Monday, Feb 1, 2016

It was a very warm, sunny day with very few clouds. We headed a few kilometres north to a town called Kaiteriteri to check in for our excursion which included a 1 hour boat ride 3 hours of kayaking, followed by a boat ride back to Kaiteriteri.

The kayaking was a great experience. Our guide, Jack,

escorted Cheryl and myself,

Alex from Sydney, Australia and Rebecca from Perth, Australia,

as well as, Josh and Kate from England.

It was a great group and we had a lot of fun kayaking the shores.

During our trip I was able to take this picture of a stingray.

Then, to top off the day, it got quite windy so Jack told us that we were going to try to sail back. This involved the three kayaks rafting together. The people in the middle canoe held the two outside canoes together, the front outside people held the front of the sail and the two back outside people, held the other end of the sail in the air with their paddles, which were fastened to the sails. When the rear paddles were lifted in the air the sail caught the wind and we started to sail.

We were able to sail back and then we waited for the boat to return and bring us back to Kaiteriteri. When we did get back, we started driving to Picton for the night.

On the way Cheryl found a restaurant called the ” Mussel Pot ” where we stopped for dinner, so, I had to try the mussels. I’m not a mussel expert but they were good.

As we continued winding our way through the mountains again, I just had to take a picture of the forest-covered mountains and the waters of Cook Strait.

When we finally arrived in Picton, we located a campsite very close to the ferry terminals and set up our camp.