Author: Justine

S43°52.37' E172°17.51'

Day 3 saw a force 5 wind on the beam, though some surfing was still possible. The highlight of a sunny day was an airborne dolphin! 50km of paddling finished with a nasty landing through dumping surf.

[alex on behalf of jc]

S43°53.68' E172°52.86'

Day 2 brings a lovely hot day, with sightings of lots of dolphins, seals and birds. 45km of paddling alongside big cliffs brings tired muscles!

[alex on behalf of jc]

Justine and Barry have set off!

S43°40.4' E173°03.4'

On day one, they had hot sun and saw dolphins. Barry rolled in the surf. They managed 30km in 5 hours and are feeling good!

[alex on behalf of jc]

PICKING UP THE KAYAKS FROM CANOE & KAYAK WORLD, BARRY & KEV
BARRY SORTING OUT THE KAYAKS WITH GAIL & IAN
We’re nearly ready and we plan to start our trip tomorrow morning ( Saturday), probably from Littleton Harbour in Christchurch but that’s still to be confirmed!

We were delayed getting to Christchurch yesterday and arrived around midday so we’d have really struggled to start the trip today, even if we’d wanted to. The last day and a half have been spent shopping and getting sorted. We collected our kayaks from “Canoe & Outdoor World” ( thanks again Kev for paying to ship the kayaks down from Auckland, and for lending us some flares), we spent over 2 hours food shopping and even more time unpacking and repacking it, we’ve bought other bits and pieces, filled fuel bottles, etc etc. The floor at Ian and Gails is still covered with all my stuff so we’re not finished yet! but we’re getting there.
BARRY CHECKS OUT THE SURF NEAR TO WHERE WE’RE STAYING

it’s warm here, sleeveless t-shirt warm and the weather is reasonably settled so it’s a good time to get going. The plan is to warm up over the next few days and not go mad. Right, back to it!!
FILLING UP FUEL BOTTLES