On the 28th of June I crossed Raukawa Moana, Cook Strait. It is a pretty damn good feeling after such a long wait.
The night before I didn’t sleep very well, waking every few hours. But when four in the morning finally rolled around I was feeling pretty good. Mum and I had a cooked breakfast, I packed the last of my gear and then we were in the car and off to Porirua to pick up my good class mate and friend Solomon and bring him along for the ride.
Then we headed to Dads to gather another couple of final pieces of equipment. My brother River arrived (he came too) and we all piled into Mums car and went to Seaview Marina, where our support vessel was.
We arrived and started unloading all the gear with Simon (the captain) and Peter (muscle) onto the catamaran Don Quixote, our ride for the day. At about 7:40 am with all that done we said our last goodbyes to Mum, cast off, and motored out into the harbour. Our day had started. For the next fourteen hours most of us would be aboard the Don Quixote.
The harbour was dead flat. We had the tide and made good time down to the heads. About halfway down the harbour we called in a trip report (tango romeo) to Maritime Wellington, which lets them know our intended destination and estimated time of arrival.
We navigated around Barret Reef and headed west down the south coast. When we had motored for about an hour and a half from Seaview we were nearing Sinclair Head and I started to stash what I needed in the kayak, dressed up in all my gear, and we prepared for me to go.
We lowered the kayak into the water for my first deep water kayak start, dropping in from the side of the boat. Dad threw me my paddle, I sealed my deck onto the kayak, and basically just started paddling.
For most of the next four hours I can’t remember very much. About an hour in I started listening to some music, ate a protein pack thing, an Oaty Slice, drank some water, then continued on. At some point I noticed that an albatross was periodically checking up on me and then it was joined by what I am guessing were a couple of terns. At somewhere around the two-hour mark the Don Quixote caught up with me and for the first time in some hours I talked to the guys on the boat. Dad took some video and pics, I ate a protein pack, had an Oaty Slice, and drank some more water.
For the most part I wasn’t having one of those alone-let’s-get-terribly-deep-inside-the-mind kind of trips. I think because, without meaning to, I was concentrating very hard on what I was doing as the ocean really wasn’t flat. The wind rose at one point to fifteen to twenty knots and the swell really started to pick up to big rather than fairly big. It was this point where Dad said he started to wonder what the limit was and if I would pull the plug. I did go a little crazy at a couple of points: the first was when Space Oddity was playing I had a little bit of a croaky sing to that; and another when I realised that this trip would be a lot less boring for everyone involved if the guys on the boat had a few paintball guns and I had a target on the back of my head.
At the three-hour mark was when the boat caught me again. At this point we had passed Perano Head and five to ten km from Tory Channel. From where I was sitting in the kayak I couldn’t change any setting on the GoPro camera I had with me, and had forgotten to turn it on before I got in the water at the start. River turned on the time-lapse by remote from his phone so I do have the last hour or so up to coming into shore, and one minute-long clip at the beginning.
Anyways, so I digress…. maybe an hour from my destination. The current pushed me a couple of km’s from the Don Quixote toward the rocks near the entrance and I had to paddle pretty hard to stay off them, working against the current. I made it through the swirly whirlpool of the Tory Channel entrance.
I was in Tory Channel; on the South Island; I had paddled all the way from the North Island. I was quite pleased. I landed on the beach on the side of the channel and did a victory pose. Then jumped back in and paddled out to the Don Quixote and clambered aboard. And then proceeded to eat a lot.
We couldn’t leave immediately because of the tide and so stayed at the Perano Whaling Station for a couple of hours, rested and did some fishing and relaxing. At about two pm we tidied up and set off for Seaview again. With me aboard. The reason for this was because we probably didn’t actually have enough light anyway, but the wind had picked up so it would have taken even longer for me to paddle into it on the way back. That said it took us about six hours to get back on the catamaran anyway so it would have taken me ages paddling.
It was fairly normal boating on the way back. Solomon was at the helm. Once nightfall came I was driving and we hit the south coast rips. These rips are known for being pretty powerful and we sure felt it. The sea was kind of at a normal of height like it had been for the rest of the day, then suddenly the water became really, really calm. Then out of nowhere a huge swell rocked us and we plunged deep into a trough then up the other side then down again. This was really big, and really fun to steer in, it lasted a few minutes and then just as suddenly subsided.
We rounded Sinclair Head again and were on the last leg to the harbour, went around Barret Reef and up into the very calm harbour once more, and were where we had left in the dark twelve hours before. We motored up to Seaview without incident and moored up. I think we arrived at about 8:30 pm.
The Don Quixote was relieved of all my kayaking gear and kayak and all the rest of the food and clothes and stuff we brought. Mum met us there and we dumped all the stuff in the car and tied down the kayak to the trailer. Then thanked Simon and Peter profusely, jumped in the car and drove back to Dad’s. We dropped River and Dad off, and Solomon, Mum and I continued out to Porirua and dropped off Solomon. Then Mum and I did the last bit back home to Paekākāriki.
All in all, everyone was feeling tired and a little bit wobbly from being on the boat. It took a couple of hours to fully regain balance. I went to bed and slept for eight hours or so, woke, checked the time and slept for another two. I finally got up and unpacked and cleaned all my gear, hosing all the salt off and things.
Then it was to school by lunch time and a physics test. That went reasonably badly.
Thank you very much for all the encouragement and congratulations on the day from the school community, the Paekākāriki community, and friends and family. It meant a lot! Thank you also to my supporters, without all of whom I just could not have achieved this.
I definitely feel another adventure coming on but that is another story and I will update when I fully get my head around that.
C
Solomon and River.
O father of mine.
In the swell.
BlueBridge looking like a slightly larger than life toy. Me, normal sized toy.
Heading west past the Brothers Islands.
Looking back toward the North Island.
On the way home.