The day started bright and early, on the water by 5am. I am a early bird and it always make me smile to be on the water on a calm day before sunrise. Seeing the sunrise is always a great buzz time for me, I sit and watch and contemplate just for a moment or two...

With the guidance from Lockie and Jackie Wenham, locals at Waihi Beach, I was given the insiders knowledge of Bowentown surf and ocean layout the afternoon before, so I was able to have a safe and fairly uneventful, paddle to Mt Maunganui. Tailwind and swell with me all the way so I did manage to cover some distance. Yes the Mount did still take a long while to reach..

So nice to have people on the beach waiting for me, support crew Jason Marshall on the beach with a good friend Shelley Bullock with him, then a new face of Nathan Pettigrew who had come to say hello and chat with me on the afternoon paddle..

Coffee and food from Cussie the campervan and a sit in the sun to warm up, also stopped and admired the beach and chatted for awhile.

As well as Nathan I was joined in the afternoon by Andy Warner from Star Kayaks. Just on midday we hit the water for a short fast paddle down to Papamoa Beach Resort. It was nice to be riding waves and chatting between the 3 of us. Lots of laughter and plenty of stories to be told, plenty of banter was had between the three of us.

We all managed to land safely in the waves at Papamoa. I am sure we all wished that someone had timed it wrongly in the waves coming in, but alas it was not meant to be. I even went for a swim after this paddle to cool down. Nice campsite, nice beach. Another place I need to spend time at and I will return.

We shared stories on dolphins, of course sharks and orca spotting. Totally cool day and I wished my new friends could have stayed around for longer. We were starving once we finished so while Andy ran back to the mount, we headed for a hot bowl of chips!

Covered about 48 km today! So happy with that, tomorrow windy and wet they are saying... oh dear.. and then it gets apparently worse. So maybe stuck in one location for a couple of days soon, it was always going to happen sometime.

Steak, salad and roast potatoes for dinner.. YUMMIE.. and a chocolate bar with my cup of tea..

Tired now. I will not be out on the water until after sunrise in the morning, as I do not know this beach that well and a rough and windy beach start in the dark is not my kind of ideal start to the morning.

Red.