We are lost for words about this place. Somebody on the West Coast told us it was a great place for kayak fishing. What an understatement that turned out to be.
We had a couple of weeks to kill before our housesit in Nelson and a family Christmas so thought this a good way to spent it. First we needed to stock up on supplies in Nelson as Titirangi Bay is in the northern most reaches of Marlborough Sounds and many difficult kilometeres from the nearest shop. So we stocked up on everything we needed ... or so we thought. We also borrowed a tent because, as we were going to be stationary for a while, an extra room for sleeping or keeping stuff in is always a good idea.
Titirangi Farm Park is on land which a couple (friends of the extended family, so it turned out!) lease from DOC and run a sheep farm and a campground on. The road in is challenging which makes for a reasonably quiet campground as many tourist are put off by the trek. There were only two or three others there when we arrived so we set up camp in a sheltered corner of the park.
During out stay, there was never more than about four other vehicles at one time. A truly tranquil corner of the earth. We shared the campground with a few cheeky weka, one of which we named Limpy as he had a badly injured leg. He was being picked on by the others and it looked like he may not survive the challenge of his wild-life, but by the time we left, the special attention we and the other campers had given him had seen him well on the way to 'standing on his own two feet'.
The family of weka provided hours of entertainment with their shenanigans .... stealing food from anyone whose attention strayed from their camp. We lost a banana, a capsicum and (nearly) a whole kahawai.
The weather wasn't great when we arrived so we started out by surfcasting and fishing off the rocks. All we caught were some undersized snapper and the odd kahawai.
It wasn't until we started kayaking in the early mornings that we really experienced the magic of the bay.
It was so peaceful out on the water enjoying the sunrise (not often will you hear us admit to this!) and the fish were plentiful. So much so that we were able to take plenty of gurnard and kahawai back to Nelson to feed the family on Christmas Eve.
During our fishing trips we also caught a couple of barracuda and a variety of small sharks. All good fun and all released back into the wild. However, the highlight of this adventure was catching our first kingfish from the kayak! It was a really exciting and surprising event (see video below for a comical blow by blow).
We enjoyed supplying fish to the other campers, many of whom were overseas tourists who had no experience of New Zealand fish straight from the ocean. They, in turn, were very generous at sharing some food staples we were starting to run short of .... bread, eggs, onions etc.
The weka and the farm cat were also happy recipients of offcuts from the filleting process.
The only unfortunate incident during our stay was the serious head injury of one of the camper/fisherman who fell head first from the rocks, splitting his head wide open and breaking three vertebrae in his neck. James became the primary firstaider until the rescue helicopter arrived some 45 minutes later. It felt like a lifetime .... as these things do. The poor guy was flown straight to Wellington where he received plastic surgery on his face/head among other less urgent medical procedures. Makes one think of the dangers of living an outdoor lifestyle miles from civilisation. But we don't let that detract from the special experiences we had here.
Several weeks later, as we passed the turnoff to Titirangi Bay on our way to Picton we were tempted to forget all the plans we had made for 2018 and just head straight back there :-)
 |
| 50cm gurnard |
 |
| Too plentiful to fit them all in the pic! |
 |
| Smoking green lipped mussels .... not yet perfected |
 |
| Camp dinner -mussel laksa and gurnard fish fingers |
During our fishing trips we also caught a couple of barracuda and a variety of small sharks. All good fun and all released back into the wild. However, the highlight of this adventure was catching our first kingfish from the kayak! It was a really exciting and surprising event (see video below for a comical blow by blow).
 |
| Proud catcher of this 83cm kingi |
We enjoyed supplying fish to the other campers, many of whom were overseas tourists who had no experience of New Zealand fish straight from the ocean. They, in turn, were very generous at sharing some food staples we were starting to run short of .... bread, eggs, onions etc.
The weka and the farm cat were also happy recipients of offcuts from the filleting process.
The only unfortunate incident during our stay was the serious head injury of one of the camper/fisherman who fell head first from the rocks, splitting his head wide open and breaking three vertebrae in his neck. James became the primary firstaider until the rescue helicopter arrived some 45 minutes later. It felt like a lifetime .... as these things do. The poor guy was flown straight to Wellington where he received plastic surgery on his face/head among other less urgent medical procedures. Makes one think of the dangers of living an outdoor lifestyle miles from civilisation. But we don't let that detract from the special experiences we had here.
Several weeks later, as we passed the turnoff to Titirangi Bay on our way to Picton we were tempted to forget all the plans we had made for 2018 and just head straight back there :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment