Bruce's Annual
Manapouri Kayaking Trip Report Friday night started with the standard
departure from tile clubrooms at 6 O'clock' (near enough). A pleasant
drive to Gore for refuelling - people and vehicles. Then on to the
Manapouri Carrying Ground and the prerequisite drink at the local. And
finally into our respective caves (huts).
Saturday dawned grey
with a low overcast sky but still barely a ripple on tile lake. A
leisurely breakfast and down to Frazers Beach at 9am for the Fiordland
Wilderness Experiences safety and gear tally People then sorted
themselves and their gear into the kayaks. The storage space might be
large but one or two still managed to challenge that! We were on the
water by around 11am. By then the cloud had started to lift and the sun
was shining through. We headed across a mirror calm Manapouri to Stony
Point and around the corner 500m to a nice sandy beach for lunch. After
lunch we paddled on past Belle Vue island, on which resided a large
rookery of black back gulls, and Mahara Island. Then across the mouth of
Hope Arm to Stockyard Cove for afternoon tea. But this was short lived -
the local fauna (sandflies) decided it was their afternoon tea time too!
A quiet paddle into a light southerly then ensued with a gently
increasing chop till we reached the end of Hope Arm and the camp
site/hut.
Fiona's insertion.
"Mountainous sets and gale force wind in our faces (a smattering of
whitecaps and a stiff breeze on tile nose), exhausted bodies stagger up
the beach (well at least 2 of us were exhausted)- revived with great
food and a wee drop of liquid refreshment a great camp fire and some
really bad jokes - ask Terry to tell you the one about the
gynecologist." Sunday morning the weather was similar to Saturday. A
crashing of pot and lid being banged together disturbed the morning air
- Bruce reminding us time to arise. Time to load the kayaks and head
toward the track at tile bottom of Monument (a monument shaped hill) The
reward of the fantastic panoramic view from Hope Arm around to Frazers
Beach/Pearl Harbour was well worth the amble (a little rope assisted
rock climb also required). Back down and time for am early lunch.
Oooppps someone. didn't get tire message that it was lunchtime.
Next stop an early
afternoon tea (and lunch for the confused ones) Off round Stony Point
and a raft up for photos. Kerry demonstrating her agility by tiptoeing
across the kayaks from one end to the other and back The odd water
incursion occurred as the day continued to warm. Then finally back to
Frazers Beach to unpack the kayaks and repack the cars.
Once the kayaks were
empty Kerry and Paul (yours truly) decided to see what the water world
looked like upside down and the right side up again (Eskimo roll time).
A slightly chilling experience - I'm not sure how the Antarctic
Peninsula guys managed it.
An ice cream in
Mossburn, tea in Gore, and finally home to Dunnos.
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