OUR FISHING EXPEDITON, BLOW BY BLOW

Right ...  here we go! 

ABOVE:  after arriving and boarding the boat, we headed down the river towards the harbour... in the thick fog...

ABOVE:  passing another charter fishing boat on it's way down the river.  We got to our first fishing spot and HALF AN HOUR LATER that boat caught up with us.  My Dad's old boat is FAST.

ABOVE:  Tony, the owner/skipper... navigating our way down the river using GPS and depth sounders... it was the only way to do it as we could not see further than 50 metres in front of us due to the fog.

ABOVE: the sun trying to peep through the fog.  It was darn cold with the fog too!  First time I had felt cold in MONTHS!  It was kinda nice.

 ABOVE:  we had to pick up some passengers from Shelly Beach wharf... I was scared Tony would crash into it cos we couldn't see it for ages!  But.. we didn't of course... lol.

ABOVE:  I have NEVER seen anything like this before!  Like a rainbow/halo over the water... due to the fog and sunrise I think.  It was AWESOME.  The water was DEAD CALM too.

ABOVE:  Finally, the sun came out...  see all the fog down low!

 ABOVE: heading to the northern end of the harbour, right near where the harbour meets the sea....

ABOVE: Stew caught the first fish...

 ABOVE:  shame it was a bloody shark!  We threw him back .... not worth keeping.   At this spot we just kept catching sharks, so we moved to another place....

 ABOVE:  Dave caught his first fish... a really nice gurnard... he was wrapt.  AND, get this... he lives in our suburb... just over the back of our street!  We had never met him before... talk about a coincidence. 

ABOVE:  Stew showing off another of his fish, this time a Kawhai.... we hope to buy a cheap smoker today so we can smoke some of our fish.

 ABOVE:  the LAST fish of the day!  MINE.  A freaking stingray!  He fought like buggery too... but he got chucked back in too.  Not good to eat.  
Everyone on board caught their quota (allowable  number) of fish .... so it was an EXCELLENT day both weather wise and for the fishing.

ABOVE: huge heat clouds (I'm sure they have a proper name) over the hills.  The scenery was just AMAZING.... we couldn't have been anywhere more beautiful if we tried.


We have already decided to go again soon... and next time we will take the kids too.  I am sure they will love it. 


TODAY:  sleep in for a while, then we are heading down to Hamilton to see family.  
ONWARD...
HAMILTON:  well, it was stinking hot!  Like, really really uncomfortable hot. Melt in the car hot.  Get crabby hot.
But, we had a nice lunch at The Base with Kelly and Rena, then visited Amanda and the kids.


We bought this from The Warehouse:

ABOVE:  a smoker.  It was darned expensive for a tin box!   Even at the cheapest place in town.
When we got home from Hamilton we put some of our fish in it.... and learnt a few lessons in smoking fish....  

ABOVE: Our smoked fish.  Lessons learnt:
- Don't use THAT much wood chips...
- Don't use THAT much brown sugar!
- Only smoke THICK fillets or whole fish.
The bottom layer ended up bathed in sugary wood chips!  But still edible.
AND our fish was really nice.


While our fish was cooking we had a quick visit from Jacqui, Martin and kids.... they were on their way home from Thames and got caught in gridlocked traffic... so stopped in here to feed Sofia... who was getting grumpy.  4 month olds tend to do that when stuck in a car in this heat.


End of Day:  a super hot day today, but glad we got to see the family in Hamilton... seeing as we didn't go to the family event yesterday.
ON TRACK:  maybe not today... I had KFC for lunch!  
nite nite.