Rakino & The Noises

A forecast of 10knt southerly dying out at midday was to good to ignore. Launching from Oneroa at 10.30am I headed out on the 10km crossing to Rakino. Being out in a kayak is never boring but crossings come close. A radio helps break the monotony but an hour of open water seems to take much longer then an hour following the coastline.

I landed at Sandy Bay where the wharf is located at 11.45 so grabbed a muffin from the hatch and went for a wander. Rakino is probably the only place left in NZ where car registration and warrants aren't required. Its not very easy for the residents to book their car into the garage every 6 months with 10km of water separating them from the nearest one. I made a game of guessing which cars went and which had been abandoned - it was nearly impossible to tell :)

After a bit of indecision of which way circumnavigate, I headed up the western side. There were a huge number of boats out for this time of year and I found myself weaving through rocks and fishing boats as I worked up the coast. This side of the island is very much like a condensed version of Waiheke with long points jutting out and nice little bays tucked away. Soon I was at the end of the island and stopped to take a break. One hazard I didn't expect being close to the rocks are container ships. I had been watching one a few k's out steam past and thought nothing off it until when taking the break near the rocks I looked behind me and saw a set of humongus waves appear from nowhere. Oh Sh_t! I dropped the muesli bar, grabbed the paddle and swung the kayak around to face them. Luckily they decided to break on the shallow reef between me and the shore and I managed to ride over them, but it took awhile for the old heart to settle down. Some fishermen in deeper water gave me a clap for providing them with the entertainment!

Once I rounded the island I still felt pretty good so figured The Noises were doable and headed the couple of k's out to them. Skimming the 1st one (Motuhoropapa) I decided to land and have some more lunch on the largest island in the group, Otata. This one has 2 main beaches on it. One is a steep pebbley beach which has a hut hidden away on it and the other is a nice but small sandy beach. Not wanting to put more scratches on the hull I decided on the sand beach only to find a group there with a fire going and walking around with bottles of beer in their hands. Not the seclusion I wanted so I risked finding a landing spot on the eastern end. The majority of this island is fairly rugged with some nice rock formations to explore. No caves but the clear water and scenery made up for it.

The eastern end only had one beach I could land on, and again it was fairly steep and pebbley. But I was hungry by now so worked the kayak sideways to the beach and let the waves wash me up. A quick exit and I was on dry land again. The Noises weren't living up to their name today, I sat on a log dining to the sounds of the waves on the pebbles and a Tui singing above me. To get back off the beach requried a seal launch that skidded me down into an outgoing wave with ease.

To complete my island hopping I skirted the David Rocks and the edge of Maria Island then made the long crossing back to Waiheke. All in all a very enjoyable day visiting islands I hadn't been to for 5 years. Total distance = 30km.