Overall, it had taken us only about two hours to cover the distance from Observation Beach to Bark Bay, and I was feeling like we needed to get more out of the paddling experience before handing the kayaks back over to the rental company later in the afternoon. So, minus Lori (who was still feeling a bit woozy), we headed back out around noon to do a bit more coastline exploration.
South past Pinnacle Island
We agreed to head back south to explore the beauty of the lagoon behind Frenchmans Bay, but unfortunately the tide was now too low and the lagoon was no longer navigable. We turned around and headed back north. Brian, despite being alone in his double kayak and a bit stern heavy, was doing quite well.
courtesy JInnes
Heading to Mosquito Bay
Returning to the Bark Bay area, we decided to explore the coast a bit further to the north, which was as-yet unexplored to us. As we were paddling around the area of Mosquito Bay, we noticed a figure on shore jump into his kayak and paddle furiously towards us. This turned out to be Josh, one of our instructors with Abel Tasman Kayaks. He had recognized us and noticed that Brian was solo in his double kayak. He feared that we were headed north across potentially rough coastline to a destination called Onetahuti, and that doing so with Brian alone in his kayak was not safe. Try as we might, we could not convince him that we were only here to paddle for a bit around Mosquito Bay before heading back to Bark Bay. He wouldn't have any of it, so we cut our exploration short and headed back to Bark Bay immediately.
We finished our watery explorations shortly before 2pm. The kayaking company was coming to pick up the kayaks around 3pm (our 3-day adventure involved travel on foot on the third day). Therefore, we spent a bit of time packing all rental gear back into the kayaks and making them ready for transport.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Abel Tasman Kayak Day 2, Part 2 - click map to view