Kayaking and the Cook Strait

Today we got our water taxi from Furneaux Lodge and, by a round-about route, made it to Torea Bay where we were picked up by our guide, Marius, and taken over the saddle to Portage Bay.  It was drizzling (or perhaps we were just in the cloud base).  We got kitted up for our day of sea kayaking and headed off to the water. The plan, we were told, was to head to a bay that we could see across the water, look at a few coves, have lunch and come back.  We set off and Marius was quickly into a rethink as we reached the chosen bay somewhat sooner than anticipated.  We paddled on (and on) and were able to hug the coast and see mussel beds and oysters on the rocks.  There were stingrays and jellyfish in the water and shoals of whitebait making the surface 'bubble' as they broke the surface.  Pete was also cajoled into trying fishing from the kayak with a mussel as bait - something bit, but only took the mussel not the hook.  We paddled back to our start point with Marius telling us we had done most of the whole day trip not just the half day - when we asked how far we had been, he said he reckoned we had covered the thick end of 20km!!  It did not seem that far at the time.  Then it was back by water taxi to Picton, repossess our bags and check in for the Interislander.  The ferry takes over 3 hours but had the television on so more viewing of the Sevens on the way across.  We arrived in Wellington in the glare of the floodlights of the Westpac Stadium (where the rugby was still going on - England were playing the 3rd/4th match as we disembarked), got our last rental car and set off for our B&B.  We were warmly greeted when we arrived and, as we got our bags out, our arms were telling us that we had, indeed, paddled quite a distance earlier.  Sufficeth to say that we both slept well!