Departed Wynua Bay looking forward to this day, as spent all my childhood in boats fishing and camping at Papa Aroha. Coastline was as amazing as I remembered, very pleasant paddle until the last 45 minutes. Strong head wind, large waves and quite rough with rainstorms.

Arrived at Port Jackson in pouring rain, expecting a nice hot coffee handed to me by my support team...alas they were running slightly late so I hung out in the shower and waited. One hour later, Cussie the camper arrived and I finally got my coffee.

Food, rest and planning took up most of the rest of the day, early to bed for a hopefully early start, alarms set to 3am! Alas, all good planning ruined by mother nature. Really windy, really wet and really dark. So back to sleep, waking every hour to check, but no luck.

After a late breakfast we went for a wander up the hill, to check on the waves on the other side. Much monitoring and wind watching and discussion later, I decided to head off after lunch.

Amazing coastline! Swell and tide helped me around the tip of Coromandel to Port Charles, then bigger chop the rest of the way to Waikawau Bay, where support team were waiting on the beach, yippee!

Cold shower, yummy hot food (one pot wonder, watch this space for a cook book), planning for tomorrow and soon bed.

Red