Whats up everyone? I figured Id start a thread to keep you guys updated on my travels here in New Zealand. Maybe it will inspire others to see the world and experience what some of it has to offer.... not that Hawaii is a bad place to be 8)
This trip started on the 12th of November when we said good by for now to our home on Maui. We arrived after a 9hour flight from Honolulu, and after skipping a day, on the 14th of November in Auckland city.
We spent the first week in and around Auckland looking for a "camper van" to purchase and it was a pretty stressful week. Having no idea of the scale or distance between cities and towns yet we often found ourselves making multiple 2-3 hour drives to remote towns to look at vans for sale. Most were very old and had upwards of 350,000 kilometers on them... im not a math whiz but I think thas somewhere around 250000 miles? Some were set up really nice but I had a hard time shelling out the cash on an engine that I didn't have much faith in. We finally found a nice toyota hiace with really low miles and seemed to be in great shape aside from the sub par camping features. But being a woodworker and carpenter that could be sorted out later.
We were able to get our gills wet on the first week. A local Kiwi of a town called Whangaparoa was very welcoming when we arrived. He invited us to his house for a bbq and then out on his boat with another local guy for a day of diving. Water was cold and vis was bad but there were fish everywhere. Lots of Kingfish around but most too small to shoot, legal size here is 75cm which is actually a decent size fish. I wouldn't find out till later that 75cm is actually a REALLY small kingy for NZ.
We then drove 2 hours up to a town called Whangarei to stay with some other friends. Here we were able to get our van all situated and now we have a very comfortable home away from home.
Then our Kiwi friend from Whangaparoa called and invited us back out on his boat to an island called Great Barrier Island. This was a 28mile trip that took less than 1 hour... kiwis drive their boat almost as crazy as they drive their cars! The coast and surrounding islands are a sight to behold. Huge fern trees, pahutakawa, and pines tower over the coastline looking like a scene from jurassic park. Hailey and I were dropped off at one spot while the others drove around the corner to another. Within 10 minutes at this spot I was able to put my shaft into a beast of a kingfish. I had no idea of the size of this fish as the water was fairly dirty and Im still not all that confident with sizing fish here. I almost hesitated on taking the shot for fear of it being too small. That doubt was quickly dissolved as I felt the line being peeled off of my reel at an alarming rate. As I reached the surface the reel froze up and I started getting towed off of the island. The next thing I know the fish give a huge pull ripping the gun from my hands. My heart sank as I watched the gun disappear into the depths. I immediately started swimming as hard as I could, barely able to make out the line on the reel. Made the fastest drop to 40ft that I think I could ever imaging doing again, and was able to grab the gun. I gave a hard pull and was able to free the line again. The fight ensued for another 10 minutes or so until I was finally able to get a handle on the fish and brain it.
We never got on official weight but it broke the 50lb scale on the boat. I was happy enough gutting and bleeding it to insure some good hamachi sashimi for the next few days. Our Kiwi hosts cooked up another amazing kingfish dinner with a small portion of the kingy, I took a nice slab to keep hailey and I fed for the next few days, and then the rest was put in the smoker, seems to be the kiwi standard.
We are now headed north and plan on hitting up some shore diving. There is an amazing amount of untouched territory here, scallops, lobsters, kingfish, and snapper are plentiful. I dont think we will be having a hard time feeding ourselves! The next fish to target is going to be snapper. From the way it sounds they rival mu as far as how difficult they are to hunt.
This trip started on the 12th of November when we said good by for now to our home on Maui. We arrived after a 9hour flight from Honolulu, and after skipping a day, on the 14th of November in Auckland city.
We spent the first week in and around Auckland looking for a "camper van" to purchase and it was a pretty stressful week. Having no idea of the scale or distance between cities and towns yet we often found ourselves making multiple 2-3 hour drives to remote towns to look at vans for sale. Most were very old and had upwards of 350,000 kilometers on them... im not a math whiz but I think thas somewhere around 250000 miles? Some were set up really nice but I had a hard time shelling out the cash on an engine that I didn't have much faith in. We finally found a nice toyota hiace with really low miles and seemed to be in great shape aside from the sub par camping features. But being a woodworker and carpenter that could be sorted out later.
We were able to get our gills wet on the first week. A local Kiwi of a town called Whangaparoa was very welcoming when we arrived. He invited us to his house for a bbq and then out on his boat with another local guy for a day of diving. Water was cold and vis was bad but there were fish everywhere. Lots of Kingfish around but most too small to shoot, legal size here is 75cm which is actually a decent size fish. I wouldn't find out till later that 75cm is actually a REALLY small kingy for NZ.
We then drove 2 hours up to a town called Whangarei to stay with some other friends. Here we were able to get our van all situated and now we have a very comfortable home away from home.
Then our Kiwi friend from Whangaparoa called and invited us back out on his boat to an island called Great Barrier Island. This was a 28mile trip that took less than 1 hour... kiwis drive their boat almost as crazy as they drive their cars! The coast and surrounding islands are a sight to behold. Huge fern trees, pahutakawa, and pines tower over the coastline looking like a scene from jurassic park. Hailey and I were dropped off at one spot while the others drove around the corner to another. Within 10 minutes at this spot I was able to put my shaft into a beast of a kingfish. I had no idea of the size of this fish as the water was fairly dirty and Im still not all that confident with sizing fish here. I almost hesitated on taking the shot for fear of it being too small. That doubt was quickly dissolved as I felt the line being peeled off of my reel at an alarming rate. As I reached the surface the reel froze up and I started getting towed off of the island. The next thing I know the fish give a huge pull ripping the gun from my hands. My heart sank as I watched the gun disappear into the depths. I immediately started swimming as hard as I could, barely able to make out the line on the reel. Made the fastest drop to 40ft that I think I could ever imaging doing again, and was able to grab the gun. I gave a hard pull and was able to free the line again. The fight ensued for another 10 minutes or so until I was finally able to get a handle on the fish and brain it.
We never got on official weight but it broke the 50lb scale on the boat. I was happy enough gutting and bleeding it to insure some good hamachi sashimi for the next few days. Our Kiwi hosts cooked up another amazing kingfish dinner with a small portion of the kingy, I took a nice slab to keep hailey and I fed for the next few days, and then the rest was put in the smoker, seems to be the kiwi standard.
We are now headed north and plan on hitting up some shore diving. There is an amazing amount of untouched territory here, scallops, lobsters, kingfish, and snapper are plentiful. I dont think we will be having a hard time feeding ourselves! The next fish to target is going to be snapper. From the way it sounds they rival mu as far as how difficult they are to hunt.