Matauri Bay, Northland
Matauri Bay - We had almost perfect weather over the long weekend, and ended up with 17 enjoying this stunning area.
Some of us arrived on Friday and were able to fit in a short, late afternoon paddle with flat, calm conditions, followed by a beautiful sunset.
Saturday again had perfect weather with no wind and just .25m swell, so we headed over to the Cavalli Islands which are just 3km away. The rock gardening there was excellent with plenty of caves, and the sea was flat enough to enable the less experienced to get in amongst it. Mat and Billy saw a large flock of birds working and headed off to see what they could catch - they came home with enough fish to provide entree, mains, and breakfast to those who wanted it. Yum, thanks guys.
Sunday saw the swell up to 1m, which meant that on our coastal trip northwards, the experienced paddlers had more excitement than anticipated, and those less experienced had to be cautious and stay outside most of the rocks. We had 3 experienced paddlers take a swim that day, and it was great fun. After watching a gap for a few minutes, Russ went through, closely followed by Larraine. A large wave suddenly appeared and as Russ punched through it a previously well-submerged rock poked its head up. Russ managed to dodge it, but the next wave found him off balance and actually sucked him out of his kayak not even giving him the option of rolling. He had to swim his kayak out from the rocks far enough to enable Larraine to hook onto his boat, and John brought Russ out using a bow carry, before he was able to get back aboard. Tim got some great footage (see both the video and photos).
Further on Mat managed to capsize while trying to not damage his Greenland T on the rocks.
Then Larraine had almost too much excitement. Several others had already safely gone through a long section of rocks, but as she got to the end a large swell appeared, and with no time to do more than turn straight into it, it threw her sidewards and backwards, rather too close to the rock wall behind for comfort. A strong draw stroke kept her off the rocks, and a quick recovery meant no swim, but plenty of adrenaline! Witnesses saw her kayak almost airborne at one point (see video taken from the deck of her kayak).
With the swell rising, we had to stay further out as we went on up to Taiaue Bay where we stopped for lunch. There was a good surf rolling in there and John played in that for a while, which is where he had his turn at capsizing, though Andrea claims that if you capsize in surf it doesn't count!
After lunch the swell was getting quite large, and as we had all had quite enough excitement for one day, we took the direct route back to camp.
Monday saw the swell up to 1.5m and rising to 2m, so we called it quits and headed home early.
This was a fantastic trip, with that area said to be some of the best in the world for kayaking - I believe it!
Photos from Larraine...
Photos from Tim...
Video from Tim...
Some of us arrived on Friday and were able to fit in a short, late afternoon paddle with flat, calm conditions, followed by a beautiful sunset.
Saturday again had perfect weather with no wind and just .25m swell, so we headed over to the Cavalli Islands which are just 3km away. The rock gardening there was excellent with plenty of caves, and the sea was flat enough to enable the less experienced to get in amongst it. Mat and Billy saw a large flock of birds working and headed off to see what they could catch - they came home with enough fish to provide entree, mains, and breakfast to those who wanted it. Yum, thanks guys.
Sunday saw the swell up to 1m, which meant that on our coastal trip northwards, the experienced paddlers had more excitement than anticipated, and those less experienced had to be cautious and stay outside most of the rocks. We had 3 experienced paddlers take a swim that day, and it was great fun. After watching a gap for a few minutes, Russ went through, closely followed by Larraine. A large wave suddenly appeared and as Russ punched through it a previously well-submerged rock poked its head up. Russ managed to dodge it, but the next wave found him off balance and actually sucked him out of his kayak not even giving him the option of rolling. He had to swim his kayak out from the rocks far enough to enable Larraine to hook onto his boat, and John brought Russ out using a bow carry, before he was able to get back aboard. Tim got some great footage (see both the video and photos).
Further on Mat managed to capsize while trying to not damage his Greenland T on the rocks.
Then Larraine had almost too much excitement. Several others had already safely gone through a long section of rocks, but as she got to the end a large swell appeared, and with no time to do more than turn straight into it, it threw her sidewards and backwards, rather too close to the rock wall behind for comfort. A strong draw stroke kept her off the rocks, and a quick recovery meant no swim, but plenty of adrenaline! Witnesses saw her kayak almost airborne at one point (see video taken from the deck of her kayak).
With the swell rising, we had to stay further out as we went on up to Taiaue Bay where we stopped for lunch. There was a good surf rolling in there and John played in that for a while, which is where he had his turn at capsizing, though Andrea claims that if you capsize in surf it doesn't count!
After lunch the swell was getting quite large, and as we had all had quite enough excitement for one day, we took the direct route back to camp.
Monday saw the swell up to 1.5m and rising to 2m, so we called it quits and headed home early.
This was a fantastic trip, with that area said to be some of the best in the world for kayaking - I believe it!
Photos from Larraine...
Photos from Tim...
Video from Tim...