Preparations

The idea for a sea boating trip started to germinate in my mind a couple of days after I dislocated my shoulder on a rapid called The Abyss on the Kaituna river. Faced with a long recovery with lots of time out of a boat, I was at a loss as to what to do for the next few months. Climbing, surfing and swimming all hurt too much at the time and physio was only just bearable. Hanging out with boaters, day in, day out, watching them get off the river with huge grins on their faces, listening to their stories only made me more psyched to join them at the get on, but my shoulder wasn't ready.

With plenty of time on my hands while Doug was on the river, I got through about 4 books a week. The van was pretty much overflowing. Varying from Pratchett to texts on the history of the Atlantic ocean, I lucked across a variety of sea kayaking books in the sports section of Rotorua Library. Brian Wilson's Blazing Paddles was my first exposure to sea kayaking literature, his story of paddling, solo, around Scotland's coast. I then indulged myself in his other book, Dances With Waves, also about a solo sea trip, this time around Ireland. Both are beautifully written, and contain a wealth of information about the day to day routine of sea kayaking and poetic descriptions of the history and geography of the landscapes that he paddles past. All in all, he does a great job of romanticising all the callouses, chafing, sore muscles and fatigue that come hand in hand with spending 6 hours a day sitting in a boat.

Next up on the list of literature that psyched me up for multi day trip was Southern Exposure, by Chris Duff. He writes about his experiences on the second successful solo circumnavigation of the South Island of New Zealand, a feat that I could only truly appreciate after my modest 2 week paddle. He spends multiple months battling the Tasman sea and South Pacific in a tremendously committing paddle around an incredibly remote coastline. Sea boaters, given the choice, prefer jagged coastlines, which offer shelter from a variety of swells and winds. A significant proportion of the west coast in his trip consisted of long, straight surf beach. Nothing to really mark your progress, and nothing but huge Tasman swells to look forward to at the beginning and end of every day; swells large enough to snap his first boat in half after a misjudged landing, forcing a helicopter evacuation. Doesn't that really make you want to take up sea boating?

Another boater that inspired me to dip my toes into sea boating was Paul Caffyn, someone that I believe every boater, whatever discipline, could learn from. His list of truly epic solo circumnavigations in the late seventies and eighties is barely believable. It includes the first solo circumnavigation of the South Island in '78, followed by the first solo circumnavigation of the North Island in '78/9, followed by a crossing of the Foveaux Straight with a circumnavigation Stewart Island, off the southern tip of New Zealand, in '79. Topping this off with the first circumnavigation of Britain in '80, he then went on to circumnavigate Australia in '81/82 and the four main islands of Japan in '85. Each one of this small selection of his trips (you can look up the rest - there are more!) is incredible, but to put them all into the space of 7 years is the work of some kind of paddling psychopath. He has the drive to regularly paddle 50 mile days, where I ran out of gas after 20. He did 100 mile days in his Australian circumnavigation, taking pills to keep himself awake and stop his bowels, all to get past inhospitable stretches of coastline. He is a machine, and whenever I found myself flagging, I found a lot of strength in knowing that if he could push himself that far, I could get my lazy ass round the next headland.

I am also indebted to Kerry Howe, an experienced kiwi boater who wrote a text called Coastal Sea Kayaking in New Zealand. A practical manual of multi day sea boating, it was invaluable in telling my what I would expect and need for my trip. 

So with the enthusiasm and knowledge gained from reading the books above (which I would thoroughly recommend to everyone), I set out on a massive shopping spree. Boat, paddles, tents, stove, charts, and all the other accoutrements that I would need were all purchased on the weeks preceding the trip. All that was left was picking up the boat and paddling!

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug.