Location: Raglan, New Zealand
This was a fun little mission to the local cafe, we are now doing adventures people can join and this was one of them a great success and a amazing turn out. The crew was Chris, Tim, Amber(myself), Jai, Elainer, Gina, Gemma, Murray, Brett, Lyn, Janet Amanda, Gavin and Sandra headed to Rock it cafe with perfect tides, high tide was 2 hours away (this is important) we hit a slight head wind on the way there which made it hard for the paddle boarders and a little bit hard for the kayakers. It took us about 30 min to get there.
On the way we took Amanda dog Narla who posed to be a slight problem on the paddle board, lucky Tim had a spare seat and it all worked out.
Once we got to the cafe we met another group of our friends so it ended up been about 15 of us. The poor cafe Rock-it Cafe Kitchen was bombarded by us. We has a lovely time, the staff were very helpful and the food was lovely.
On the way back the sun was shining along with tide and a light wind helping us making for a luxurious leg. Not much paddling, just chilled floating, chatting and chilling. We had to go under the bridge on the way back which meant we had to do he limbo. Some of us nearly tipped out it was a fun challenge to fit under it.
Top Tips
Raglan Backpackers were very helpful as this is where we hired our gear for a $20 per hour locals deal. Normally it is single kayaks $35 up to 4 hours or double kayaks $45 up to 4 hours. This was a great place to hire the kayaks as they are situated right on the waters edge. I think if you stay here you get the kayaks for free.
One tip is to get the tide right this make a huge difference to the enjoyment of the paddle. Aim to leave two hours before high tide.