Somes Island
By Nick Baty
I got a call from my good mate, and kayaking buddy Cameron on the morning of Wednesday, 3rd January, with the words all dedicated kayakers long to hear: “I’m calling the shop (Wellington’s Canoe and Kayak Centre) to see if we can get a paddle organized for tomorrow night after work. Are you keen?” My response was, “Does the sun rise each morning?” So after a few hurried e-mails and calls between the shop, me and other Wellington Yakity Yak members, it all seemed sorted. We were very lucky with the weather for this trip. Up until the day before Wellington had been having gale-force freezing southerly winds and rain for about a week. Thursday dawned clear, fine, hot, and with less than 10 knots of wind. Frankly, I really wasn’t interested in work that day; rather, I was thinking of the paddle we were going to have after work that night. Lo and behold, when we arrived at the shop, it seemed our idea had generated more interest than we anticipated - Andy presented a list of all who were coming - and the associated kayaks they needed to be loaded on the trailer to be brought down to the Petone Wharf. Andy’s smile seemed to say, “Be careful what you wish for when organizing a kayaking trip”. We eventually got the kayaks loaded and all traipsed down to Petone Wharf and proceeded to gather a small crowd of onlookers who must have thought a bunch of seals had escaped from the aquarium. They watched as we all zipped into our wetsuits and prepared our kayaks for the trip. We duly set off at about 6:15pm, after a trip safety briefing. Our intention was to carry out a passage to, and a circumnavigation of, Somes (Motiu) Island, which lies in the middle of Wellington harbour. Andy began by undertaking his customary roll, just to make sure everything was good and wet. We slowly dawdled out to Somes, which gave us an opportunity to take in the coastline, and land/cityscape that is Wellington. It really brought home to us how different
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ISSUE THIRTYn
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(and better) everything looks from a kayak, and how therapeutic kayaking can be. The two fibreglass boats zipped in and out of the fleet, while the other kayaks congregated around the doubles. We reached Somes Island after around 20 minutes, and all pulled up on shore for some pineapple lumps, and the contents of many thermoses. After relaxing there for a period, we circumnavigated Somes Island. As Somes Island is a DoC wildlife reserve and kayaks are so quiet (apart from their occupants), we were able to observe the island’s inhabitants without disturbing them - this included Andy finding a penguin in a cave down on the water line, which he was able to paddle right up to. Probably the highlight of the trip was fish leaping out of the water around our little kayak flotilla. The water seemed to boil with the number of fish jumping. It was absolutely amazing to watch. Cameron complained the fish were taunting him, as this trip was the one time he had left his fishing rod at home thinking he was not going to need it. As an alternative, he suggested ‘kawhai cricket’ with kayak paddles. Perhaps attempting to flip the fish out of the water with a paddle could catch on as a new fishing method? As we rounded Somes and began our paddle home, the sun set over the back of Wellington City. The whole harbour and city were bathed in soft pink and orange light. The best thing about this effect was when I looked ahead all I could see was a bunch of kayaks silhouetted black by the setting sun, a perfect picture of man in harmonisation with nature. On the way back a slight chop grew from a gentle northerly, which made a trip back a bit more fun. Several attempts were also made on our trip home to prove that a double kayak is always faster than a single- although in this case, the double was a plastic boat, and the single was a fibreglass multi-sport boat. Needless to say, the ‘races’ were fairly even. When we got back to shore around 9:15pm, the sun finally disappeared below the horizon, so we timed it just right. After pitching in to help load the kayaks back on the trailer again, we all agreed the evening’s paddle was a fine way to begin 2007, and an excellent way to spend a summer’s evening- kayaking out with friends.