Fishing on Waiheke Island

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Skipping the city as quickly as possible, you really need some tranquillity to ease back into, I made a ferry crossing to Waiheke Island, which is a 45 minute crossing from Auckland. I stayed with two different guests, Roberta was a lovely lady, we got on very well, she had had a hip operation, and the hospital had set it incorrectly so she was in a lot of pain, and finding it very difficult for anyone to take responsibility for it, or have it re-adjusted. Really considerate considering she has spent most of her working life as a nurse caring for people! So jobs were helping to tydy/organise and clean mainly. There was a lot of response to woofing e mails, but I decided to visit another lady, as she too was having problems with her back. Herself and her partner seemed fine though really, they both worked full time, and didn’t really have much time for their land. Just a small vegetable patch, which I weeded. Their home was quite a luxury though to most places I had been staying, so did enjoy the comfort for a few days. Just before leaving the island we took a boat out to sea for the day to do some fishing. If your going to eat meat or fish I think its good to have an understanding, or at least have the respect to catch the animal yourself. There were two types of fishing we tried Line Casting, is where you throw the line out a good 20 metres from the boat using a light weight hook with bait. The bait in this catch was sardines, as we were catching snapper.
We weren’t having much luck with this technique however, and the sea was a bit rough, swaying all over the place. OooAarr, the storm was a brewin’.. So we tried Drop Casting, where by you use a heavy weight to take the line and the bait to the bottom of the sea bed, I think it was about 25-35 metres down. That was better, caught about 7 if I recall. And about 18 in total between the 3 of us. We caught a lot more than that but the law in New Zealand is that they have to be a certain size, so a lot of fish went back to the sea. You may think it cruel that the hook pierces the skin, but it really is a small hook in comparison to the fish, I wouldn’t imagine it would hurt any more than having your ears pierced. The fish that were caught that we kept are pierced through the brain immediately with a large nail, so they die instantly.

Arriving back in Auckland, Sharon a really sweet Israeli guy I met on the street invited me to stay at his flat for a few days, Cheers matey! Stu from the Cement Works was over for the unveiling of Lorna’s headstone, so we went to meet him and Naeri, Lornas sister for a few drinks. Sharon was Jewish, and it happened to be a celebrative day for Jews, so we did a de-tour to the synagogue for a serman and an outrageously good spread of food, gosh can these guys can cater!

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Photos

Auckland City
Here it is..

Catch of the day
Pint sized Snapper

Waiheke beach
Sunset