Round NZ Kayaker Heads Back North – Across Cook Strait

Round NZ Kayaker Heads Back North – Across Cook Strait

Tauranga, Saturday March 9, 2011: Kayaker Tim Taylor Tackles Cook Strait Again – to ‘New Chapter’ in Epic Paddle

Tim Taylor has set off across Cook Strait for the second time – returning to the North Island to begin another chapter of his around-New Zealand paddle.

Tauranga kayaker Tim Taylor is philosophical at now being well past the original target date for completing the trip of March 5th, 2011. “It was based on everything going 100 percent to plan, so I’m now picking mid May to finish. You can’t afford to think about it (delay) – you can only do what you can do.”

The lone kayaker has encountered a range of setbacks including multiple “dumpings” in big surf. But bad weather, forcing him to stay ashore for safety reasons, has cost him the most time.

Tim Taylor has been camped at Cannibal Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound waiting for the right weather conditions to make the crossing. He is aiming for Karori Beach near Wellington about 20 nautical miles across the water.

His confidence and ability have increased significantly over his trip in which he’s travelled more than 3,750 kilometres in 128 days. Tim says he simply doesn’t have the same level of fear as when he started out. For example, paddling towards Nelson was a “horrific” day with really big chop, and strong winds. However, it simply didn’t have the same “bite” as the West Coast, with its big swells and intensity.

“It was just another day in the office – I now have a completely different mindset I guess.”

But Tim says he can’t afford to let his guard down over Cook Strait and must keep in mind it’s a huge and dangerous piece of water. “I need to be switched on and keep reading the conditions.”

Getting across the Strait after “ticking off” the West Coast with all its hard stretches, will herald the start of a whole new chapter of his trip.

And while the Strait will be one his last stretches of “real open water paddling,” he notes that the West Coast of the North Island, coming into winter, could be almost as bad as the West Coast.

Tim passed the half way mark of about 2,700 kilometres in Fiordland. It was there, at Landing Bay in Chalky Inlet that he suffered the worst low of his paddle.

Bad weather forced him into his tent in the bush for about four days, under siege from the local sandflies. The stony beach he was on offered no flat spots so he had to camp in the bush, his tent so uneven on rocky ground he couldn’t sleep properly.

There were thousands of sandflies between the tent and the fly sheet. “They bounced off the fly constantly, so it sounded like non-stop rain. It drives you nutty!”

“As soon as you step outside every piece of skin that’s exposed is under attack. Standing there to get a signal to get the weather forecast by phone, you are cursing and swearing. ”

The turning point for Tim came when a lone yachtsman took him on board for a couple of days, until he could continue his paddle.

If you want to follow Tim’s progress as he approaches the North Island – visit his website www.nzkayaker.com The site is kept fully updated with Tim’s blogs and other comments from his support crew, the Taylors.

ENDS

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