Moonlight on the Manukau
Moonlight on the Manukau
Last Monday night 8 of us (including John, our trip leader) launched from French Bay around 7:30pm for what turned out to be the most perfectly organised paddle trip - really not bad for an ordinary Monday evening... For Rocio & Richard it was the last evening in New Zealand after touring the country for 6 months or so, so they were even more excited than the rest of us! We paddled westwards from French Bay, facing a magic sunset, always keeping an eye on the changing colours in the sky: from bright blue to yellow-orange and pinkish-violet later on. The water was a bit choppy at the start and pretty shallow as well, so we sometimes had to watch out for those hidden sand banks and be careful not to get stuck. We shared the harbour with only one other boat, no comparison to the busy Waitemata Harbour, and enjoyed the last sunlight while we were passing a number of bays on the way. As soon as it got dark the last bit of wind died down and the water surface became smoother and smoother. After about 7-8km we had a little break where we turned on our boat lights and paired up for the return paddle in the darkness. It was quite obvious that John was a real specialist for Manukau Harbour, as the conditions were just about perfect on the way back: we now had the rising moon ahead of us, no sunlight left that we would have missed out in the western sky and a slight current from the incoming tide that made paddling easier and even more enjoyable... Everybody got very excited about those amazing fluorescent light flashes in the water, it was very romantic and fascinating. Another rare sight on a paddle trip was the 10m high (or more?) Christmas Tree in Laingholm Bay which was nicely covered in hundreds of little blue lights to shine our way back home...
Last Monday night 8 of us (including John, our trip leader) launched from French Bay around 7:30pm for what turned out to be the most perfectly organised paddle trip - really not bad for an ordinary Monday evening... For Rocio & Richard it was the last evening in New Zealand after touring the country for 6 months or so, so they were even more excited than the rest of us! We paddled westwards from French Bay, facing a magic sunset, always keeping an eye on the changing colours in the sky: from bright blue to yellow-orange and pinkish-violet later on. The water was a bit choppy at the start and pretty shallow as well, so we sometimes had to watch out for those hidden sand banks and be careful not to get stuck. We shared the harbour with only one other boat, no comparison to the busy Waitemata Harbour, and enjoyed the last sunlight while we were passing a number of bays on the way. As soon as it got dark the last bit of wind died down and the water surface became smoother and smoother. After about 7-8km we had a little break where we turned on our boat lights and paired up for the return paddle in the darkness. It was quite obvious that John was a real specialist for Manukau Harbour, as the conditions were just about perfect on the way back: we now had the rising moon ahead of us, no sunlight left that we would have missed out in the western sky and a slight current from the incoming tide that made paddling easier and even more enjoyable... Everybody got very excited about those amazing fluorescent light flashes in the water, it was very romantic and fascinating. Another rare sight on a paddle trip was the 10m high (or more?) Christmas Tree in Laingholm Bay which was nicely covered in hundreds of little blue lights to shine our way back home...