Fishing Charter on the Kaipara Harbour

As today is Labour Day and a day off work, I headed off on a fishing charter with Paul and several others on the Kaipara Harbour, to the north west of Auckland.





After a few days of dubious weather, we were fortunate today - a warm and sunny day. It was still quite choppy though in parts. Unfortunately the big fish weren't biting, but still managed to reel in several fish.




This is my final haul of 8 snapper, 4 trevally, 1 gurnard, 1 small cod and 2 kahawai. The kahawai were biting well, so quite a few were put back, only the 2 big ones kept for smoking.





Our dinner consisted of sashimi trevally fillets followed by lemon pepper coated cod fillets with home made chips - the cod was probably the nicest fish we have ever had. As you can see I am quite tired after my hard day at sea.

Taupo - Anna & Tim's

This weekend we headed back down to Taupo to see Anna and Tim, to celebrate her 30th birthday and my birthday next week. Many developments since we last visited, the house is pretty much finished inside now, just the outside decking area to complete. The main additions have been to their animal family. "Compost" the pig being one of them - he is a cross between a wild boar and a farmed pig hence his face shape and ridge of fur along his back. He will be in the freezer early next year :o)


Two other additions are CJ and Jeff the goats. This is going to be one line of farming they pursue in the future and these are the first male goats they will use for breeding.





Finally they have four sheep and four lambs, some of which will be kept (the sheep for another lambing season), some sold and some in the freezer with Compost!





Their pine forest suffered badly in the winter storms and have had to result in having the majority of the trees ripped out and logged ready for sale - a large bulk of the wood is to be shipped to Korea. It has made a mess of one area of the paddock, but once finally cleared will be replanted with trees and prepared for the goat farm.



The day was rounded off with our birthday cake, beautifully made by Anna.