Perfect

Day 89, Feb 24 2010
The morning suggested that the good conditions of the previous day had persisted into this one. Garfield, who had so kindly put up with me over the previous two days handed me an ice-cream container with the words “have some real food.” I resisted peeking inside and simply packed it away with everything else, humbled by the kindness that was being shown to me.
Phil who had shared so much of his knowledge of the upcoming coastline was there as promised to wish me luck as I pushed off with the time barely 8:30am. I passed Carl in his kayak on the way out. He was checking his fishing lines. “Two Lemon Sharks!” he told me, and two less for me to worry about?

What, sharks!!!

I made a straight line across the bay, towards the 20km distant Waiinu. Conditions were as good as they could be, almost perfect in fact. There was the slightest of breezes, just enough to take the sting out of the sun that was about to come out from behind the thin cloud cover that was disappearing as the day’s warmth intensified. I could count the days since the commencement of the trip with such conditions on a single hand. Everyone has been telling me that summer has been arriving later and later with each passing year so maybe, just possibly the day was a portent of things to come?
I passed Waiinu at 11:30am and was 21km from my staring point. More condensation on the inside of the camera housing saw me take the opportunity to land on the beach to try to address the problem. I could not resist taking a look inside the ice-cream container and was delighted to see numerous pieces of fried chicken, donuts, a pear and orange. I ‘tasted’ one piece of the chicken and left not a morsel for the fish when I finally disposed of the bone. Sensational!

I beached and had a piece of chicken. Yum!!!

Fifteen minutes later and I was back on the water and an hour later, with conditions still ideal, I noted small cliffs no more than 30 metres high with a number of caves eroded into their faces. Some I noticed ran right through creating tunnels. Unfortunately the images are not good. I have since discovered that the lens of the camera itself was covered in residue and am hopeful that the future quality may see an improvement. Regardless, the different scenery was appreciated and I took the time to take a closer look angling the kayak toward the shore.

Caves on the shoreline.

By now I had only 14km to go to make my destination as I noted a slight fluctuation in the breeze. Over the course of the day I had seen it swing from the north-west, to the west, then to south-west, and now the south. Never however did it exceed 5 knots.

I paddled closer to shore to inspect the numerous caves.

With the GPS telling me just 7 ½ km to go there was a change and this time it swung back to the north-west and picked up to 10 knots. Just enough to frustrate me as it meant paddling into it whilst the sun too was casting its glare into my face with my mainly westerly bearing as I made my way around the land feature distinguished by Mount Taranaki (formerly Egmont).

Paddling into the setting sun the wind picked up briefly giving me some concern.

It crossed my mind that although I was only kilometres from my goal, Patea, I might have to pull up short if the wind intensified as it can be prone to do. It was therefore with a great sense of relief that one hour later it died just as quickly as it had risen.

I caught a wave in.

I could now clearly make out the near and far breakwaters that marked the entrance to the river on which Patea lay. The surf that was breaking either side of it was significantly less pronounced between the walls and I had no problem picking up an unbroken swell that carried me 150 metres before I had to begin paddling.

The boat ramp was in my sights.

The boat ramp that I had been told to look for appeared shortly after and I was on land just before 4:00pm with a short walk up the street to the campground. I’d covered 49km in just over 7 hours.

Having arrived.