kayak journey

Wow! How to describe it? The weather was perfect and the constantly changing scenery was stunning. These three pics on this page were taken within a few hours of each other on the same morning.

It was a lone three day and three night clockwise trip around Waiheke Island. Camping on the beaches at Hooks Bay, North of Orapiu, and South of Church Bay. It was cool at nights, but a reasonable sleeping bag and a woolly hat took care of that. Carrying everything I needed offered a chance to reflect on needs and wants. I had been wanting to do this trip ever since arriving on Waiheke four years ago, and it was only a couple of weeks ago that I committed to doing it.

Gifts of fish, Penguins, sunsets, moonrises, misty mornings, campfires and lots of time to reflect on life choices.



During the days I was reading from The Healing Wisdom of Africa, and at night when it got dark, I listened to some audio files (yes, I took my iPod). One was called Target Africa and described the oil exploitation which is being carried on in Sub-Saharan Africa by the US oil companies, fully supported by the US military who have established their bases there already, and are doing military exercises in the country. Having just recently returned from a brief trip to Zimbabwe which I am incredibly grateful for, I wept to feel the opposites of these two sources of information about the same country - one expressing heart and passion and wisdom, and the other brute force and powerful self-interest and ignorance.

Another audio file I listened to was about localisation (as a response to climate change and peak oil), and I have written a little about this here. This one gave me more hope for the possibility that we can and will (some are starting to) re-structure our society along lines that assume more responsibility for our impacts, and supplying much more of our basic needs through local food and manufacturing initiatives.



Just out from Rocky Bay was this scene. It had me gasping with delight at the beauty of this island and its surrounds. It was the ultimate contrast to the large sponge-sized globs of detergent-based(?) foam and other signs of human waste that we pour into our oceans, and which I had paddled through the day before.

I can imagine doing this trip again, but next time with some friends.