kayaking at the bottom end

yesterday we dusted off the kayaks and banished all the spiders ready to head down to the bottom end of the island this morning. so all we had to do after breakfast today was load them on to the car and head off. it was the first time we’d tied them to the car using new kayak racks that we got for the roof rack and we had to stop halfway to our destination to re-adjust and re-tie one as it fell over (though thankfully not off the car)!

there’s load of little bays all over waiheke and today i wanted to explore some around the coast from orapiu wharf. it was fairly busy out there, as there’s a ferry that goes to rotoroa island and coromandel from auckland and it stops to collect passengers from here on the way. but, despite the ferry traffic, we managed to get a park right down at the wharf with a beach area where we could slide the kayaks into the water easily (and also get them out again once the tide was lower).

we didn’t go far, just paddled close to the shoreline round a few of the bays – saw loads of stingrays in the water, some fairly large, but they were too fast for me to get any photos. there’s houses of all sizes tucked into the bays and it was fun getting a glimpse of them from the water.

there were three i was particularly fascinated by…

…one looked like a little wooden folly, tucked high up into the bush on a ridge above a little bay. the bay also clearly well used, with two bright blue beach chairs and a couple of kayaks at the shoreline.

… the second was an l-shaped place, right on the water of a bay shared with two other houses …

… and the third had a curved roofline and was tucked in between the trees, with floor to ceiling windows on both levels and a pretty little boathouse out the front.

we paddled from orapiu, through omaru bay, patio bay and around to waikorariki bay where we got dive bombed by gulls, most likely protecting their babies, before heading back to where we’d started. it was a fun couple of hours on the water. i’m pretty sure it was the last outing for my GoPro today – by the time i took the photo of the gull, the screen was basically blank and i had no idea if the camera was even working or not. it seems to have taken in some water somehow recently and it’s been slowly decreasing in functionality ever since. most of the photos today were using my fuji, which i carried tucked in my kayak in a drybag.