January 28-29 –
After a picnic lunch in the parking lot in Kaikoura it's time to head back out on the open road…. our destination for tonight? How about Picton? It's on the north eastern coast.
The drive north is taking us through some beautiful scenery:
and through wine country:
through lots and lots of vineyards….
We made it to the Top Ten campground in Picton….and Mark has offered to cook us dinner! Wahoo!!!! We bought some fish at a local fish market in Picton and we bought some Hokey Pokey ice cream (and caramel cashew ice cream) at the grocery store. Sounds like the makings of an excellent dinner, right?
Mark has just come from the campground office – the receptionist has just booked us a boat for tomorrow morning – WE'RE GOING FISHING!!!!!
It's time for the Morning Jog. Who's with me????
Okay…this sign just hit my funny bone. Do you find this funny too or is just me???? (it's probably just me):
And here's the campground we're staying at (hey! That's a bunch of fuschia growing along the building!):
Ready to go fishing??? I am!!! I want to catch enough fish so that we can have it for dinner tonight. That's my goal, anyway.
That's our boat!
ready for a boat ride??? This is going to be fun! Ray and Gregory are relaxed and ready for the ride:
And so are Lily, Annika, Henry and Ava!
Mark is MOST DEFINITELY ready for this fishing trip:
Leaving Picton in search of fish. This fishing charter includes the use of fishing gear, bait and cleaning the fish we keep. Sweet deal for us (since none of us has any fishing gear with us)!!!!
What is that???? I think it's squid???? Well, whatever it is we're using it for bait:
Bait is on the hooks…time to get the poles in the water and start catching us some fish!!!
Ava's got her line in:
Lily and Annika have their lines in the water (with the help of Uncle Ray):
Ava and Gregory have their lines in the water too…thanks to Mark and Aunt Beth:
Gregory caught the first fish!!!!! (bummer though…it was too BIG to keep. Apparently blue cod has a narrow window in the sizes you're allowed to keep.)
We're getting lots of little nibbles and we've managed to hook or snag a few fish but so far they're all too small to keep. Gotta keep trying!
Looky what Mark caught: a rock with seaweed. Way to go, Mark!!! :
This barracuda was trying to eat one of the fish on our line….and our captain just stabbed it with a spear!
Can you see the sharp teeth in its mouth????
The captain said he'd use the barracuda as bait. I think that's a good idea as the fish don't seem to be taking the squid bait.
Any chance we're going to catch some fish that we can keep and eat for dinner?????
Nope. Not yet. However, I managed to catch this miniature beast:
It's a BABY SHARK!!! Which apparently the kids want to touch:
So…guess we have to have the traditional "holding the fish" photo, right? The captain mentioned that I shouldn't touch the spike near the shark's tail and that the shark would try to reach around and bite me. Yep…it does look like it'd like to eat me:
Thanks to the Captain for helping hold that pointy ends of the shark!
Rats. We have to toss that little bugger back into the ocean.
Lily snagged a shag!
Whaaaat?????
Lily snagged a commorant (they call them shags here). The commorant was trying to get to the fish on her line but got tangled up in the line instead. The captain untangled the poor beast and let it go. If ever a bird could have a look on its face – that bird did. It looked pretty miffed about the situation. I don't think that stopped it from going after the fish again!
We finally did manage to catch some keepers. Now, don't ask me kind of fish these are but they are big enough to keep and we'll eat them for dinner! And our captain is filleting them as we speak. Such a sweet deal!
We're back in Picton harbour and it's time to get off the boat. Check out these skates swimming so close to shore (what are they eating???):
We're having fun watching The Skate Show:
Hmm….it's lunch time. We should grab some lunch before leave Picton. Hey…there was that chili hot dog vendor right there at the dock and Mark wants one. The kids can eat hot dogs. We have to try and be more vigilant about meals since the youngest in the bunch, Henry, was diagnosed with diabetes last fall. But that doesn't seem to be slowing him down…he's playing and having just as much fun as the rest of us!
We're all sitting…patiently waiting….for our lunch!
It's time to move on. We toyed with the idea of taking the ferry across to the North Island and visiting Wellington. Thing is – we'd be on the ferry for at least six hours and we wouldn't have that much time to spend in Wellington. Hmmm….I think there's enough to see on the South Island – let's just stick to that.
Actually, one of the places we KNEW we WANTED to see while in NZ is just a few hours away: Abel Tasman National Park. It's further up north….so let's head there next!
We're off to Kaiteriteri via Nelson.
And the way there we'll have to pass through some crazy curvy, winding roads:
Along some nice looking beaches (this is close to Nelson):
Through quaint little towns (and a big one…Nelson is a big town):
Until we got to Kaiteriteri!!! There's a lovely looking beach with an inviting looking ocean. It looks enticing, doesn't it??? Trouble is – it's CCCCCOLD!!!! I'm not exactly eager to jump in…and neither are the kids.**Can I PLEASE just interject a comment here??? I am so FRUSTRATED with our internet here in China. I think it'd be faster to get this post delivered to you via carrier pigeons than with this so-called fiber optic cable that supposedly services our house. I am SO TIRED of dealing with this!!!! Okay..rant over. Back to NZ photos…..**
Well, of course Mark proves to be the exception! He jumped right in:
And he tossed Gregory in as well. LOL!!! Now they're swimming out to the floating platform.
Can you see the two of them standing on that platform????
The sane people are staying on the beach…doing the beach activities they love doing …whether it's on the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere:
Teeth chattering…Gregory is back. Apparently the water really is cold! At least now it's play time on the beach for the chicklets…until dinner is ready.
Little Miss Gappy found this crab part and she just HAD to come show me. :-)
Check out what we're going to have for dinner tonight (we made it to Kaiteriteri):
It's Our Catch of the Day!!!
I seriously have no clue what kind of fish we caught. I will tell you that they were tasty!!!!
Our FISH!!!!!! (with cajun seasoning courtesy of Gregory…he picked out the spice. Nice work, Gregory!)
Our humble abode inside the belly of The Beast:
Our campervan rental also came with camp chairs and tables…let's eat our dinner outside:
Fish and veggies and fried potatoes. Yummy! Maybe even some L&P soda to go with it…
That was another fun day! What are we going to do tomorrow????? Any ideas?
(I've got an idea…wink,wink)