A fishy day out.

We were lucky enough to go out on our friends boat at the weekend. It was a lovely day spent with friends, lazing around, 'catching' fish and eating delicious food.
We went out to the Cavalli Islands and moored up and fished for hours. It would be fair to say that the fish had us well and truly beaten! I think it's Lloyd and me - we are bad luck for anyone trying to fish!

Liam, the youngest and tiniest person on board caught the best fish of the day, that it was also his first ever fish was rather lovely!

 I think he enjoyed himself!

So the guys thought they better catch up and get some fish too! They did get about three snapper that were legal size, but they were still pretty small so we put them back. ( which secretly pleased me as I always feel so sorry for the fish)

Wilson - the dog - was keeping a close eye on proceedings!

We got back to shore as the sun was setting - all tired and happy after a totally gorgeous day out on the water.

Also I want to thank everyone who has wished Banana lots of healing thoughts. They must be working as he is coming on so well. He can walk a lot now, even though he's still pretty uncoordinated.   He hasn't drunk anything on his own yet, so we're still having to syringe water into his mouth. But he is eating, just wee bits. Little and often. He is on special cat food from the vet, but he's also allowed some cottage cheese, which he loves and some boiled chicken. It'll be a long road, but we are just so amazed by his progress, so thank you all once again, all your well wishes really mean a lot. Banana thanks you too - he feels very loved and pretty famous!

the most beautiful weekend

We went out with Danny and Paula on one of the most amazing boats I have ever been on and had the best time. We left Whangaroa marina on Saturday and went up to the Karikari peninsula via a stop in a gorgeous bay to have a wee fish. We spent the weekend pretending to fish and eating an awful lot! We didn't catch a thing ( as is our usual) but to be honest we really weren't trying.

It was all stunning.We found a sheltered place to stop near the whitest sands ever and moored there for the night.

In the morning we pottered around then headed back to Whangaroa, we did the journey in one and I have to admit to feeling pretty sea sick. Lloyd asked Danny what had been the biggest seas he'd had the boat out in and he laughed and said "These!" However we had a stop off in another lovely, calm bay, did another wee useless fish an then headed back home.

Picked the dogs up from the kennels ( I was brave!) they seemed to have had a lovely time and are completely exhausted. The kennel owner said they behaved impeccably which was good to hear as these kennels are pretty amazing and we would have been terribly embarrassed if the dogs had been naughty!

Home now absolutely shattered and very happy.

Whangaroa, one of the most stunning places ever.

the white sands of the Karikari peninsula. We actually take the dogs up here.

my foot!

My shadow!

Saturday Sunset

and finally the view from the kitchen while Lloyd was doing dinner ~ not too shabby

a big thank you to Danny and Paula for taking us with them

xx

Finally...we caught some fish for dinner!

Alan and Mary, lovely friends of ours, have a rather gorgeous boat and offered to take us out fishing today. Alan fishes a lot, so knows good places to go, what bait to use and all that sort of stuff!

It was a glorious day as we headed out into the Bay.

I don't know exactly where we were but we caught fish! The first few snapper were too small and were put back. Then we all caught something. Lloyd got a snapper and a trevally, I got a snapper and a porae ( it was HUGE, biggest fish I have ever caught in my life, ok I realise that's not exactly saying much as I have caught approximately 6 fish to date) and Alan caught several snapper, rather expertly.

 

this is my porae

       Lloyd, not a bit happy to be catching fish. 

 

Lloyd with the porae, see it's pretty big.

    
After a few hours fishing we went to Whale Bay, which is stunning, to fillet the fish ( Alan did them all ) and clean the boat before heading back home.

resting

bliss

don't look if you are a bit blergh about dead things...

 

filleting 

 amazing clouds on the way home.

Fish and chips for dinner tonight - fish from the sea, potatoes from the garden.

We've broken our duck.

 

I am really happy we caught dinner, but I have to admit to having a sad feeling too, I really hate killing anything and if I hadn't been fishing today there would be 2 more fish swimming around in the sea this evening and that makes me feel bad, but not bad enough that I don't want to do it again!

A huge thank you to Alan and Mary!

 Now, the pipis from yesterday, some people asked what they are.

Well, they are a small shell fish. Also known as a surf clam. smaller than mussels and lovely and sweet.

A good recipe is

In a large pot with a lid, lightly fry 3 minced garlic cloves in 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil for 30 seconds, making sure it doesn't brown. Add 1kg of well-washed pipis, 2 chopped ripe tomatoes, a 1/2 cup of chopped flat-leaf parsley and 2-3 chopped red chillies (optional). Turn the heat right up, season with a little salt and pepper and give the pipis a good stir for a few seconds.

Add 1 cup of dry white wine and place the lid on the pot. They should all open in 3-4 min. Check that they have; sometimes it's just a matter of giving the pot a good shake or stirring the pipis so they have room to open.

Season with salt and pepper.We sometimes serve them with spaghetti.

Reef's First Fishing Trip

And he slept through the whole thing!

We all went out on NandS's boat to see if we have any better luck, but we didn't! We did, however, have lovely egg and bacon sandwiches Lloyd had made which more than made up for our usual lack of fish.

But so much for fishing at dusk. That didn't work for us either.

For a split second Lloyd thought he'd caught something! Oh the excitement!

Once we got over the initial shock we realised it was just the bottom of the sea. ( and that we were about to fall of the edge of the world)

Don't get too excited ~ this is bait

All was not lost as there was a glorious sunset and we all  went home tired, fishless, but happy.

 

Boxing Day Fish Bonanza.

Lloyd and I took our Christmas presents out on the boat today. Lovely fishing rods, new soft bait and some jiggers. Even with all the things you are supposed to catch fish with, we still didn't. It may be time to face facts ~ we can't fish, we are rubbish and we may never catch anything for as long as we live!

However, it's still really lovely to be out on the water and wee Ladybird is getting used a lot so all good really, but would be nice, just once, to catch our dinner!

Anyway, I am now heading to the veggie garden to pick a load of broad beans for dinner, so we won't starve ( as if!)

 

 

This is a jigger - allegedly the best thing out there for catching fish, everyone that uses these is catching fish, the world and it's dad is catching fish with these,  Santa Clause himself could catch a fish with one of these babies! But not us, no, not us.

Stupid Jigger.

Fishing last night..

As usual we caught nothing, nada! We did everything right as well. Got a place on the map that was recommended by the fishing shop. Found it perfectly. Dropped anchor, fish finder said there were millions of fish. Two other well equipped fishing boats also arrived and anchored up so we knew it should be a good place. Used the right bait, got trillions of nibbles and bites, but did any of the fish make it up into the boat and then for dinner  - nope!

None of the other boats caught anything either.

Lloyd met a friend at the market this  morning who said last night everyone said what a terrible night it was an nobody caught anything - doesn't make me feel any better though - I had such high hopes!!

The scenery was fab though.

 

I love the spotty effect the water made when it splashed onto the camera!! ( it's ok) 

 Day on the Bay

Glorious

No fish as usual

Who cares!

It was another stunning day, so we took Chelsea and Dustin ( our lovely helpx people) out on the boat. We did warn them that we never catch anything - I think we have a fishing curse or something! True to our word we didn't catch a thing, so we're defrosting some scallops for tea!

The pohutakawas are flowering already, I hope there's some left for Christmas day!

WARNING
very scary fish!

Went fishing again yesterday, another glorious day on the Bay, fish were caught, but as usual none were taken home and all were returned to the sea!
Some very odd looking things. ( Click on the pictures to make them big, this makes the fish look even more freaky!)First fish being caught!

Ladybird's first outing of the Season
Gorgeous
We went out with Nick and Sara and fished for about three hours. But first we had breakfast of egg and bacon rolls.
We started off at Black Rocks but got nothing so moved to near Whale Bay. The fish finders were saying there were loads of fish but could we catch something for dinner? Nope!
N&S caught a couple of Kingfish but they were too small, Sara caught a whole lot of snapper but they were all babies, so everything got put back.

Lloyd got a Gurnard - prettiest fish ever - it was legal size, but was pretty small and we didn't want to kill it anyway, it was too beautiful so back it went.
Ages later I caught a trigger fish - we didn't know these were good eating so we put it back too.



First weekend of spring and Nick has his top off! It was hot - the weather!




the kingfish
and back it goes!

So fillet steak for tea then!

It really doesn't matter at all, it was a stunning day!