Is that a river there..

no that’s just the tide, that fills the Waimea Inlet, the largest estuary in the South Island of NZ, twice a day.

There’s only two seawater entrances, one to the east, Blind Channel next to Nelson Airport,

and this one at Mapua on Rabbit Islands Western side. (photo above shows tide almost too strong to row out to your moored yacht, so “power” was required today, Sunday.)

With the opening of the latest bikeway of the NZ Cycleway, there was a need to get from Rabbit Island,

across this channel to Mapua and the mainland as it were.

Enter the newly introduced “flat bottomed boat”