Weather looks good for tomorrow. 

Ngaio woke me just as the sun was rising this morning. We took a bit longer getting ready, it was a chilly morning which slowed us down a bit. Ngaios fingers were white by the time the boats were packed and ready. I was checking the camp site when I saw Ngaio running, I turned to see what was making her run for the shore... my kayak! The tide was coming in and a wave had picked up my boat and was taking it out into the big blue. Ngaio was midthigh level in the freezing ocean by the time she got the boat. Not the best way to start a very chilly morning.  

We were aiming to paddle past the broken islands and land around the point on the other side. The sun was out and the wind was light so we were set for a nice day. We paddled to a nearby seal colony, I couldn’t help myself, I got out of my boat and climbed onto the rocks to get photos. I needed something to cheer me up a bit, when I woke this morning I found my paddle broken in two. It looked like something big (seal/bear...Sasquatch!?) had been floundering around the kayaks and broken my paddle. I was gutted, it was such a nice paddle and our spare is nothing like it, it felt heavy and cumbersome in comparison. 

Ngaio chatted away about silver linings and not getting upset about inanimate objects, I was trying to ignore her positivity by gazing out to the ocean. And just to prove Ngaio right, a big whale came up about 100m from me. I started to make up a whale song to bring it close to us, we saw another spout not long after. It’s easy to forget we are sharing the ocean with these magical creatures. 

We had two wonderful encounters with porpoises today, they were coming to the surface and breathing then heading back down, they didn’t seem phased by our kayaks and we were able to watch them. We both have a soft spot for these cute little marine mammals.

We got to the light house on the headland and were a bit worried at the size of the swell smashing into the coast. It was huge and 100% unsafe to land in. We had a place we planned to camp for the night but it made me a bit concerned for further down this section of the coast, where there are no bays or coves, just steep exposed beaches. We paddled around the point and made it to the lovely calm of the cove behind, we landed on the left side of the big cove as there was hardly even a ripple of a swell. 

As we pulled onto the beach we saw a big black bear foraging in the seaweed. It was the first bear we had seen for what felt like ages! He sniffed us out and ran into the bushes.

We set up camp on a lovely pebbled beach in a nice sheltered spot. Both of our bodies are sore so some rest is needed tonight.