In February, Tarisha and I headed down to Picton for a little adventure in the Marlborough Sounds. The plan was simple enough: load up the kayaks, paddle out from Picton, camp along the way, do a bit of hiking and enjoy a few days away from normal life.
We set off from Picton and paddled towards Davies Bay Campsite, where we spent our first night. The Marlborough Sounds are pretty spectacular from a kayak. You’re right down at water level, surrounded by steep green hills, quiet bays and little pieces of coastline that you simply can't appreciate in the same way from land.
It wasn't completely calm, though.
There was a fair bit of chop and some surprisingly wavy sections, and there were times when we were both a little nervous. Kayaking sounds wonderfully peaceful until you're sitting in a relatively small boat looking at a few decent-sized waves coming towards you and wondering whether you've made a terrible life choice.
Thankfully, we made it through without any swimming incidents.
From Davies Bay we continued kayaking towards Tōrea Bay, where we finally decided we'd had enough paddling and ditched the kayaks for a while. We stayed at Portage Resort, which felt like a bit of luxury after carrying everything around in kayaks and spending the night at a campsite.
Of course, getting out of a kayak didn't mean we were finished exploring.
From Portage we headed out on foot towards Camp Bay, where we hiked in and spent the night. There's something really satisfying about changing modes like that — one day you're travelling along the coastline by kayak, the next you're walking through the bush with everything you need on your back.
And, naturally, coffee was part of the adventure.
One of the things we love about travelling this way is that making coffee becomes a proper part of the day. You can't just wander into the kitchen and press a button. You have to stop, unpack the gear, boil the water, make the coffee and sit down somewhere beautiful to drink it.
And after a day of paddling and hiking, that first sip tastes pretty bloody good.
The following morning we packed up and made our way back towards the water before catching the ferry back to Picton.
As it turned out, we were incredibly lucky with our timing. A storm had hit Wellington and Cook Strait ferries were being cancelled, so our trip could have ended with a rather different kind of adventure. Thankfully, we'd already completed our kayaking and were safely heading back to Picton.
Looking back, it was one of those trips that had a bit of everything: beautiful coastline, camping, hiking, good coffee, a few nervous moments on the water and plenty of time together.
It wasn't always perfectly calm or completely comfortable — and that's probably part of what made it memorable.
Sometimes the best adventures aren't the ones that go exactly to plan.
They're the ones where you get out there, deal with whatever the weather throws at you, find somewhere beautiful to stop, make a coffee and think, yeah, this is pretty good.