Paddling to Tiritiri Matangi Island

The weather take a turn for the better and so Andy and I load up his car ( a Subaru wagon!) and take a drive out to the Whangaparaoa peninsula from where we launched out of Shakespeare beach and paddled out to an island bird sanctuary named Tiritiri Matangi. The crossing is straight forward and we land on a beach in the middle of the island and hike up to the top to the lighthouse. This is the first lighthouse in New Zealand or so I’m told.

This is an island free of foreign pest such as possums, stoats and weasels. So many endangered flightless birds are located here. We get to see many different birds but no kiwis yet. We hike back to our boats and begin to paddle around to the east side of the island. Andy has never paddled there so it will be a new experience for him as well. This side of the island is exposed to the pacific and is rugged and beautiful. We check out the few caves and arches we find and play in the rock gardens. On the crossing back we make a change in plan so that we can have a straight down wind run with a big following sea. We go screaming along and the open water crossing is over in no time flat. Instead of paddling to Army Bay on the north side of Whangaparaoa and then hiking back for the car, we returned to the beach we set out on and hope directly into the car and blast home as we are going to go and visit Matt and his son Billy this evening.

Matt and his family live only a few minutes away from Andy. They have horse property and have just moved here from Britain this year. Matt reminds me of the British actor who plays Turkish in the movie “Snatched”. Right down to the accent and the nearly shaved head. I think that he has taken classes with Andy or Andy has taken him for some kayaking tours. I know that Matt and Billy have been to Tiritiri with Andy. We are there to give a copy of Billy’s rolling lesson with Turner that I digitally recorded on Sunday at Sullivan’s beach. Matt and his wife and two kids packed it in back in Great Britian and moved to New Zealand to start a new life. Matt had a successful business as a plumber back in England but here he has to start all over at the bottom again but he and his family seem happy enough.