Kayaking In A Puddle and Squeezing The Day Out At The Beach

The morning of departure, Nic and I finally got around to the kayak trip which we'd postponed because of getting sick. We were thinking they might have cancelled because the evening before, Gina saw a weather notification about high swells. Nic and I showed up, geared up, hauled the kayaks down to the water and learned from our guide, Timothy, that we likely wouldn't leave the lagoon to the ocean. The family of four who'd trekked out with us asked for clarification and decided to reschedule since getting out of the lagoon into open water and snorkeling was the biggest part of the trip. Given that it was our last day and because any trip with Nic is a good trip to me, we decided to give it a shot. The waves were pretty wild as we looked out. However, the tide was super, super low so the lagoon just looked like a big puddle. The water was maybe a foot or two deep. It was fun in the deeper areas but we were constantly getting caught up in the coral which felt awful. Ultimately, Timothy saw a break in the sets and we paddled hard to get out of the lagoon. Not more than two minutes later, he told us to paddle hard and follow him back into the lagoon. The best part was catching the wave and being shot back into the lagoon, I looked over to the right and saw a sea turtle taking the same ride. Would have loved one more peak under the surface, just wasn't meant to be.

From there, Gina and Nic snuck in the final episode of Stranger Things and then we hit the road.

We stopped at that first beach on the road to Paia. Beautiful but super windy. Tons of white caps. There was one lonely kite surfer, he was cruising along and a big, brown dog trying to keep up as his person swam in the surf. Gina would have stayed if she could have - the sun, the sand, the palm trees, the water, what's not to love?