We got up pretty early and drove a minute down the road to a local kayak outfitter. We hired a double kayak and got our dry bags situated. We got a safety briefing before getting on the bus down to the ocean. Tractors were used to take the kayak trailer down to the surf. In our kayaks, the group of us went over a couple paddling maneuvers. It was a nice sunny day with a bit of wind. Finally on our own, we paddled out to the smaller of the islands, Fisherman Island. We beached the boat and walked up on shore. We heard a noise and all the sudden, a seal popped up from behind a rock. We took pictures and hung out with it for awhile and snacked on some food.
We paddled over to Adele Island and around the backside of it. This is where a seal colony lives and we were able to get up pretty close to them. It's mating season so the bigger ones were going after the smaller, less territorial ones. They were putting on quite a show for us. We saw probably about 15 of them then headed towards the mainland, which is part of the Abel Tasman great walk. We went a good distance before stopping at a little beach. It was mostly rocky but had a nice little lagoon. We continued on in search of a bigger beach. The beach at Te Pukatea Bay was much better but of course that meant there were more people. I walked the beach looking for shells while Ryan explored a cave and walked along the rocks.
We finally looked at the clock and it was 2:40 and we had to have the kayaks back at 4:00. Time had surely slipped away from us. We made it out of the bay but the waves had grown in the open water. We had to maneuver around a string of big rocks in the waves which was a challenge. I had never been in swells that big before in a kayak. The strong winds helped push us along for quite a ways. We paddled and paddled our hearts out without taking many breaks. The wind ended up dying down so we only relied on our tired arms. It felt like forever until we got to the boat ramp. We paddled hard for almost two hours while worrying we were going to be late and charged for bringing the kayak back late. Fortunately, we were late but there were other people that were even later who we waited on. We loaded the kayak and bussed back to the barn.
We left Marahau and went north to Collingwood. We found a holiday park where there were many children who were on a school trip running around. It was our nightly entertainment. We cooked up quinoa, vegetables, and steak. We were allowed to move our rent spot away from the noisy kids to a quieter, more grassy area. We set up our tent in the rain and went to bed.
