Matakana Extravaganza

4th June 2009.
Today I had Hayden and Cameron from Tauranga and Paul and Azamia from Austria for our Matakana Extravaganza Tour. WE meet at Pilot Bay at 9am and after our safety briefing and a short lesson on paddling technique we were off, paddling over to Matakana Island. The day was perfect with very little wind producing very glassy calm water conditions. We took our time and I informed our friends from Austria a little bit about the local history and culture of our beautiful city. As mentioned the water conditions were perfect and we were able to see plenty of piper and kahawai swimming in the shallows.

Janie was there as always to great us on our arrival at the island and she soon had them loaded in her van and off they went for their horse trek adventure. As I do most times I got back on the water and headed up the harbour to look for more wild life. I am glad I did as it wasn't long before I came across dozens upon dozens of stingrays. I was letting the tide take me right over groups of three or four sunning themselves in the shallows while at the same time witnessing another three or four gliding through the water towards me. At the same time there were dozens of fish swimming underneath me as well.

When Janie returned I offered them the opportunity to experience the stingrays. I was uncertain if there would be as many as the tide had come in but we soon came across them. Not as many as before but definitely enough to have an amazing encounter. It was soon time to head back so off we went.

Matakana Extravaganza

13th March 2009
Rob and Nicola have been living in New Zealand for the last couple of years and were about to head back to England to live. After initially planning to head out in the morning, due to reasons beyond our control we had to reschedule for the afternoon. In the end it worked out great. The wind had died down and the habour was calm and glassy. It took no time for Rob and Nicola to master the art of kayaking and we were off across the harbour to Matakana Island. We had a bit of time up our sleeve so we got to explore the harbour for a little longer than usual. We soon got the call that their transport was waiting so we headed to Panepane for the pick up. Panepane is a favourite spot for fishing and great for catching kingfish. While Rob and Nicola were off on their horse riding adventure around Matakana I watched the fisherman with interest to see how they were going. They had landed a couple of big kingi's and had seen a couple of large schools swim under the wharf. A couple of hours went past pretty quick and Rob and Nicola were back at Panepane. They seemed a bit overwhelmed and told me they now wanted to stay after their tour of the island. We said bye to our hosts and headed back to the mainland in the kayaks. It was a beautiful afternoon and I think if there were better job opportunities in New Zealand Rob and Nicola would still be here.

Matakana Extravaganza

16th Feb 2009
I had been liaising with Judy from America via email for several weeks and had arranged to kayak over to Matakana and go for the Clydesdale drawn wagon ride. Judy, Dolph, John and Joanne were in Tauranga on Clipper Odyssey and and were in Tauranga on the 16th of February. Unfortunately that morning I got a txt from Hone saying he his boy had fallen off his motorbike and he had to take him to hospital. Needless to say I was not looking forward to telling Judy and the others. After some confusion and misunderstanding we finally decided to kayak over to Matakana from Omokoroa and go for a walk on the island and maybe get someone to take us over to the beach. Going to Omokoroa was definitely the right thing to do. It was absolutely beautiful. The harbour was like a lake and their was hardly a cloud in the sky. Once on the island I decided to see if I could get someone to take us over to the beach. I didn't have much luck so we decided to walk to the hall to see if I could find anyone. On the way we stopped off at one of the 4 Kiwifruit orchards and spoke a bit about the island and the kiwifruit industry. At the hall I found Des who arranges activities on the island for me. I tried to get Judy and the others to go with Des over to the beach for lunch but they did not think there was enough time. We ended up having lunch at the hall at about which time Hone turned up. I left them in his capable hands and he drove them around the island as there was not enough time to get the Clydesdale's set up, although he did take them to the paddock where they were kept. In the end I think they had a good day

Matakana Extravaganza

14th Feb 2009
It was gong to be a busy day. In the morning I had four to take over to Matakana for a horse ride with Hone and in the afternoon I had approx 50 surgeons and their families form around New Zealand for kayaking and clay bird shooting. I rang my good friend Ross to help out with the morning tour. Charlotte and Owen who had gift vouchers from Red Balloon and Daniel and Jenny who were form the cruise ship turned up at appox 9am. Once we all got kitted up and had gone through our safety briefing we were off. We soon arrived at Matakana Island and Janey was waiting for us at Panepane to take them back to Hone for their horse riding adventure. It was a beautiful day so Ross and I decided to kill time and go for a leisurely paddle up the harbour. A couple of hours later they were back from their adventure with Hone so we decide to take them for a short walk along the beach. It was getting close to the time that the first load of surgeons and their families would be arriving. My plan was to get Ross to take our four adventurers back while I hosted the group. Unfortunately Daniel and Jenny wanted to get back as they wanted to do a few other things before their ship left port and Charlotte and Daniel were having to good a time on their walk and had not returned. Tim arrived right about then with the first load for the afternoon so I decided to escort Daniel and Jenny back to Pilot Bay leaving our caterer and to prepare lunch for the group. I was hoping to get back to the island before Tim brought the second lot over. I almost did it but on the way back Tim passed me. I tried to ride the wake form the boat but was feeling the effects of the long paddle back to Pilot Bay and back to the island. I did however give the passengers something to laugh about watching me surfing the wake for a few minutes and I did earn a beer for my efforts. I was only a couple of minutes behind the boat and the first group had just finished their lunch and were having fun on the beach. Ross was about to head back with Charlotte and Owen so everything worked out fine in the end. The team building group split up into the clay bird shooting, kayak and laze on the beach groups. There had been a bit of fun on the boat as the tide was right in and The Enterprise could not get under the bridge as there was some cable hanging a bit low from the construction of the new bridge. The afternoon went smoothly and everyone had a good time. It was my first go at trying to run a couple of activities in the one day and i think we succeeded with a little help form our friends.