Kayaking For Kenya

I could never understand the appeal of boating.

I remember back at Scout Camp (yes, this is yer typical story about yer typical unhappy childhood experience) sleeping in a TENT in order to get up EARLY, to discover that I was the ONLY ONE who’d put down for canoeing, and then I had to SIT in a PUDDLE OF WATER in a canoe for a whole HOUR and FREEZE while it RAINED before I finally realised how cushti I’d had it up until the moment when, while getting out at the end, I capsized.

I mean just WHAT was the point of all that? Why couldn’t you just walk along the bank to see the mucky old stream? Why couldn’t you just wait until it had stopped raining to do that?

I tell you, it’s just a longer way of getting to lunchtime.

And yet, this morning...

... there I was, lining up with all the other fools to pay hard-earned cash to climb into a kayak with another mug and drain my arms vainly attempting to propel us both forwards. (I think she might have been helping a bit too)

Today it was different though.

Maybe it was because the money was going to fund Amy from my church’s forthcoming mission trip to Kenya. Maybe it was because it was a sunny (albeit blowy) day in summery New Zealand. Maybe it was because there was no other obvious way of getting to visit Browns Island.

Or maybe it was just because my arms are a bit fitter than they were when I was as a kid.

But in truth, more than anything else, it was really because of the crowd of people who came with me this time.



Anyone who knows me knows that I’m quite quiet in a crowd. It always bugs me that everyone else seems to be having a great time without me included, and it always has. But I’ve learned to try and accept that over the years, and today was a prime example.

Most of the day I was therefore very quiet, but once in the kayak with just ONE person to talk to, there was no shutting me up, or indeed of stopping me doing most of the paddling.

Cold? Sunburnt. Tired arms? Enthusiastic. Scenery? Beautiful.

Auckland - New Zealand's busiest city.

I've just rolled down this hill, and apparently lost a leg.

Really must do this again.