Kayaking up North

So far this holiday was unusual in that Jim had not subjected me to any near death experiences (well the water polo almost counted!) so we spent a day kayaking in the surf at Elliots Bay. You had to be careful not to ride a wave all the way in as the waves were dumping right on the shore – getting back out was interesting and involved a few nose over tail experiences. The water was a beautiful colour with white white breakers. The next day we kayaked down the mighty Kerikeri river. A few years ago we had mounted a similar expedition up this river, when we had been anchored below the stone store with three other cruising boats we had met in the Islands. We walked up the track carrying 2 kayaks, our inflatable and an inflatable kayak and then variously floated downstream with much hilarity. I seem to remember Jim deflating the dinghy just as we went over the weir at the bottom. This time it was just us on our kayaks. I managed to hit every rock in the river and get pinned under a tree branch but still very good fun!