Packrafts aren't perfect. They do a great job of being jacks of all trades, but they have their limitations. Newer, more rigid crafts are being designed to be whitewater specialists, but on flat water nothing beats a proper kayak with a keel. Also packrafts are downright unsafe and dangerous to be in on open water in windy conditions. Let's face it, I needed a kayak.
I didn't want a hard shell, because I have nowhere to store such a huge piece of kit, and I also didn't have room to carry it on my vehicle with a full sized rooftop box already installed, so I decided to purchase an inflatable kayak from a retailer in Australia and have it shipped to NZ.
It's a fairly clever design with aluminium bow and stern ridges, but otherwise heavy duty PVC bladders covered with a hard wearing fabric. It uses similar stitched technology as used in inflatable SUPs to ensure a rigid floor and it has a small keel to allow much better tracking. It's not as fast as a regular kayak, but it's not a bad compromise.
I took it for a test run on Lake Wanaka and had a pleasant hour or so paddling, but then discovered it's major drawback: it takes forever to get it dry!!
Perhaps in Australia it dries easily, but not so here in drizzly autumnal NZ, where transporting a damp water craft between fresh water bodies is downright irresponsible. NZ has some very nasty water borne algae and bacteria that everyone is doing their best not to spread by cleaning and drying their equipment between watersheds. It literally takes days for it to be fully dry....
Following my eye checkup I headed out of town, this time over to Queenstown to Moke Lake, where I camped the night. The next morning I headed off on my Surly Wednesday to visit a couple of huts on the back side of Ben Lomond. There were a few hills to climb ( I walked them) but it's a much more comfortable way to cycle rough dirt roads than the gravel bike.
After Moke I headed south to Mavora Lakes, where I set up camp for a few days. The next morning was clear with not much breeze so I inflated the kayak and paddled up North Mavora Lake to visit West Burn Hut, encountering a bit of a headwind in the final hour to the hut. The kayak handled the wind well, though it was hard work. It would have been near impossible with the packraft. I had lunch and a cuppa, then paddled back, this time with a tailwind and a small rolling swell. The kayak handled the conditions well and the trip back took a fraction of the time of the trip out!!
Last time I was at Mavora with a bike I had a slow leak in my front tyre, but this time I had no such issues. I drove down to the fishing access on the Oreti and cycled the rough track downstream. It was muddy and rocky in places but the fat bike made short work of the terrain. Two huts were visited: Upper Oreti and Lincoln Hut, both cute old huts with real character. There are still a few huts I'm yet to visit in the Eyre Mountains, but they'll require a tramp!
But now it's north again, chasing the good weather....
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