17/2 DAY 9 Okarito Lagoon

Hello, there mate's

Suitably I'm writing this blog post in Franz Josef. as I'm making my way up the coast to Nelson.

In the morning of the 17/2, a day which i hope to remember for the rest of my life, I went up really early before sunrise to join Baz, Amy and Shelagh for a walk to a lookout over the Southern Alps. It was about an 40 min walk one way, through some really nice rain forest. Unfortunately there where some clouds just around the mountains, but the lookout point was stunning anyways.
After the hike we headed back for breakfast and Kayaking in the Lagoon. The Okarito Lagoon is big and quite swallow, with a mixture of salt and fresh water, home to a lot of different birds among them the rare White Heron (Vit Hager).
Sins my Milford kayaking buddy Callum decided that he had enough of kayaking on the trip, I got a single kayak, which probably suited me fine sins I stop to take photos more often than anyone could bare. But as I had kayaked out into the Lagoon and the Mountains came into view together with the White Herons, it was just breathtakingly beautiful. I guess someone came up with the word amazing to describe moments like that, though we now tend to use it to often.

I just didn't care that my legs where getting a little uncomfortable in the constrained space of the kayak. But in order to get some really nice photos I had to stop the kayak from moving down with the tide, which gave me the good idea of lifting my rudder to be able to back up and park on a shallow part of the lagoon. All done with the pictures I paddled out again, but to lower the rudder was no easy task, I tried to get it with my paddle but to no use. So finally I decided to again park on some of the shallow parts to get out of the kayak and get the rudder down.
But not noticing my left leg had gotten numb (somnat) i stepped out of the kayak and immediately lost my balance, fell over and lost my grip of the kayak. Struggling to stay upright i finally got a hold of the kayak before it drifted away, phu! After that I sat down astride (gransle) on the kayak, and just laughed at my self :-)
A little wet but not giving up I paddled on towards the streams leading into the nearby tempered rain forest. To paddle up the stream into the forest felt like going on a miniature amazon adventure, just like something out of a fairytale. The forest surrounding the stream had a mixture of different plants like ferns (ormbunkar), beech (bjorkliknande) and Kahikatea (stora tallar). You could also hear and sometimes see a lot of different birds up in the trees. After getting out of the kayak a second time, without falling, to push it up some shallow parts of the stream I paddled as deep into the forest as possible. There I just sat in the kayak for awhile just taking in the beauty and listening to all the sounds, and smiling.
Between 1 and 2 hours later I was back at the starting point, last of all but with a good story, to go for lunch. After Lunch, which was these really tasty ciabatta's filled with smoked chicken, we had the afternoon free to do what we wanted. I went for a walk along the beach and then back through the forest, taking quite a few photos on the way. I was just back in time to relax before dinner witch was roasted lamb, chicken and gravy with roasted veggies and salad which I swallowed down with the last of my Peregrine Pinot Noir. Finished eating just before sunset, so that we all had time to go down and admire yet another stunning, west coast sunset :-)
Before going to bed I watched the stars, and tried to take some pictures of them but without success.

God Natt pa er

/Martin