Benefits of Kayaking

Few activities give outdoor enthusiasts such a varied array of experiences as kayaking, especially around the Kaikōura Coastline. Whether you're seeking heart-stopping wildlife encounters, birdwatching, improving your kayaking skills, or simply want to soak up the serenity and peace of the ocean, you can find your passion in a kayak. The Kaikōura coastline offers all the above!
 

Fun and Relaxation

Kayaking is fun. Splashing about, exploring places inaccessible by land, and just generally mucking around, are great ways to enjoy yourself. It is also a great family interactive activity. Close encounters with marine life like dolphins and seals are experiences you will never forget!

Kayaking is a great social activity. Paddling alongside friends (or new acquaintances) allows conversation, or the peacefulness of quiet companionship.

The rhythm of the paddle stroke helps quiet the mind and calm the nervous system - great for stress relief. With your body in the groove and your heart rate settled, your mind is free to relax.
 

Exercise

Correct kayaking technique emphasizes the use of your core muscles, with your arms and legs providing added strength and power.

The steady rhythmic paddle, using many of the body’s major muscle groups, makes kayaking an ideal aerobic exercise (best for “fat burning”). If you want more of a workout and an extra boost into the anaerobic range, just paddle faster!

Kayaking is a low impact workout, with the resistance of the water as you paddle building strength without the strain.

Your balancing skills will improve, as will your upper body flexibility and mobility of the joints. Kayaking with good technique can also help alleviate back pain, largely through the working of those core muscles.

Kayaking is a relatively easy skill to learn. Our guides have beginners paddling within a short time, and our tours include a paddle lesson even before you hit the water.

Being in the Great Outdoors

Being outside, surrounded by nature and breathing the fresh ocean air is proven to have awesome benefits for your physical and mental health. We need a certain level of sunshine to produce our needed levels of vitamin D, which means a fun day out on the water will have you feeling better for days to come. 

Our guides have local knowledge of the area and will share interesting facts about the marine life and history of Kaikōura while you explore our big playground.

Challenge and confidence

Many of our guests are paddling for the first time, or perhaps the last time they paddled was as a child or teenager many years ago. They are a little nervous, some lacking in confidence. We love seeing a nervous first timer finishing their kayak tour with a big grin on their face and a huge boost to their confidence.

Paddling as part of a tour group on a guided kayak tour provides support and safety for new paddlers, with our guides there to show you the ropes. We use stable enclosed double sea kayaks which are easily steered by a rudder, with foot pegs in the front for comfort.

Social Responsibility

More and more travelers to New Zealand are interested in protecting the environment, and in our eco-tourism credentials. In a kayak you are not just close to, but part of the natural world around you. As a person-powered activity, kayaking has a minimal impact on the environment. From our kayaks though, we easily can see the negative effects of littering and environmental harm – the most obvious one being plastics and other rubbish from boats and beachgoers that we might see floating in the water. Many of our guests help in cleaning our marine environment by scooping up what rubbish they can as they paddle. That sense of social responsibility to our environment is one benefit of kayaking that means a lot to us. 
 

Ready to give it a go? Explore our guided kayak tours! 
 

Posted by Matt and Kim Foy on February 10, 2021