Week 12 Omaha River Retreat.

I went down to Auckland on Friday afternoon to pick up Jonny and we called in at New World, on the way back, to do some shopping. Rob called in on his way from work and put Jonny to bed. I had said to Jonny that I thought he was tired, he looked very pale, but of course he denied this. However when I went down half and hour later he was hard and fast asleep.

On Saturday afternoon the weather looked favourable so we all went for a walk on the beach at Goat Island a marine sanctuary not far from here. The beach actually overlooks Goat Island and is on the mainland. It's a very popular spot in the summer as the snorkelling and diving is so good there. We did take brollies with us but apart from one short shower we had sunshine. It's an interesting beach to walk on as there are lots of rocks, shells and driftwood.  Rob came after work and stayed overnight , I cooked toad in the hole for tea which everyone enjoyed. Rob took Jonny back home on Sunday morning after I had cooked pancakes for him.
On Sunday afternoon Nigel and I went over to Omaha for a walk on the beach.It's a beautiful, long, sandy beach but not as interesting as the beach at Goat Island. There were quite a few people out for a Sunday walk on the beach enjoying the sunshine.

On Monday afternoon Nigel and I walked down to the wharf and sat in the sunshine admiring the river. The weather is much improved and it was warm and sunny. We watched a couple of kingfishers which were perched on the jetty and listened to the Tui's in the trees behind us. A cormorant popped up in the river and we watched him dive again and come up in another place further up river. As we walked back a fantail followed us, they are such curious little birds, skittering and playing so close to us.

Tuesday was another fishing day as Rob had the day off and the weather was good. We took plenty of supplies with us, food and drink, as we hoped to be out for a long time. We set off, from Scott's landing, at 9.30 am. The sea was a bit choppy but certainly better than our last trip out. It was due to calm down by lunchtime so we went further out this time and after 50 minutes Rob anchored off Kawau Island within sight of Martins Bay. We spent about 3 hours there and there were plenty of fish about. We seemd to have got amongst to a shoal of Kahawai and caught many of them. They are fun to catch as they put up quite a fight and jump out of the water but they are not generally reckoned to be a good eating fish unless they are smoked. I baked one that we caught on an earlier trip and we really enjoyed it so we kept 3 of them for the freezer. The rest of them we returned to the sea, We were catching snapper as well but many of them were undersize and they too were returned to the sea. A pied cormorant popped up at the side of the boat and decided that he would hang around for a while and see if he could catch any fish that we threw back. Eventually his patience paid off and he took a small snapper almost out of Rob's hand. He made a very loud squawk as he took the fish and then dived off with it and surfaced again away from the boat to eat his lunch.

                                                            Rob and Kahawai

                                                         Shipwreck

                                                                   Pied Cormorant

                                                                 Calm waters

                                                         Catch of the Day.

                                                          Nigel, snapper and kahawai

                                                             Our captain!

After lunch Rob decided to move on and we set off in the direction of "home" motoring first to a small island nearby to have a look at a very old shipwreck that was rotting in the shallow water. We anchored up at a couple of places but didn't have any luck but at the third place we struck lucky and spent an hour or more pulling in lots of good sized snapper. By this time we had become much choosier and didn't need many more so even some good sized fish were reprieved this time. There is a limit on how many fish one can take and what size they can be and the authorities are very keen on this. We eventually kept 19 fish which was well below our limit. One lucky fish that I caught was a red gurnard, he was only small and so beautiful as I pulled him up through the clear water. The nearest description that I can give of him is that he looked like a brightly coloured goldfish with greeny blue wings. For the last 3 hours or so of our day the sea had been very calm and the sky so blue, the sun was pretty hot for the time of year and we had taken off our fleeces. Looking over to the land and the hills beyond we could see why New Zealand is called the land of the long white cloud. Rob took advantage of the calm water and openened the throttle and we were soon back at Scott's Landing.

 Back at Rob's there was still plenty to do. The boat had to be emptied, the engine cleaned and the fish dealt with. Rob filletted a big snapper that Nigel had caught which was going to be in the frying pan before too long! We said goodbye and drove back home with our fishy haul. Once home I gutted our fish and put them in the freezer and then it was time to have our meal, freshly caught snapper coated in flour and quickly fried and oven chips. A meal fit for a king (or queen!)

Before the local vineyards around Matakan were planted in the 1970's there had been many orchards in the area.. Some still remain and now we have the autumn fruit. The first of the season were the feijoas which were introduced into NZ in the 1920's. A strange fruit but they are very popular here and have a distinctive flavour.http://www.coast2coastnz.com/?p=761
Now we have mandarin oranges, apples, limes, avocados and persimmon. Our local garage has bags of these fruit for sale at the price of 5nzd (about £2.50) for 2 1/2 kilos - good value indeed. We haven't yet tried the persimmon, not sure if we could get through so many, but will try and get a smaller amount to see if we like them.