From Friday 24 to Sunday 26 April, the second group of Silver Duke of Edinburgh students embarked on our three-day, two-night sea kayaking training and practice expedition around the beautiful Maraetai coast. Serving as essential preparation for our upcoming qualifying journey, we were required to use our skills and knowledge to navigate across the water and camp self-sufficiently.
For a lot of us, managing heavy sea kayaks on the open water was a completely new experience. Luckily, we had incredible weather throughout the trip. The water was glassy and flat for most of the journey, which was a huge help as we got used to the steady rhythm of paddling. The mornings at camp were definitely a little bit cold, but waking up to the beautiful sunrises and watching the sunsets over the water made it so worth it.
This trip really brought us together as a team and showed us how important communication is. Whether we were working together on our map skills to track and plan our routes or just shouting words of encouragement across the water when the paddling got tough, the shared memories and group morale are what really kept us going. We even managed some success with fishing. After a completely empty Day 1 where I think most of us thought we鈥檇 catch nothing, someone finally caught a fish while we were paddling along on Day 2, and from then on everything changed. The couple of people who had lines out kept reeling in a few more over the rest of the trip, which became a massive highlight for everyone. By the last day, everyone was feeling a little bit sore and tired, but the constant encouragement within the team kept our energy up all the way back to the boat ramp as we loaded up the gear and packed the kayaks away.
A big thank you to the awesome instructors Leroy and Simon, who came out with us and shared their expertise to keep us safe on the water. It was a really great experience for everyone involved, and our qualifying journey in October can鈥檛 come soon enough!
~ Amber Miller 11J11聽