An Overnight Kayak Expedition
The purpose of the expedition was to practice packing kayaks for expeditions and to complete the last clause of Boating Skills Interest Certificate.
We left Boat Centre at about 3:30 pm and headed up the harbour towards Meola Reef (an old lava flow which stretches out into the harbour for several kilometres). When we reached the reef we had to go out and round it until we found a section underwater enough to cross over. At this point the incoming tidal stream took us through it really fast!
We were then opposite Coyle Park and started up Meola Creek - though there was so much mud flat it looked like there was no channel ahead of us. The creek wound through mangroves, past people's back yards and eventually through a square culvert under Meola Rd. We'd floated down the creek in rubber tyres two years earlier to check it's navigability for kayaks, and now found that the trip was a lot speedier in kayaks.
When we were within sight of our disembarking point - a park just down the hall from the den - we found that the tide wasn't quite high enough and we had to wait ten minutes before we could slide over the last lot of rocks and approach the grassy bank. It was now about 5pm.
We then had to carry our kayaks through the park and along the road to the Den - we must have looked very strange carrying and wheeling kayaks along a suburban road dressed in wetsuits and buoyancy vests. We were glad we'd been able to bring two set of wheels with us so we didn't have to carry all the kayaks, even though one set wouldn't dismantle and had to travel strapped upside down on top of Busby's kayak!
We cooked dinner, played cards, slept and rose early to pack up and catch the outgoing tide back to Boat Centre.
When we went to launch in the morning, Camel and Rosered worked out where and how we could seal launch by sliding our kayaks down the bank into the water so we wouldn't get our feet wet.
The trip back was quick, and all too soon we were back at Westhaven carrying our kayaks up the steps so we could unpack and head home.
Altogether it was a really good exercise, we had a lot of fun and feel a lot more confident about doing a full weekend expedition with some serious paddling time in the future!
Who were we?
Camel, Rose Red, M-from-Blockhouse-Bay-Rangers, Agoo, Busby and Wildflower-who-was-on-cructhes-so-couldn't-kayak-but-stayed-overnight-with-us.
You can see all the photos here.
