South Island summer - Nov 2022

 Having crossed over to Picton on the ferry we headed for one of our favourite camping spots close by, the Wairau River diversion.  We were saddened to see that the council hasn't been bothered to open up the campsite at the end near the river mouth.  No surprise there.  We find Marlborough DC to be the most anti freedom camping council in the country!  Not to worry, there  was plenty of space in the allocated area.

Having stocked up with petrol, water and groceries from Blenheim we headed for Argyle Pond, a small man made canal and freedom camping spot on the road to Motueka.  James quite quickly had a lovely rainbow trout hooked, which went back into the pond to live another day .... or hopefully more.

While Clare enjoyed this view whilst trying to finish a pair of knitted socks.

Argyle Pond, watching the rod tip

However, we quite quickly noticed that the solar panel was showing an intermittent problem.  At the same time, we were debating whether to head to an isolated spot on the west coast or to Molesworth Station, where we had a hunting block booked.  Either way, we needed to solve the solar panel problem before heading anywhere remote.  Back to Blenheim we go where we easily obtain the part (for free!).  Too late now to continue our journey we head back to Wairau diversion for the night.  Upon arrival it became apparent that the kahawai were running in the mouth so James was pretty quick to head out there to spin some up. 

He had tons of fun, giving a few of his catches to a migrant vineyard worker who had been sent by his friends to try and catch a feed.  A young German guy also turned up, was offered a fish but said he wanted to catch his own so James gave him a spinner to use.

The next morning ......

James brought a few back to camp and had them pretty quickly filleted and into the fridge. And when the German guy came to admit to loosing the spinner, he got gifted with half the fish to share with his travel mate.  They had no fridge and only pot noodles for dinner.  Such is the life of young foreign travellers :-)

Next day it was decided to head for Collingwood where we would travel south down the coast to the river mouth we had heard about.  We stopped first at the Manarakau river mouth for a couple of nights.  We were the only campers here.  It was so peaceful.  The ocean was much too rough for surfcasting but we had a bit of fun spinning for kahawai in the river mouth and just enjoying the peace and tranquility of this magic place on earth.

The Detectorist

Back on the road we kept heading south till we arrived at the mouth of the Anatori River, 7km short of the end of the coast road from the top end.  (There felt like some symmetry to this journey as next year we will be house sitting in Karamea, which is just about as far north on the West Coast as your can drive from the bottom.)  

There was one other guy staying here who was something of a regular and soon enough he, with his local knowledge, and James as the good keen man that he is, had headed off on a hunting trip and come back with a few wild goats for the fridge.

 We also foraged some mussels off the nearby rocks and opened them on the camp fire.

The weather was pretty bad most of the time keeping us holed up in our van for a full day, one of the only downsides of living in a tiny space.  So after a few nights we headed back to the other side of the island again, stopping at Patons rock to pick some more mussels.

Arriving on the coast near Takaka we found ourselves fishing with a friend!  No wonder we didn't catch anything, but it was quite fun to hang out with this guy.

Heading back to the van we came across the biggest rock oysters we have ever seen.  Harvesting a few to take to family in Nelson, we continued on our journey.

A new baby had just been born into the family recently and we were delighted to call in for a couple of nights, helping out with the cooking and cuddling some gorgeous children.

Clare looks like she's been up all night
with this babe, that is certainly not the case!!!

Leaving home, again - Nov 2022

 

It finally came time to leave the Bay of Plenty for the summer.  We planned to be away in the South Island for approximately 8months - living in our van, interspersed with some housesitting and lots of hunting, fishing and generally just going wild!

First stop was on a rural property near Levin.  This housesit was a referral from a previous house sit we had enjoyed a few years back.  It is really nice to meet people through others we have sat for already.

The cats and dogs at this sit all got on so well together.  We just love it when everyone loves each other!

Ron

Maisey

Leo

Garry

youngest of the group, Pepper the kitten

Then there was this amicable and very cute rescue pony, Mini.  Talk a bout a cutie!

This was a short sit and there wasn't much on the jobs list so we just kicked back and enjoyed the company of the furbies.

And the views

Next, we were onto Wellington where Clare spent a week hanging out with her Mum and James spent much of the week fishing off the coast around the city.  One would be forgiven for thinking there wouldn't be much to catch so close to the capital, but James proved that theory wrong.  He caught a barracouta, a gurnard (our favourite eating fish) and a really decent size kahawai.  The latter two finding their way into our bellies.

Barracouta

Kahawai

Just a cool piece of street art to feel the summer vibe

Forever foraging - Oct 2022

Feeding the (tame) wild deer

It had been a couple of years since we had headed into our favourite mountain station to go for an easy hunt.  By easy, we mean that we can usually get an animal or two for the freezer.  But first of all we were required to beat the feet over the hills for a few days laying rat bait.

With the work part of our trip complete we were able to gather a few future feeds under our belts.

We are always awed by the flora and fauna in the NZ bush.

Wild clematis

A very pretty moth, nature has 
the best designs

Our next stop was back to Whakatane where we have access to a shared freezer.  Our great mates Ollie and Snow are also hunter gatherers so we all add to the freezer stock whenever we can and take from it what we need.  A perfect solution for a couple of nomads.

It always occurs to us during the processing of our 'catches' just how much work it is to hunt and gather so much of our own food.  To do it really well and use every inch of each animal we gather takes lots of time and effort.  We wouldn't have it any other way.  We still believe this is the most sustainable meat to eat.  The vac pac machine has also revolutionised this process for us.  We have now learnt to wet age the venison when we are living in our van.

Ollie and Snow then headed off on a family holiday of their own and we stayed to care for the furbies.

Max enjoying some grooming

And, of course, a spot of surfcasting which allowed us to also stash some smoked fish cakes in the freezer!

Next we headed out of town to a repeat sit with the crew from Edgecumbe.  Always lot of fun with this lot!

Tux's parents tell us that he was never
a lap cat until we came into his life.
Hard to believe by this evidence!

Joey, the retired sheep dog.  So much 
for being the tough guy, either of them :-)