Kayaking Refuge

“Whale Island, in the Bay of Plenty is roughly 15km long by 5km wide with a central dome that reaches 354m,” describes Keith Austin in a travel piece for The Australian. “Not that this is going to trouble us, because it’s a wildlife refuge and nobody is allowed to set foot here without permission.” On the water with tour company KG Kayaks, Austin writes: “Rounding the western edge of the island into quieter waters past a sacred Maori midden, a meeting with a beautifully scarlet-billed oystercatcher and then a finish at Sulphur Beach which, as the name suggests, meets the nose before the eye.”