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Published: August 8th 2007
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After so many tourist attractions it was time to slow down again and to live by our own words and find these unmarked adventures. If there is one thing that New Zealand taught us, it was to entertain ourselves without the help of a TV or any other time wasting devices usually requiring electrical power. We had neither a TV nor Power in our small van world but we had something very precious instead. Without being distracted by the necessity of a daily routine and tiredness there of we had time. Time to step back and think about all these things that are truly important to us, or even just find out what actually is. Time to stop in places and do what we wanted to and not what guidebooks and brown signs wanted us to do. Time to free our minds from thought which appear important but not actually are. Having no strict itinery or a list of "must do" things, allowed us to be open for what was there to come and learn lessons at each opportunity.
This time we decided to be lead by Andrew's magic wand (his fishing rod) through the south island. After we left
Oooooops!
It seems we got a little bit stuck the ferry in Picton we headed for what our map promised to be a fishing spot - the Rarangi beach. There, firstly we got stuck on the soft gravel and a few kind canadians helped us to push the van out again, having experienced worse just a day before. They had to be pushed out by a tractor. This was our first experience of this, but it made us feel like true adeventurers. As soon as Andy dipped the rod into the sea it did it's magic, it made everyone passing by at least ask the question "Are the fish biting today?" Sometimes even whole conversations were struck out of nothing. Unluckily the fish were not biting at all that day, so when Josie saw that their neighbours had also a magic wand she went to ask for advice. John and Emma just came back from Nikau bay in the Marlborough Sounds with loads of fresh snapper. That evening not only we ended up with directions to real fishermen places, but also with fresh fish for dinner - thank you Emma!
We followed John's and Emma's instructions and found the bay and also their friends John and Rosemary. Nikau
Snapper
I believe Andy actually caught the 2 big ones but let John have them as it was his boat (only kidding John :) ) bay is full with fishermen, and I mean serious ones, with boats and nets, so the ice was broken the instant moment Andy took his rod out of the van (no smutty remarks now, we mean his 13ft pole ;-)). That evening we had monkfish for dinner, cought by John the same day. As per usual Andy did his best for conservation and didn't catch a thing. We were also invited to the fishermen's "Happy hour" and got to know the rest of the crew, Pauline, Colin and Dez. Little did we know that our supposedly brief stop will take a whole week and lead to all sorts of crazyness, but let me start at the beginning.
John saw Andy desparately casting from the surf all day and offered to take him out on his boat - also known to the Nikau bay fishermen as Lollipop, due to it's size and bright yellow colour. From that day Andy's fishing career went through the roof. Every morning would start very early with the men getting up at day break and taking off into the mist of the sounds to get their catch. We had fish for every day, in all
A Van with a View
This is one of the many amazing views our van blessed us with. A view money couldn't buy shapes and forms, battered, as fish nuggets with sweet chilli sauce, fried, as fish cakes, in curry and even manuka smoked thanks to John. We did not get tired of the amazing taste of fresh, self-caught snapper. There is something about catching your food yourself. Almost as if the effort that went into catching it enhances the flavour and having to kill to eat makes you respect your meal so much more.
With Kim "the gipsy" (This nickname will become more obvious in the next blog entry) joining the party we were complete. The men went fishing while the girls face painted, henna tatooed and dressed up. The ultimate challange started with a typically girly craving for cake or biscuits. But how without an oven?! The idea to tin foil a big bog and use the heat of the sun was not really working. Then Andy had the break through moment of genious - steamed pudding!!! We mixed some cake batter and put it into a ban marie on our one hob gaz oven. About 1 1/2 hours later - voila!!! The steamed cake was born! There was no stopping the girls. How about one with fruit or chocolate
The first steamed pudding
Before anyone says anything, that is chocolate on top CHOCOLATE chips? It all had to be tried. To crown the end of a fantastic week "the youngsters" organised a pirate party and everyone prepared some delicious food. Sadly Rosmary ended up wearing the fish soup and getting a nasty scallding as a result, but luckily even that failed to ruin the night in our magic place.
Finally it was time to say good bye, if nothing else, the worse happened, we run out of food!!! We had and amazing time with the fishing crew and we owe them alot for making Nikau bay such a special experince. Spontaniously we decided to keep on travelling in two vans. From here it was Ginger, Slim and Kim - a guaranteed recipe for a lot of fun.
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