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Published: January 1st 2008
Ninety Mile
Another beautiful view from the northern tip of ninety mileHAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY AND A BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We hope that you enjoyed the festive season and you are all ready for this new year 2008.
Now then last time I wrote we were on the countdown to Christmas..........it is strange here as it is nowhere near as commercial as it is in the UK, which is a good thing we feel. Before the 'few days to go' countdown Clayton had us organised to fit in as many fishing excursions as we could. The main one being to Snapper Rock. Snapper rock is a top secret location that only few know about and according to Clayton you are 100% certain to catch I wonder what fish???? Snapper of course.
We created a tune for the day using the old fraggle rock theme tune but changing the words to snapper rock! Sad i know but try singing it you wont be able to get it out of your head. Before we knew it we were up at some silly hour, in order to get down the beach before high tide....
we were complete with packed lunch lots of squid for the little snappies and various rods, hooks and
Fur Seal
Showing his teeth on the Ninety Mile Beach all the fishing gear you could possibly need.
We had been warned that the journey down to the rock was a rough one and it wasn't on a marked pathway. A 40 minute car ride in auntie Judy's Squid smelling car took us to a place called Scott's point, we left the car here and packed ourselves up like donkeys for the trek. We walked up what felt like 100 steps before coming to the top of the hill where you had wonderful views of the ninety mile beach and nearby Te Paki sand dunes.
Once the steps had been stepped on the rough bit began.......we walked across the biggest patch of tea tree trees and scrub as they call it here........that is a load of bushes plants and mini trees to you and me. We came to a halt as James and Clayton had a dispute as to where exactly the pathway was, as far and Ste and myself could see there was no path! We went on Clayton's orders and ended up taking the long way round! We ended up on a thin piece of grass on top of a rather large drop down to the sea, it
Stingray
Looks cuddly, but beware of his barb was pretty breezy so one big gust and you would have been off! We arrived at the top of snapper rock........
we were greeted with a plaque in memory of two guys that had died fishing here, how nice! We climbed down the jagged rocks watching where you were putting each foot carefully. At last we found ourselves at the bottom standing on the famous snapper rock.... humming the tune which we couldn't get out of our heads!
It was on, the rods were soon set up on this ledge that dropped off into the sea. The squid went on the hooks then each of the boys cast out there rod.....within seconds they were excited "I've got bites, I've got bites" It seemed that Clayton was right as the snapper started to be caught one after the other.
In between all of this excitement Clayton spotted a Killer whale in the distance.........all you could see was its fin surfacing every so often, I kept my eye on it as they pulled in dinner, it came closer and closer until we realised that in fact there were three whales! A mum with a baby and the Dad following behind.
Sky Tower
Tallest building in Oceania overlooking Auckland and its harbour It looked as if they were making there way into the inlet at the side of us so Ste downed tools and grabbed the camera hoping to catch it close in.......
These huge animals seemed to disappear then as i was making my way across the rocks the mum and baby surfaced feet away from me, i nearly fell off the bloody rock! An unbelievable sight that you couldn't pay for! amazing.
Meanwhile Ste bless him was trying his best to clamber back around the rocks......as he did so the mum and baby, inches from the surface of the clear water swam almost parallel to the rocks we were standing on........clear as anything there they were! Dad followed them swiftly moving to catch up. we all stood there in disbelief what had just happened. Snapper Rock what indeed a magical place! The only problem now was that the whales had scared off the fish! The day carried on along the theme of unusual and exciting things happening, a stingray was swimming up and down the kelp and we could see him as he wondered on past.....a huge cargo filled ship that looked like a part of Hong Kong had been
Ninety Mile
About to attempt the vertical descent of snapper rock placed on the top of it, as if the containers were sky scrapers! Then on the way back a stray seal sunning himself on the beach! The day ended in 13 snapper for dinner and a priceless experience.
After all the excitement of the debut snapper rock outing we have been twice since, catching a fair few fish each time. We took Rory and he caught a Stingray! We went on Saturday and the weather was not as nice as it had been previously there was quite a big swell which was a bit scary. we ended up with the biggest catch yet though....16 snapper! we are having it for tea once again tonight 4th night running ha ha ha.
All the fishing excursions aside, which there are many more we have been in within the past month that would just take me hours to write about and even more time for you to read, and besides we need some stories to tell when we get home too.
The big day soon came around.....that's Christmas day. I spent most of Christmas eve wrapping every man and his dog's presents. Some how word got around that i didn't mind
Patience at Snapper Rock
Looking out across the Tasman Sea waiting for tasty Snapper wrapping so our room ended up like santa's grotto! I was covered in cello tape I had Ste on the production line writing out tags, we are a great team so soon had it done! After the gift wrapping it was straight into veggie peeling and as much preparation for dinner as we could do. With 20 odd people coming for lunch it was a big job. We woke up on Christmas morning and went down stairs to everybody up and about getting the roasts on.
James did a rolled lamb which he marinaded with a James special recipe then we had Uncle Jamie with his roast leg of pork, trying to imitate Jamie Oliver from a TV programme he had been on the night before. The competition was on who's was the best......?????
We had made nibbles for people to eat before dinner with cheese, crackers, dips and various other things. People arrived and tucked in to the nibbles whilst we got the roast sorted, We meaning Myself Auntie Judy Ste and Gavin was on cutting meat duty. We finally sat down to eat, then the kids arrived all excited on there new bikes. Tara on a pink one
Gavin
Doing a bit of snapper gutting before we left snapper rock......excess weight otherwise! and Rory on a big blue one. They raced in eager to give everybody there gifts that they had got them, We got a calender that Rory made at school it is lovely! Dishes were done then the volleyball began........
The volleyball tournament takes place every year, Clayton being the organiser of course. The net went up and the teams were ready for action.......On Clayton's team we had Fiona, Laura and Gavin then on Jame's team we had Ste, Katrina and Michael. I couldn't play due to the teams being even and I would have made them odd, so I had the job of camerawoman!
It was the best of three games. There is a deep end and a shallow end in the pool and Clayton started off in the shallow end which meant that his team had an advantage playing two games in there so they won! pudding was eaten.......pavlova, trifle, ice cream and cream yum yum! The beers and wine were flowing then yet another competition this time...... darts. Gavin had been given a Dart board for Christmas and had brought it round, so a game of around the world was had and I wonder if
Orca
Shame we didn't get the perfect picture but this will suffice you can guess who won it???? Clayton. ha ha ha. We both spoke to home which felt weird as our Christmas day was over and theirs was just starting.
Between Christmas and now, new year we have been to matai bay for the day a gorgeous beach on the east coast, had a BBQ with the snapper catch, eaten lots of chocolate and we have also been trying to sort out the future plans!
hmmmm yes a sensitive subject at the moment with us. We needed to change our tickets with Qantas in Auckland and they wouldn't let us change them over the phone so we set off for a road trip and changed the dates. Upon arriving home we had received an email from Australian immigration informing us that our X-rays we had sent to them as part of our visa application could not be accepted and we would have to go to Auckland to get them!!!!! We could not believe it especially as we had just been there that day. Anyway to cut a long story short we returned yesterday to Auckland once again got the X-rays done again so now we have to play the waiting
Snappies!
look at our catch.......yum game once again and hope that we have an answer by the 9th Jan, our proposed date out of NZ to Perth.
We spent our New Year on the ninety mile beach......it was a clear night last night so you could see so many stars up there twinkling, we have never seen so many! There was no where that I would rather have been last night than on a big long beach listening to the waves rolling in, with the stars shining with my man! The best New Year.
As I have said before there are so many things that we have been up to, it is hard to write them all in these blogs without boring you all silly and to be honest I forget a lot of things too until i have published it! So i hope that you all feel like you know what we are doing at the moment!
WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR 2008 XXXXXXXXX
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lyke
non-member comment
hello!!!Happy new year!!! I wish you two all the best for 2008!!!! Great update again!! Nice pictures!! XXXXXXXX Lyke