{"id":269616,"date":"2026-02-05T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/269616\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:52:08","slug":"gisborne-stop-off-on-kayakers-length-of-new-zealand-paddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/269616\/","title":{"rendered":"Gisborne stop-off on kayaker\u2019s length-of-New Zealand paddle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">He has called his epic journey Wayne\u2019s Audacious Kayak Adventure &#8211; WAKA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">The keen outdoors enthusiast set out from North Cape &#8211; the country\u2019s northernmost point &#8211; 35 days ago and reckons he should get to Bluff in another two months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cMy body\u2019s holding up well, though I have lost 8 kilograms in weight,\u201d he told the Gisborne Herald.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m having an absolute ball, and apart from being pinned down on the Coromandel for a couple of days by bad weather, it\u2019s been pretty good sea- and weather-wise so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">He opted to stay longer in Gisborne with friends and sit out the southerly change that came through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019ve not seen a single dolphin, whale or any other sizeable marine life so far, which is a bit disappointing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI did see a small shark off Tolaga Bay, about 3-feet long, that seemed more frightened of me than I was of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Wayne Jones about to set off from the marina on the next leg of his length-of-the-country fundraising paddle.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Wayne Jones about to set off from the marina on the next leg of his length-of-the-country fundraising paddle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">He stayed in Gisborne on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and paddled off across Turanganui-a-Kiwa\/Poverty Bay this (Friday) morning bound for his next scheduled stopover at Mahia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe only real problem I\u2019ve had so far was someone nicked my $800 carbon fibre paddle when I was staying at Te Kaha. I\u2019ve been using my spare one and I purchased a new one off a manufacturer in Gisborne while I was here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">He chose to raise money for SLSNZ because \u201cI\u2019ve always had a lot of respect for surf lifesavers. They do a wonderful job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">His journey can be followed on the Facebook page Wayne\u2019s Audacious Kayak Adventure (you need to join the group). <\/p>\n<p class=\"kNVbbmPsnUpLRHJLT\" style=\"display:none\">Donations can be made to the account number T R Smyth 010-190-0470029-00 or to Surf Life Saving NZ 12-3192-0043390-01. Make WAKA the reference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has called his epic journey Wayne\u2019s Audacious Kayak Adventure &#8211; WAKA. The keen outdoors enthusiast set out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[93345,13651,71,12506,296,2176,27944,152971,152972,152974,91,111,43,139,529,69,90,21315,152973,152970,14578,96878,3542,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-269616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-bluff","9":"tag-cape","10":"tag-from","11":"tag-gisborne","12":"tag-into","13":"tag-jones","14":"tag-kayak","15":"tag-kayakers","16":"tag-lengthofnew","17":"tag-lengthofthecountry","18":"tag-nelson","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-north","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-on","25":"tag-paddle","26":"tag-paddled","27":"tag-stopoff","28":"tag-tuesday","29":"tag-voyage","30":"tag-wayne","31":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}