Friday, June 11, 2010
Queens Birthday fishing trip
Last w/e was a long one and were we ready for it!
The forecast was shocking with high winds and heavy rain due in on saturday afternoon. So Chantelle and I decided to get up early and go fishing. My sources told me that the fishing kicks off just before the storm hits as the fish sense the impending weather and feed up. It certainly kicked off for us. We got to our place just as the sky was lightening - before 7am. On my first cast I caught an octopus. Chantelle caught big kahawai with every cast. They were about 2kg each. She also caught a good size rock snapper. I got a few but it was definitely Chantelle's day. We stopped fishing after a couple of hours because we had caught enough!
The rest of the day was spent gutting, scaling, filleting and distributing the catch amongst friends and neighbours. The weather also turned as bad as predicted but we had gotten ourselves out and did not mind to much. We had battered snapper and kahawai for tea with roastie potatoes and kumura.
On Sunday the fun continued. Took the boys up to Lake Ngatu. Paddy even went for a swim but the others were not so brave (or crazy). They found a bit of pipe and made a skipping pipe with it. Tricky to get a shot of them in the air. I went looking for Kuta grass - it is a reed that is harvested and woven into waterproof blankets and other garments. We carried on down to the beach to see how much the surf was pumping. It was good to see some pingao growing in the dunes. It is becoming rarer in these parts. We are growing some in the horticulture class at College and when it is much older I would like to plant it back on the dunes.
On the Bank Holiday Monday, the poor weather continued. The boys were happy to potter around. We had a toasty fire going. Stuart stayed at Nathan's house and together thay ran down a wild turkey in a swamp. That is not something I saw him doing 5 years ago! He cooked it for tea tonight and has carved the meat off to take on another hunt tomorrow.
I got some peace by going for a walk around the block. I went through the Matthews Mission Bush up the valley and then came back through neigbour Geoff's place. I got some great new perspectives on our place as his fields are over the stream from ours. Took a few pics of the wilderness that we call home.
The tree planting continues. Our place will change rapidly as they get bigger and shade out the grass.
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