Kawhia Fishing Trip - Jan 6th

We arrived in Kawhia around 6 pm the night before the trip. Kawhia is an isolated town on the coast west of Hamilton.  Much to Roberta's disgust, we had to get up at 6 am to be at the wharf in time to catch the charter boat. There was 13 of us from the vet clinic on the charter boat. It was a nice sunny day and not too windy, but the waves were still rolling pretty good. Some of our crew spent most of the day lying on the deck and trying not to spew. It was too bad because it was quite an awesome day

When we got out to our first spot to fish, we were immediately welcomed by quite a large pod of dolphins!!! What a great way to start off the day. They swam around the boat for a bit and then went on there way although they did return a couple of times.

Baby dolphin in between two adults- highlight of Roberta's day

Roberta always makes fun when I'm videoing things and saying what they are, so she decided to mock me a bit at the end of the video. Man she is funny.



We started jigging at around 40 meters and I brought up the first fish of the day within a couple of minutes, a kahawai.

Within no time the rest of the crew started to pull up some fish. Mostly kahawai but also some baby school sharks with the odd snapper as well. After about half an hour at this spot I noticed a large blue fish a few meters under the water that didn't look like a dolphin. It was a blue shark!! It was about 5 feet in length. It started biting at the fish we were catching and at our bait. It seemed within minutes there was about 4 more sharks and they soon became a nuisance. We started to hook them left and right. Most times ended with them breaking our lines and taking all our lures. We were able to bring some in though and brought them onto the boat to be untangled since they really seemed to roll when they were caught getting line wrapped all around them.

After untangling a few lines and losing a bunch of tackle, the skipper decided it was time for us to move since the sharks were not going to move anytime soon. We pulled up the anchor and moved to a second spot.

At this spot, we continued to catch kahawai along with some gurnets. They were quite a cool looking fish with colorful front fins and were great eating.

A Gurnet

Rex with a Snapper

We also started to catch some mackerel which we cut up and used as bait as snapper often like them. We started catching fish but the sharks moved in again circling the boat for bait and fish we caught. After going through another load of tackle we moved once again and once again at the third spot the sharks showed up a half an hour later. They must have just been following the boat.

Small School Shark

While moving from the third to the fourth spot, the skipper noticed some tuna in the water. We put on some squid like tackle and started trolling for tuna with the drag set really light so we could tell when we caught one. It was quite exciting. Within minutes one of the rods started to zing. After a 5 minute fight, Trevor was able to get around a 3 kg tuna in the boat. Next up was Adam and I. We both caught one at the same time. We had to maneuver under each other quite a few times. Adam was able to bring his in quicker than I could. After about a 15 minute fight, my arms were starting to burn a bit but I had gotten the fish right close to the boat. Rex went to net the fish and it broke right through the net and dove down hard below the boat. I was able to get the rod through the net without losing the fish. While the guys fixed the net, I brought the tuna back in and we finally got it aboard. It was about a 10 kg tuna!! The biggest the skipper had seen on the boat of this kind of tuna.

Tuna

Everyone got a turn and everyone caught one. Roberta's first one was only about 1 kg, but she had quite the fight with the second one.

After about 15 mins of fighting, she had finally got the fish close to the boat and felt no more fight on the line. Just then we saw the biggest shark of the day surface right near the boat. When Roberta brought the fish into the boat it had been bitten in half by the shark!

It was an awesome day, full of action.  I managed to catch at least one of each of every species of fish brought onto the boat which included school shark, spotted dogfish, blue shark, kahawai, snapper, gurnet, mackerel, and tuna. Roberta caught quite a few fish herself even though the waves made her a bit queazy at times. We headed into shore at around 3:30 pm and had a load of fish with us. Since we didn't have a freezer to put the fish into, we just took one of each of the smaller fish we caught for a taste.

Mullet

It was an exciting day to say the least. Looking forward to more as our journey continues!!! Until next time...

The Coromandel Peninsula

Hey all,

coming at you from the other side of the earth. We are now living without a permanent address for the first time in our lives. Our home is on wheels.

We spent our New Year’s at Waihi beach that is located at the base of the Coromandel peninsula. We stayed at Alex’s parent's bach that was located right on the ocean. For those who don't remember Alex was one of the people we lived with in Palmerston North.

 Our View

The doors to our room opened up to a view of the ocean which was amazing. We spent a couple of days boogie boarding and relaxing at the beach. We read lots, lounged around and had an all-round good time. Alex's family was great to visit with and we shared many stories. The day we left was Alex's grandfather's 92nd birthday and they had given him an Ipad Mini which he was totally stoked about!!! It was so awesome to see. My parents now do not have any excuses to learn about new technology. Haha


After hanging at the cabin, we headed north up the east side of the Coromandel peninsula. This is cottage country for the Aucklanders and Hamiltonians. We stopped for a hike to see some 600 year old kauri trees along the way. They mostly got logged out back in the day, but there are still a few remaining here and there.

Close to the Kauri walk there was a swimming hole that we stopped at. Some guys were diving off the top of the waterfall. I was thinking of pretending the picture was me, but thought it wouldn't fool you.

The road went right along the coast and the beautiful red blooming Pohutakawa trees made the scenery picturesque.

Unfortunately, Roberta started to get the flu and was not feeling at the top of her game. We spent one night in Waikawau Bay. The beach there was quite nice.

The next day we moved on to Stony Bay which was as far as the road went on the east side. Our campsite there was the best yet being right on the ocean. While Roberta spent the day in bed not feeling so well, I headed out for a hike and tried some beach casting off the rocks to see if I could catch a fish. The track to the fishing spot was quite grown in, but had some spectacular views of the coast. The last part of the track I was basically absailing down to the rocks down a steep hill. There were two other kiwi's fishing there and although I didn't catch any fish, I got some good fishing tips about surf- casting.

The next day Roberta was feeling a bit better, so we headed back down the peninsula to a place called Hot Water Beach. At low tide, you can dig a hole in the sand and if you are in the right area it will fill with hot water from underground springs. You actually had to be careful and not scold yourself in some areas the water was so hot. We spent a good 3 hours soaking in our self made hot water pools and chatting with some Kiwis.

The next day we headed to a place known as Cathedral Cove. It was only a short 10 km drive from hot water beach. It was an hour walk along the coast and through the bush to the actual cove. There were many side tracks along the way going into different bays and small beaches. The whole area was a marine reserve and we heard that the snorkelling was quite good at some spots, but we didn't have the gear and Roberta wasn't feeling a 100% yet, so we didn't rent any. The cove itself was beautiful. The waves were really rolling in that day and the "cathedral" was quite amazing.

 The "Cathedral"

 Roberta Walking Through

 Close up of Pohutakawa flowers

After hanging out at the cove for a bit, we made the walk back to the van and headed west. We had the Taumarunui Vet Clinic fishing trip in Kawhia the next day which was around a 3 hour drive. I'll tell you about it in the next blog.

Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is recovering from all the turkey/ham dinners that seem to keep coming at this time of the year. We spent Christmas with our work friend's family that lives just down the road from us. We had a great feast of ham, pork, salads, potatoes, and in kiwi tradition pavlova for desert. My parents had told me earlier in the day that is was -25 degrees at home and the kiwis could hardly believe it. Here it was about 21 degrees and quite humid, not really the Christmas weather I'm used to so it really didn't feel like Christmas at all.

The week before Christmas, we had a couple of adventures during the week. One night right after work, we headed down to Ohakune to mountain bike down the Old Coach Road. It was a 19 km trek through the bush and had some great scenery. It was a road built to connect Ohakune with Horopito back in the day, but had not been used in years.

Roberta under one of the old viaducts not being used anymore.

The coolest part of the trip was the Hapuawhenua viaduct built across the Hapuawhenua valley. Our legs were burning a bit by the time we made it to Ohakune, but the trip was totally worth it.

One other night that week, we went horse back riding with one of our client/friend from the vet clinic. It was a great ride through the hills speckled with sheep. It was nice to get on the back of a horse again. I still need to work on my horsemanship skills, but it's starting to come along. Dave was impressed with Roberta's skills on the back of the horse especially when he had a bit of a freak out.

The weekend before Christmas, we spent at Hanna and Rex's cabin at Lake Taupo. The Friday night we had a supper at little Waihi at a restaurant right on the lake with all of the worker's at the clinic. The presentation of the food was quite classy for this hillbilly, and it tasted great. Saturday morning Rex and I got up and headed out on the lake to catch some trout. We were jigging at depths anywhere from 60-150 feet. My new fishing rod Roberta got me for Christmas proved to be quite lucky as I caught around 10 rainbow trout. Rex caught his fait share as well.

In the afternoon we checked out the trout hatchery and went on a bush walk which was cool.

Roberta came with us that evening to catch some of the action, but we didn't catch a thing. That's fishing for ya.


On Sunday morning we tried to find the fish again. After no luck jigging, we started trolling for them with lead lines that sink down to the bottom. I ended up catching one fish which was work to get the 100 m of line in but it was the only one of the day. We spent the afternoon on the beach and took the sit on top kayaks for a paddle up a nearby stream. Before we knew it, it was the end of another great weekend.

Today we are finishing up our last day of work at the Taumarunui Vet Clinic and are taking 2 months off to tour around the country a bit more. We plan on spending New Year's at Waihi Beach in Corommandel region with some friends we lived with in Palmerston North. From there we are heading north of Auckland to the Bay of Islands and 90 Mile Beach. After taking all that in, we will make our way down to the South Island sometime after the middle of January. We will try our best to keep you updated, but don't know how much we will have internet access. Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Until next time.......