Kayaking at Akaroa

27th November 2009
Today I was up at the crack of dawn (yes, 6.30 on my day off!)to go kayaking! At 7 (well, nearer half past) I turned up at Mel and Jon's house to pick them up for our outing. We were headed for Akaroa, a small town on the Banks Peninsula an hours drive from home. Its a beautiful harbour village, surrounded by hills. Although the day was a bit over cast, we were excited about our little adventure. Although the car was in fine form, and my driving to its usual standard, apparently Mel and Jon were not that impressed, and its not only my mum that gets sick on my driving :-(
However the upside was that we were there within an hour and ready to go.
Mel and Jon got a double and I got a single and with some advice about which way to go and not crossing the harbour we were let loose!
We headed out towards the mouth of the harbour first, keeping an eye out for penguins and dolphins, but the weather turned windy and the sea choppy so we decided to explore the other way, rather than being further exposed to the elements. We headed beyond Akaroa Harbour and crossed the harbour (naughty, naughty!) to the other side and a place called French Farm. Mid way we carried out an impressive off-shore kayak shuffle, with me and John elegantly swapping places without capsizing.
Its surprisingly hard being at the back of a double kayak, having to co-ordinate strokes of the paddle, steering and chatting to Mel, all at once! On the way over, we saw dolphins! They were so beautiful, swimming right near the kayaks. We only saw a couple, but it was so special, just us in the water and these beautiful creatures.
We stopped for lunch, a lovely picnic of home-made pizza and other goodies. Feeling tired, we headed back to Akaroa, after nearly six hours on the water, and lots of laughing!
We had a quick change and a coffee in Akaroa, before heading back to Christchurch. Very, very tired, and very, very sore!
But a great day, thanks Mel and Jon.

Avalanche Peak (but no avalanches!)

The big news is that I have actually used my ice-axe and crampons that carried all the way over here and hadn't used! Yey! I had had a good weekend, been walking in the port hills on the saturday with a girl called Laurayne, who I met through the mountaineering club. We are keen to get out and about together so fingers crossed! The weather on Sunday was not as good as expected so me and James put our castle Hill bouldering trip on hold, and had a walk in the port hills, once the weather had picked up a bit. On Monday I had the day off so I packed my rucksack and headed to Arthurs pass. I had decided to climb Avalanche Peak, a peak of 1833m. I was on my own so I chcked in and left my intentions at the visitor centre, and made sure I had enough stuff with me should I get injured or stranded, as the weather was pretty awful when I set off. The way was well marked though and wound up through trees and scrub for the first hour or two. The sun came out as I began walking, and as I left the bush line only the tops of the mountains were in cloud. Once the bush line fell away the gradient became gentler and patches of snow became evident. The cloudds had now completely lifted, and I got great views of the mountains, Rolleston in particular. The last bit followed a ridgeline, with snow and rock, so I got Alice (my trusty ice-axe!) out, as a slip would've been disasterous without her. The snow was steep and stopping a slide would've been difficult. I reached the summit in blue skies and sunshne and took in the fantastic views. I had some lunch on the summit, and was joined by a kea, a mountain parrot, know for its appetite and cheeky tricks to get food off tourists! I left the summit after lunch, and wore my crampons for the descent. It had been a great day, and a successful summit, all bit it a little one!