There is a saying that goes:

” if Plan A didn’t work, don’t worry, the alphabet has 25 letters.”

…..and that sums up the weekend just been. Plan A was a no go with the weather, Plan B was also a no go with the weather so it was down to Plan C.

Plan C started off without a hitch, Myself, Emily and Georgia packed up some sea kayaks with the intention of driving out to Akaroa to for a bit of an explore. Plan C would have had us leaving Christchurch at 8am, which after a busy evening getting gear sorted, eating etc, evolved to 9am (Plan D). Plan E came into effect when Emily slept in and we ended up leaving town at around 10:30!

We were very efficient once on the road however and Plan E was going pretty well until we got out near the entrance to the harbour. The wind had picked up and the swell was getting a little bit much for me in a single sea kayak while Georgia and Em powered through the rough seas ahead of me. I was not in a happy place out there and feeling quite uncomfortable, and in the end I had to turn back before we reached our planned destination. Around about halfway back we pulled into a nice calm bay for some lunch and formulated Plan F!

Unfortunately we spent way too long lounging in the sun and the wind swung around, making it a headwind for the paddle home! We paddled across the harbour then ventured into some small caves, managing just to avoid a gigantic bird poo in the process. This was followed by a real slog into the wind home. I just managed to avoid getting run over by not 1 but 2 boats ferrying passengers from the Cruise ship anchored in the bay… Em and Georgia were a bit more onto it and managed to maneuver out of the way quite quickly.

Its always surprising how quickly you cool down after getting out of a kayak and even though there was a hint of Summer in the air, it cooled off really quick. Fish and Chips were in order to warm us back up.

Plan F was going pretty well to plan until I failed to get up in sufficient time to get ready for the orienteering on Saturday. So onto Plan G… The trip down to Timaru took a little bit longer than expected, I guess I didn’t account for the flaff factor of picking Georgia and Greig up. Plan G didn’t last too long before we decided we were running out of time to go to the Supermarket and make it to the orienteering on time. So straight to the Orienteering at Paramanui we went.

The orienteering at Paramanui was pretty technically challenging. I think I went in with the right attitude and had a fairly consistent run. I wasn’t immune from making mistakes but comparatively to others around me I seemed to be on target most of the time. Not quite good enough to take the win however. Really lacking the orienteering practice of late. I did take some satisfaction in being the car winner though.

It was back to Timaru briefly before an ‘Eskimo pie’ fueled trip down to Dansey’s pass camping ground for the night. A relatively warm evening turned to a cool and rainy morning for the orienteering at Humpy Bumpy. This time around there was a bit more running and orienteering combined. I also felt like I had a good attitude going into the race. Sadly I got a bit panicky around some of the controls when there was others around. Greig was a contributing factor to my biggest mistake. I went out of the previous control, knowing I needed to turn 90 degrees once around the rock to get back on the red line. This didn’t quite work out all that effectively under the pressure of having Greig hot on my tail, and I went off into never never land for a good minute. This proved to be costly  in the end when after finished very quickly I couldn’t quite manage to pull the extra 3 seconds back on Nick Smith!

There was a few changes to Plan A but it didnt get anywhere close to Plan x, y or z so it turned out to be a pretty good weekend all round really, good way to spend the long weekend!