Still, the paddling felt like hard going for the first half an hour out of the harbour area and into the Sound itself as we got used to movements; with motorboats speeding past and the huge Strait-crossing ferries towering over our group of four kayaks. Luckily, as a billy-no-mates, I had Harry in the back of my canoe, taking care of all the steering! \

We paddled about 10 miles in all, crossing the Sound at the tiny Marble Island, where we drifted up to the rocks in the shallows, which were encrusted with mussles. Harry scooped up harmless Four Crescent (Four moon? something like that) jellyfish for us to hold - they were really slimy but it was cool to hold something that you've always been warned will sting you. We paddled to a tiny deserted beach for a ten minute 'morning tea' stop, then on for a tougher hour-long paddle, past more deserted beaches, and quiet bays with large, expensive houses on them, to Ngakuta Bay for lunch. Harry explained that many people see the Sounds in the idyllic summer and decide to move there; then when winter sets in they go almost crazy with the isolation (the majority of Sounds properties are only accesible by boat), and many last only 1-2 years living there. He also pointed out that NZ has very few colourfully flowering plants, because there were no bees in the country until they were introduced by European settlers (a slightly more successful introducton that possums or stoats!).
After lunch we crossed the Sound again, to follow the shoreline which is crowded with bush and rocks, birds and sealife, and silent apart from the clamour of cicadas and the slap of the water against the rocks and our paddles. Harry pointed out greenlipped mussels, starfish, and coolest of all, stingrays and eagle rays, sitting in the sand in the shallows, their barbed tails clearly visible. If we approached too closely they would glide away, dark shadows moving over the seabed, under our boats and out into the deeper water.

Our final paddle of the day took us across back to Ngatuka Bay, a rougher crossing with a sidewind - we got pretty soaked! It was tiring work, even with Harry, who could paddle the kayak all day on his own, and by the time we reach the shore we're definitely ready to finish for the day.

That evening two guys motorcycling around the South Island turn up, and it turns out one of them is from Basingstoke, having moved over to NZ with his family ten years ago. A pretty cool coincidence; I didn't think to ask but I'm pretty sure not much would perusuade him to move back to the UK (particularly Basingstoke?) now

written by  LizIsHere on February 14, 2010 from Picton, New Zealand
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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Sounds very exciting! I love to travel to seasides - lying on the Sandy beaches, swimming in the sea and viewing the setting sun is always overwhelming...

written by  Brenda Evans on February 17, 2010

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