FULL CIRCLE!! Tuesday, April 01, 2008

BARRY COMING IN THROUGH THE SURF AT SUMNER BAR ( PHOTO THROUGH A TELESCOPE!)
JUSTINE APPROACHING SUMNER

MATT & PAUL - THE GREETING PARTY
WE DID IT!! It's not really sunk in yet but at about 4pm this afternoon Barry and I pulled our kayaks up the beach at Sumner and completed the circle around the South island.

We had a bit of a worry this morning when we listened to the 7.30am forecast and it said there was a gale warning for our area with 35 knot winds from the SW predicted for the afternoon. We'd previously been told it was due to be NorthWesterly which would be pretty much behind us so we were having a fairly relaxed start ( we waited until it got light before we got up!!). As soon as the words 'gale warning' were spoken, we stepped up a gear and got on the water as soon as possible and started paddling hard south. Fortunately it was still Northwesterly while we were on the water and we surfed south at over 8km/ hour. We made it to Sumner around 3pm but before we could put our feet up, we had to get in through the surf at the Sumner bar - just to make sure we couldn't relax completely until the end! We made it through the right way up, with a few exciting surfs and paddled the last 1km in flat water to where we launched 67 days ago! We were met by Paul Caffyn, who drove for 3 and a half hours from Greymouth specailly so he could spray champagne over us and smear pavalova over our faces, as is becoming the tradition for people who circumnavigate the South island. It was great to see him. Matt MacKenzie was also there to greet us - he'd spotted us through a telescope 10km outside Sumner and took the photos of us coming in. He also had a great array of fresh food to give us which was great, thanks, and we're staying with him now! Ian Smith made it down to give us a beer and a congratulations which was great ( and my head was starting to get light with all the celebrations!!)

JUSTINE AND BARRY COMING INTO SUMNER
We'll both write more tomorrow and post a few photos. For now, we're going to get clean and go out for some food and a few more beers with Matt! Hopefully Paul will send us a couple of his photos that he took when we arrived aswell as we didn't take any!!Oh yeah, and the alarm is definately being turned off tomorrow morning!!
THE VIEW UP THE COAST FROM INSIDE SUMNER INLET