Leonie and I zipped down to Lake Manapouri from our camp in Te Anau for an overnight seakayaking trip. We hired gear at the lake and not long after midday we were on the water paddling out of Pearl Harbour. After not long we portaged over to Circle Cove and stopped and had lunch on the beach. We then found a camp site a little further to the North on a nice little deserted beach. After pitching the tent we went for a cruise up around Mahara Island, had a peak into the Hope Arm and returned to camp. We had a cosy evening in front of a fantastic fire that Leonie rustled up although the wet and cooler temperatures seemed to take their toll as we both woke up with colds the next day. A speedy kayak back out the way we came and we were zooming back up to Te Anau.
Above left: Leonie about to set off for a quick overnight sea kayaking mission on lake Manapouri. Due to limited time we zoomed down to the lake from our camp in Te Anau and hired a kayak for a couple of days. Spontaneous trips are fun. Above right: Not long into the trip we had to portage the kayak over a low section of land to avoid a longer kayak around into Circle Cove. The portage section was from Surprise Bay to Circle Cove and took five minutes or so but only because the lake was in flood and the portage section had almost enough water in it to allow us to kayak through. A couple of families were camping on the remains of the beach (flooding again) and helped us with the portage.
Above left: Leonie and Cris at our lunch spot on a beach at the south end of Circle Cove. Above middle: Parked up. The kayak on the beach in Cricle Cove at our campsite. Above right: Leonie kayaking.
Above left: Leonie rustled up a great fire in the evening at our camp site in Cricle Cove. Someone before us had already set up a fire place so it was just a case of grabbing some of the dried leaves and twigs on the dead tree in the picture and finding some bigger drift wood. We cooked around the fire and tried to dry some of our clothes. In my case this resulted in me melting some stuff instead. Above middle: Our campsite viewed from the fallen beach tree. Above right: Leonie standing on the beach at our campsite.
Above left: The fire kept us warm in the evening. Above right: View of the kayak on the beach at camp.
Above left: A rainbow on the water in the morning. Above right: The lake seemed to be filled with rainbows.
Above: Seakayaking on Lake Manapouri with seabirds.
Above: Rainbow in the morning.
Above: Seakayaking on Lake Manapouri.