A few weeks ago five adventurous rowers including two visitors from Wellington set off on a weekend jaunt, destination Rotoroa island. Formerly an alcohol rehabilitation centre run by the Salvation army, Rotoroa is now a park and wildlife sanctuary with the bonus of having excellent accommodation available. The Team left Kawakawa bay and because the weather was so fantastic decided to row up the outside of Chamberlins island also known as Ponui island arriving at the accommodation mid afternoon.

We joined them late Friday night having motored all the way from Auckland in a flat calm, perfect for rowing not so for yachts!

Saturday we joined them for a row around Ponui island, yep chasing along behind in our little nine foot plywood tender, Thankfully the St Ayles guys were in a relaxed mode and even offered us a tow for part of it!

A great weekend excursion and loads of fun tagging along in the dinghy, Just goes to show you don’t need much boat to have fun.

Well its seems like ages ago and yes Ive been a bit slack in updating these pages so stand by for a flurry of posts!

Back in February we set off for Tasmania and the mighty Living Boat Trust, marvelous bunch of like minded souls living in a little known corner of the world that apart from the weather is quite possibly boating paradise. We had come to participate in the Return Raid part of the Tawe Nunnugah. Its a bi-annual small boat adventure returning the boats from the Hobart Wooden boat festival back to Franklin, 3 nights four days of sailing, rowing, camping and generally having a great old time with wonderful friends.