Kayak: 12km

A rest day - yay! But still exercise - boo...will we ever learn?

The best of starts - we got picked up in a bus! We were driven from Motueka to Marahau to meet up with our guide and group for the day and to get our kayaking gear. Our Kiwi Kayaks guide was called Tom and is originally from Oxford. Despite living in NZ for 10 years he has retained his British sense of humour and doesn't say "It's all good" or "sweet". Smashing. The rest of our group were cool too - three other Brits (one, Claire, a nurse on her way back from Afghanistan), one Czech lady and a Kiwi lady from Hamilton. We all had two-man kayaks and were given woolly hats, polyprop thermals, waterproof jackets, wetsuit shoes and spray skirts.

On hearing we were cycling round NZ Tom allocated the heavy kayak to Scott and I (little did he know how rubbish we are at paddling, the Wanganui River journey capsize still fresh in our minds...). We were also first into the sea and, with all eyes on us, Scott tried to steer with no rudder. "Why is everybody shouting rudder at me?". He soon got the hang of it through (until we came in to land at lunchtime and then went right instead of left, my usual trick!). We were really tired and after five minutes of paddling we wondered what on earth had possessed us to do a kayak trip. After admitting we felt like this to each other we decided that we would sacrifice our cycle to Farewell Spit (in two days time) for a COMPLETE rest day. Once this was decided we were much happier and paddled along with a bit more conviction.

We stopped every now and then to enter caves, look at cormorants (pied shags) and to hear about the history of the area. We also democratically determined whether to stop for coffee and cookies or to carry on and have a longer lunch break later; Scott and I voted for cookies now and were outnumbered by everyone else. Spot the ones who have to stop and eat something every 90 minutes!

Before lunch we ran the gauntlet of the 'Mad Mile', a particularly exposed, choppy section where you have to paddle through a slim bit of reef. It was fun. We had lunch on a lovely beach (soup, roll, muffins and fruit) and then walked up to a lookout over Anchorage Bay. After lunch I took the back seat for a go at steering and got to finish off the Mad Mile. We were right behind Tom and Claire and they got hit by a big wave and swept left a few metres but somehow we managed to keep our course. It was pretty exciting and we both had a little adrenalin rush! Next we did a loop of Pinnacle Islands where NZ fur seals bask (we saw mothers feeding their pups) and headed into Bark Bay to meet our water taxi back to Marahau. The taxi ride was fun too as there was a 1-2 metre swell and we bagged the front seats! The last section of the trip was being towed along the road by a tractor whilst still in the boat (Bruce drove the morning bus, water taxi and tractor and seemed to be the butt of all jokes!) ! We had a brilliant day, one of the best, with a great group and in a beautiful place. I'd really recommend this trip on a visit to NZ.

Back at the scuzzy White Elephant we braved the kitchen to cook a big pasta dinner to prepare us for the famed Takaka Hill tomorrow. The kitchen was so bad we decided to have breakfast in a cafe tomorrow. I'd really not recommend this hostel on a visit to NZ. Anyway, we were pooped from our adventures and slept well.