Another first for Ellie today, kayaking! Haha I keep winding her up that I’m going on my own and she’ll have to paddle her own, at sea, where there’s sharks and seals. Woohoo we couldn’t wait!

Our bus picked us up for 8.30am and took us over to another town closer to the national park before we met three more girls and our kayak instructor.
Ellie was lucky, they only had double kayaks. I was on steering. But kayaks I haven’t seen before, they had pedals in the back seat that moved a fin on the back that steered us left or right so I didn’t have to keep steering us with the paddle, fantastic invention!!

The steering was made very easy but the rowing was not, Ellie got herself soaking because she was flicking the paddle out of the water to close and quick to her and was going half the speed as me, proved to be very difficult at times haha. In the end I just went at my speed and everyone and then she would catch me up on the speed or with the right left right left momentum. Lucky for us there was no wind today which was so nice for a change, it made it feel warm outside. We paddled along for a long while passed Adele island and spotted lots of seals bathing on the side or playing about in the water, the National Park was stunning and had been protected for over 60 years - you could tell. There’s a kiwi couple that donated 35 million dollars to the park to sort it out, kill the canadian fur trees because they’re killing the native trees and poison and kill the stouts and rats that are killing the birds because most native kiwi birds are flightless.

After the kayaking we got dropped off at watering hole and gave the kayak back to the guide whilst they carried on and we walked up over through the national park into anchorage bay for lunch on the beach and a sun bathe before we got our sail boat back to the main land.
It was a sail/catamaran not with two American old couples on it that loved to chat, say everything was amazing and have debates that turned sour but we were too busy enjoying the scenery wrapped up in fleecy blankets they provided on the boat. It was stunning! We headed over to Apple split rock which is basically a rock that’s balancing on top of another rock but has somehow been split directly down the middle.

After jumping off the freezing cold but lovely catamaran Ellie has already decided on what she’s having for tea and that we are splitting two dishes because she wants a bit of both (fish and chips and pizza) on the kiwi deal in the pub next to the lodge lol. She’s bloody funny!

Then we stayed up and about for the Wales v New Zealand game bronze place cup. Just about kept our eyes open for the entire rubbish game that we lost. A load of us stayed even though most of them were English; me and Ellie just about sat it out there with them.
Couldn’t wait to get to bed absolutely shattered after biking and kayaking and hiking today. So glad we came here for a few days and not just one like most people!