We were really looking forward to spending most of January in the Far North. We left Levin in a raging storm, driving to Auckland under less than perfect conditions. The Desert Road presented an intensity of wind and rain that made keeping the truck on the road quite a challenge. But get to Auckland safely we did.
On our way north we stopped at Mangonui wharf. The kingis were in and there were approximately 15 or so fisherman getting in each others way in their quest to drag one in. We watched for a while but the chaos soon got the better of us and we moved on.
Our first stop in Northland was a DOC campground at Matai Bay, on the Karikari Peninsular. This campground was a bit busy for our liking, not surprising for the middle of the summer holidays, and there was a rahui in place for fishing. Now whilst we support the concept of conservation and preservation of resources where it is necessary to do so, we also believe that recreational fisherman are held disproportionately responsible for this. It is not the wo/man on the rocks/beach with a single rod each who doing the damage. Grrrr. Bug bear right there!
Not really an ideal stop for us, however we were happy enough to kick back and relax for a couple of days at this gem of a place.
Matai Bay in all it's summer glory
The sea was like a lake.
Rock formations at the end of the bay
Heading north from here we stopped at the Parengarenga Harbour wharf to see if you could catch some live bait to fish for a kingi. The live bait were in abundance and we finally did hook into a kingi which was too small to take so off he went to swim another day. As we were thinking about getting our last live bait in to head off a beautiful big bronze whaler shark came sloping in and took off with the line. So amazing to see so close up!
Next stop was Rarawa DOC campground. Again, a nice place to stay for a couple of days. A lovely lady we had met at Matai Bay was here too and she showed us where we could pick some wild spinach. This made a lovely addition to one of our camp meals.
After topping up with fresh veges and fruit from stalls at the side of the road we were off up to Spirits Bay. What a magical place this is. The campground is huge and not nearly as busy as it is quite a drive from the main road. We had quite a lot of fun here hooking into some great kingi but failing to land any ... until the weather turned too foul to fish off the rocks.
Sacred (and tapu) mountain
A man in his element!
Playing a kingi
We spent about 10 days here, until we got rained out and decided to head south to our next housesit in Kaiwaka ....
Jandals, flipflops,thongs ... same thing in any language
We went to stay in Nelson with Bailey the Ragdoll cat for a couple of weeks over Christmas.
She was a doddle to look after, a cuddle (or two) and a brush everyday and we were all happy.
Four generations of family had again gathered, this time in Nelson at Clare's nephew's, some of them coming from as far away as London. We were hot on the spot! An awesome time was had by all. The weather behaved extremely well and a few outdoor activities were in order.
James and Ari waiting for the girls to stop shopping
(Great) Grandpa's bodyboarding lesson
The three littlest cousins
Excavation engineers in the making
What's with the colour coordination?!?!
Bumper boat competition
And the odd Wasgij got done
It was soon time for everyone to scatter in their own directions and to other folds of their families.
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.
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 :-)
