Today 50km from Maharanui to Mangawaiti

Less Rapids today and no unintentional swimming, a super pleasant day all around.

Started the morning with a quick paddle down to Whakahoro where we paddled up a side stream to a landing then walked up a road to a cafe! To get a coffee litrally in the middle of nowhere, delightful!

bbn

Had a fun day gliding down the river, much more comfortable and used to paddling and maneuvering the kayak now.

Had some sweet stop offs for snacks and lunch. All the campsites are really nice locations up on the riverbanks. Although our lunch spot came complete with a swarm of wasps that seemed to love me! I got really aggravated so moved into a wasp free area.

Probably time I mention my kayak fashion. Because the sun is so strong and I’m really exposed on the kayak with my legs out. With this is mind, yesterday on day 1 of this adventure I sunblocked as usual but had socks on and totally forgot about my feet, which then got roasted in the sun all day.

Rookie error. I’m now wearing socks in the kayak for a few days while my feet recover!!

When we got to camp we had to haul all the barrels up some nicely built stairs to the camp area. It was a busy camp with about 15 other tents!

Everyone had there space to cook and socialise, even though the camps are busy they have been well laid out with lots of picnic tables and space.

Managed to get a few sneaky river snaps today [I’m only whipping the phone out sometimes as I dont want it to drown!]

This is basically my view all day on the kayak.