New Zealand::Marahau

31 January 2014-

Hey!  Are you awake?  Want to go on a jog with me????

Remember I said this campground is called Old MacDonald FARM (& holiday park)??? Here's more of the "farm" bit:

 

Llama,llama, red pajama!

Check out the beautiful sunrise over the mud flats:

Entrance to the campground:

The campground office….doesn't it look like something you'd see in Alaska (like, let's say Homer?  Or Seward)?  I love all the flowers!

 

I bet you're wondering what's in store for you today.  I'll give you three hints:

1) yellow

2) bananas

3) ocean

Have you got it figured out?????

No?  Yes? Well, you can think about it while we drive over to the parking lot.

We're here!

Where?  We're at the Kahu Kayak parking lot.  That's right….we're going on a half-day kayaking trip this morning!  So get your swimsuits on and load up on sunscreen (it does look like we're going to need sunscreen today!)

 

See?  The kayaks are YELLOW and they are BANANA-shaped, right????

We've got two guides and one other small family from Germany with us today.

Mark and I are all set to go!  We're in the back…that means we're steering our boats.  (at least, that's what is supposed to happen):

Yep…I do love kayaking!  I'm ready to go!!! Let's go, go, go!  Annika is my paddling partner.  Mark has Ava in his boat.

Auntie Beth and a very strong Gregory in their boat:

Ava…doing what she does – letting Daddy do all the paddling (smart girl!!!!):

Lily and Uncle Ray in another big yellow banana:

We're on the Family Cruiser guided trip – going from Marahau to a beach close to Kaiteriteri.  We'll be kayaking past an iconic landmark (can you spot it in the backgroud?):

It's called Split Apple Rock.  

Kind of looks like a giant apple that's been sliced in half, doesn't it?  You can also see Henry kayaking with one of the guides:

One of the guides mentioned that we'd get to see some caves on this trip.  Up ahead there's a cave we can kayak into (you'll have to make a U-turn to get out but you can do that, right?):

 We're taking a break from kayaking – we've landed on a beach.  The kids can have some play time and we can get a snack to eat.  Anybody want a cookie?

Beautiful beach… 

The Minions cousins doing what they excel at: climbing trees!!!!  How many kids are up in that tree??? 

Our guide telling legends about this area…the minions kids appear to be enraptured by his stories:

Ready, Set……

GO!!!!! Hahaha, Mark followed closely by Lily leaping into the surprisingly cold water:

Ah yes, that water is very cold (but that doesn't stop Mark and me from going on a short swim).  

Lily and Annika hard at work digging holes in the beach:

 

 Time to pack up and head back – we have to head back to Marahau.

Paddle, paddle, paddle!!!!

 Annika is a strong paddler!  (we did have some issues early on with her trying to tell me WHERE to go…sigh.  She's just as stubborn as I am when it comes to telling people where to point the kayak. LOL!)

We're back on shore. Darn!  I could kayak for hours and hours more!

and …

Last shot of the gang with the big yellow boats:

And that's the end of our morning kayaking trip!  Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  

(and how do I get a gig being a kayaking guide????  That's what I want to be when I grow up…a professional kayaker and guide.  No, really.  I'm being serious!)