Kayaking Queen Charlotte Sound

Text taken from the club newsletter.

Kayaking Queen Charlotte Sound by KATE HODGKINSON

Labour weekend marked a number of firsts for me— my first time on a WTMC trip, my first time stepping foot on the South Island, and my first time seeing a pod of dolphins in the wild.

It also marked my formal education in a number of crucial life-lessons, mainly: if there’s even the remotest possibility that you may get sea-sick, don’t sit right at the front of the ferry to admire the view, regardless of the number of sea-sickness tablets taken beforehand; there is such a thing as ‘dehydrated vegetables’ (being reasonably new off the boat from that grey place on the other side of the world that is the UK, this was a revelation to me—much to the amusement of Kevin and Tony); don’t pitch your tent next to a stream when rain is forecast; and returning to the office after a long weekend is made so much sweeter by being able to recount a pretty epic weekend with WTMC to one’s colleagues who, on the whole, ‘didn’t do very much’.

After a ferry ride that was more eventful for some than others, we were met by Steve from the Kayak hire company and driven to their boat shed at the south end of Queen Charlotte Sound where we bedded down for the night—after admiring the stars (NB. you don’t see stars like that in London!).

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and, blessed with glorious sunshine and calm weather despite the rather foreboding weather forecast, were all raring to get paddling. Lyndsay and Michele arrived at the boat shed just in time to display to us all the true level of comfort that can be enjoyed on a kayak trip. With barely disguised envy at the ease to which Lyndsay’s fold-up deck chair slipped into the bow of his kayak, we got kitted up and after a safety briefing from Steve we loaded the trailer and headed to Ngakuta Bay.

We buddied up with our paddling partners and, with buoyancy aid packets crammed full of snacks, pushed off into the Sounds.

The morning’s Met Service forecast was for the weather to turn in the afternoon so we decided to play it safe and paddle to the campsite at Kumutoto Bay, just a few paddling hours away, in time to set up camp before lunch. En route, we passed a number of solo seals chilling out on the rocks. I was just thinking how big they were when Tony told me they must have been juveniles as they were so small.

With the image of walrus-sized seals in my head we carried on across Christys Bay and out across Torea Bay. Crossing the middle of the bays proved to be pretty exhilarating as the wind was, for now at least, helping us along.

We had just landed at our campsite when we spotted a pod of dolphins out in the bay. Alix and Rory donned their wetsuits and snorkelling gear in earnest and headed out to see if they could find them. With Rory in just a ¾ wetsuit and no boots or gloves between the pair of them, they put up a valiant effort and came back with handfuls of muscles for our dinner.

After lunch, me, Tony, Alix, Debbie, Hans and Rory decided to take a hike up the hill at the back of the campsite to see if we could join on to the Queen Charlotte Track at the top. This proved to be an at-times near-vertical, almost-impassable, assault course through supplejack vines. After realising we’d only gained 100 m of the 400 m elevation we needed to get up to the track after going for an hour, we decided we were fighting a bit of a losing battle against the vines and turned back.

We were greeted at the campsite by a smug set of rested kayakers telling us that was the reason they opted out of the walk. The six of us should be in the running for some sort of perseverance prize though as we did continue on well beyond the point at which any sane person would have given up! You can see Alix for video evidence of our plight.

After a delicious dinner of fresh muscles, veg pasta and cake with custard (which Kevin got a little too excited about) we headed for bed.

The rain came during the night and me and Alix woke up to find ourselves in the middle of a pool of water. It turns out that pitching our tent next to the stream in order to shelter from the wind was a bad decision. We’d have taken the wind over 4 am emergency dry- bagging any day!

However, Sunday proved to be just as glorious as the previous day so we made a group decision to paddle on to Ratimera Bay for a spot of lunch before embarking on an epic voyage back down to Umungata Bay in anticipation of the weather front that was due to move in on Monday.

After 7 hours of paddling, much of which was into headwinds, we pulled into Umungata Bay and set up camp while the feat of the paddling we has just done sunk in and we got a brew going.

Dinner that night involved the notorious dehydrated vegetables and enough fruit salad to sink a battleship.

After borrowing a spare ground sheet me and Alix woke up in a perfectly dry tent on Monday morning and it felt like we’d spent the night in a five star hotel.

We all had a relaxed morning before packing our kayaks for the final time and heading out on a quick paddle to our last port of call. We were met at Anakiwa by Steve and we headed back to the boat shed for much needed showers and lunch.

We arrived into Picton with a few hours to spare before our ferry set sail. Some opted for beer, some for fish and chips—and some for crazy golf. Apparently you’re never too old to enjoy a game of pitch ‘n’ put!

After such an awesome weekend we all wearily boarded the ferry back to Wellington that evening while recounting the weekend’s most memorable moments and saying what a brilliant job Kevin and Lyndsay had done organising and leading the trip.

As we stepped off the boat in Wellington late Monday evening and Labour Weekend came to a close, I realised I couldn’t think of a way I would rather have spent it. Kevin Cole (leader), Lyndsay Fletcher (kayak co-leader), Michele, Helen Law, Tony Gazley, Rory MacLellan, Pete Gent, Anna Lambrechtsen, Sue Walsh, Alison laferriere, Hans Wisckerkie, Debbie Buck, and Kate Hodgkinson. M Kayak—Queen Charlotte Sound.

Photos: KATE HODGKINSON and TONY GAZLEY