An animal among them

Today I started my day with a sunrise kayak in the Tasman sea along the shores of Raglan. I was the only one out there in the channels of water except for two fishing boats and one speed boat. The hostel worker let me take the kayak out early just because she happened to want to go out for a surf at sunrise. This little blonde Swedish sweetie lugged the kayak from the front of the hostel to the water, dropped it just at the eaters edge of the cement boat ramp, and as I waddled yo in my rain pants and rain jacket, with paddle in hand and life jacket hugging me close, she sprang with a, "okay have fun bye!" And ran off.

I knew not where I was supposed to go. I was not informed what ws the usual route, where were the sites to see, or if there were any areas that were off limits. I rolled up my pant legs to just above my knees (which included both the top layer of rain pants and my grey thin quick dry O'Neil surf pants (aka my hiking pants) pushed the kayak to floating level, and gingerly scooted my tushie in. As I gently and calming started paddling, I did a quick scan of my options in the distance and decided to go right, out towards the ocean channels. Not into the deep part of the rustic ocean, but the intersections. It seemed harmless. It looked calm and I could see the pancake rocks in the distance - which were the destination posted on the activity wall of the hostel suggesting, "kayak to the pancake rocks!" Cool, this must be the direction I should go in.

For some reason while paddling I kept veering to the left. I constantly was trying to adjust and balance and never quite got there. The foot rests were also say too far away for my short legs. All good though. No worries. Not a problem. Having a blast!

I wandered, just going along the coastline, down on the right side, away from the mouth of the ocean. Made it to a fishing boat dock, then took a left across the large choppy channel towards the pancake rocks. The water was a bit rough and there was a time or two that I second guessed my actions, but I knew I could handle it because I'd been in worse and I was thoroughly enjoying the workout. Once I got to the rocks, I had arrived somewhere magical. There were geese all over the rocks and on the coastline. They were either yelping to try to scare me off, or to warn there brothers and sisters. They stay put, and yap it up, until I got to a certain distance, then they did their half running on water into flying escape. The pancake rocks themselves, in all different shapes, jutting out from beneath the ocean water, was beautiful on its own. But adding in the geese calling to one another and galavanting across that ocean top - wow. It was amazing. I turned a corner around more amazing formations of slabs of rocks, and there were even more geese. It was just me and them. As if my body attached to the orange kayak made me into a giant duck and I was now an animal among them. Somewhere no one else had been or would ever experience. There were 20-30 of them lining the shores and peering above form the towers of rock pancakes. All turned towards me. All barking at me and each other. A messy loud, but beautiful sonata. My own personal wild sunrise opera. I was in it. I soaked it all in. I was among them. I wish they knew I was not going to cause harm, but hopefully from my smile and my departure they learned I was only there to observe the glorious beauty that is their world.

After more pancakes, more birds, and more choppy waters, I finally returned, around two hours later. Exhausted. Famished. I saw the sweet Swedish girl again and told her briefly about my adventure. And quickly found out that she gave me a river kayak and therefore I was not supposed to go out to the pancake rocks across the ocean channel. Oops! She never told me that! She didn't tell me anything. Oh well!

The rest of the day was pretty much a wash. I napped on the lawn and tolerated the sulfur smell of Rotarua while my travel buddy went to Hobbiton. Best part of it all, we decided to leave town as soon as she was down, and get down to Tongariro to do the alpine crossing tomorrow!!! So we stocked up on hiking food, which I particularly love to do, and booked a hostel. Tonight we'll be sharing a double bed. Tomorrow we'll be up with the mountain and volcanoes! Woo hoo!!!

K goodnight.

-Tash