Class Twelve Projects! It is October 2015, after years of anticipation finally the time has come to choose my own project, the pressure is on because I have to live with this choice for the whole of the next year and I want to stick with it once I have started.  The original list of options included mural painting, cooking, crafting a dance piece and audio engineering, however time and time again my passion for getting out on the water superseded any other ideas. The notion of “kayaking my heart out” became the only true path!

My first idea was to do a full circumnavigation of Aotearoa, or at least the North Island. After doing some research we discovered that this might take several months and some solid experience to achieve, which is at odds with having to still be in school five days a week to gain year thirteen NCEA and our Steiner School Certificates!

The next think tank session came up with the much more measurable challenge of the Cook Strait Crossing…solo….there and back…could I do it and what was it going to take?

The Class Twelve Projects have a hefty handbook that come with them -- has anyone read the whole thing?. The main stipulations from my point of view are that:

1. we do something awesome and unique and that matters to us

2. we ask a grown up (member of staff) at school to support us to get it all together

3. we find a willing mentor outside of the school environment that is an expert in the field

4. we put together at least a three thousand word research report

5. we culminate the project with a display of our project and a public speech in front of hundreds of peers and families in a theater in September!

Having covered numbers 1 and 2 on the list, I then struck gold using the friend of a friend method and got in contact with Conrad Edwards in Titahi Bay.

Conrad has completed over twenty solo and double crossings of the Strait, and when you meet him, he has that warm yet steely look in his eyes that says “I know what I am talking about”.  His boat house, complete with jetty and the sound of stays clinking on masts, has more than half a dozen kayaks hung in the rafters.  A pot belly stove; Turkish rug and chaise lounge that gives itadded cosyness; and framed photographs of Conrad kayaking from all around the planet, complete the image of my adventurer’s dream.

With first meeting over and a couple of dense looking text books in my hands, Conrad agreed to mentor me through the project (phew and yay!).

Conrad’s web-site is a mine of information Conradedwards.net

CONRAD'S GOLDEN RULES

• Don't underestimate Cook Strait
• Be prepared to cancel before
• Be prepared to abort during
• Plan to cross at neaps
• Plan for slack water in the western strait
• Cross with a high after a southerly or a trough between lows
• Don't trust the weather forecast
• Enjoy

So, mentor found and on to the doing part, training and research documentation… oh, maybe there should have been a point 2.5 in the list – getting buy-in from my parents.  Even the training is going to take a new kayak (mine at this stage is a white water boat not suited for this open water mission at all) and a whole lot of time commitment from me and them….

The contract was drafted and ceremonially signed…..

I had literally signed my freedom away, and now things were starting to look seriously committed.

Following a lead from Conrad my parents found a modest sea kayak in a second hand store in Masterton and it arrived under the tree for Christmas. Little Peppin was to become a familiar companion as my training boat around the coast line. We still needed to resource a bigger and sleeker craft for the crossing proper.

At this stage, the summer holidays in the surf at Paekākāriki were at an end. I had had a great week kayaking the rivers at the top of the South Island with my best friend Toby and his family; now it was back to school and Lower Hutt and early morning starts for training runs out to Matiu/Sommes Island in the middle of Wellington harbour. it was still warm enough for 6 a.m. in the water not to suck too much!

Figuring out the tides and times for a crossing over the next few months and reading the weather and getting some good training runs was progressing nicely under the watchful gaze of Conrad.

The two biggest hurdles aside from safety and fitness for me are:

• borrowing a more pro kayak for the duration of the project, and

• finding someone with a suitable vessel willing to be ready to go on the possible crossing dates to be my support boat in case the weather packs up, or I fall apart fitness wise, or a whale tries to eat me…

In March my second big break came when, after a cold call to Canoe and Kayak in Wellington, the store’s owner, Andy Blake, stepped into the project like a fairy godfather. Andy agreed to meet with me one evening in Titahi Bay where he takes his clients on kayak test-drives. Andy is friendly and full of energy and enthusiasm. He also takes the sport seriously and over the next few weeks had me out on the bay looking at water safety and practicing ‘John Waynes’ and paddling technique.

Somewhere along the line he answered one of the big quests and offered the use of his lovely and well-travelled sea kayak for the training and crossing. The caveat was ‘you break it you buy it’, which at several thousand dollars I intend to make sure, broken it is not!  

Since then Andy has continued his amazing support, kitting me and the boat out for a test trip north and lending me his VHF radio and PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). Thanks Andy!

So, the training distances and hours, the equipment and safety gear, and the schedule of possible crossing dates (weather dependent) are all sorted out.

I decided early on to set up a web-site for the project so that I could use a daily blog to record and journal progress, as well as getting feedback and seeking support.  Using the website to create and store my research for the project also allows me to use multimedia and I have been interviewing experts and gathering stories as I broaden and deepen my understanding from various perspectives of Raukawa Moana.

I have spent a good many hours in the last month in front of a screen, googling and wiki’ing, laying out web pages and editing video on Vegas… things get a bit manic occasionally and a couple of hours blasting around the harbour is a pretty good antidote.

All this preparation is building to the crossing slowly and surely. Still waiting for the support boat to arrive like a proverbial genie out of the bottle. Hoping to at least have a chance to have a decent crack at my dream of the solo double crossing over one epic 70 km day of paddling!

In the meantime I have met the harbours resident seal, kayaked around Mana Island, been out on a fishing boat for the day, had an early morning shower under the fountain at Oriental Bay, called the Harbour Master to rescue my Dad in a fierce gale….