared twice in this story — will all paddlers please pay homage to the inventor of this item.)
We were dropped back at Kinloch when the weather cleared and the day’s paddling was really nice. The highlight of that part of the trip is the modern Maori rock carvings at Okutu Bay. These can only be seen from the water and are really impressive. We - paddled to-the-camping-ground_at Taupo for the night. The river current is quite swift going past the camping ground so we trailered the boats to the beach at the river mouth to avoid having to paddle against it. The paddle down the eastern side of the lake was nice and calm but around Junchtime as we got to Waitahanui the swell picked up. We went ashore for lunch and the 12.30 pm radio sched. The problem was the forecast gave a wind direction which was 180° different to what we had. (This happened quite frequently.) As we set off after lunch Karu pushed me off the beach and a larger than average wave hit me and swept off everything under the bungy cords on the front deck. The next wave then pushed me back onto the beach. We found everything except the flares so that was an expensive lunch.
We sat on the beach for about three hours and at 3.30 things had died down enough for us to set off again. We were heading for Hatepe for the night and while the lake was calm we spent most of the trip having to avoid sunken-trees.Hatepe is on the river mouth of the Hinemaiaia River and there is a sandbar at the mouth. We both ended up getting pushed onto this sideways which was frustrating when you’re tired and hungry. We camped on the beach at the river mouth which had a nice view of the lake but would have been exposed in a westerly. The lake was getting up again and sure enough the next morning it was too rough to paddle. We made the hard call to call it quits as we had to be back in Wellington in a couple of days’ time. We can recommend Lake Taupo as a really good trip. You need to watch the weather carefully as forecasts aren't always accurate and the lake can turn nasty very quickly.
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Trip Reports