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.