We were very lucky to be invited to spend Easter on GBI with Jax's lovely friend and and fellow nurse from work, her partner, John, and his niece and husband. They have a second home out there (its very common out here to have a holiday home, or Bach, as they're called), and often escape for weekends there. Its not too far away, just East from the Auckland coast
Their place is set high up, with great views from the deck, overlooking Okupu beach in Blind bay. And there is a great story of how the house came to be there, after uprooting it and transporting the whole thing on a barge from Cockle bay over to GBI!)
We opted to fly over, on the inter island planes. Little 10 seaters with propellers, and a multi functional pilot. He loads your luggage, gets you on the plane, wipes down the windows, and does the same at the other end!
quite scary at first, but fantastic views on the way, as you dont fly too high
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| GBI from the air |
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| view from deck jax and wendy |
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| pilot of plane |
Jax's ambition since emigrating to NZ, was to catch a fish and eat it - Everybody fishes here- it is the done thing! so John took us out in his boat to try and catch some dinner. (we had emergency steaks at the ready- just in case!!)
He showed us how to chop and attach bait, cast the line, and as soon as Jax's line hit the sea bottom, she had a bite!! what luck!, and what a great fish. definitely a keeper for eating!
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| Matts got a big One! |
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| Jax's 10 second snapper |
After that it became quite a fish fest. We caught loads of fish between us all. They were almoast jumping into our boat! Matts speciality was catching 2 tiddlers at the same time..but he did catch some big uns too! We also caught Gurnard (very pretty) and Rob caught a big Kawai- which we used for bait the next day. Apparantly fishing is not always this easy.. but i think it would always be enjoyable- bobbing around in the sunshine, telling a yarn, and putting the world to rights...bliss!!
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| Gurnard- like a butterfly |
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| the days catch |
The second day was fine and sunny again and we heard over the 2 way radio that dolphins were in the bay. Off we went in the boat again, as John also wanted to go diving for crayfish. we were amazed to find the dolphins as they swam under and alongside the boat. they were massive!. John caught 3 crayfish for tea- so the emergency steaks were put on hold again
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| dolphins- up close and personal |
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| crayfish for dinner |
