Fishing at the Waitaki March 2013

A couple of weekends ago Stephen and I checked out the campsite up Kaik road on the south side of the Waitaki river mouth. We also walked to the mouth and checked out the fishing! The campsite was fantastic and the fishing, well no one caught anything. We did however buy a rod and join AJ and Janice the following weekend at the same place! AJ taught me a few tricks and while Stephen did some work and Janice read her book, AJ and I went fishing. Most fisher people have quad bikes which they put on a ute or trailer and zip along the stopbank on. It was a lot of fun but all that happened was that we watched a guy real one in and nothing for us. We then had lunch on the bank and as it was our second day we went to another spot along a rough road and walked to the river from there. Again nothing. We however both have rods now and intend to fish at Easter, which is the end of the season!!

You can see the pics enlarged by clicking on them

I thought the guy on the chair with his sounds had it about right.

Whale watching Kaikoura Feb 2013

After leaving Mapua, we travelled back to Timaru via Kaikoura for a night. The next day we went out on the second boat in the morning on a flat sea with the sun shining - pretty jammy really. The first boat out finds the whales and the second goes straight out to that place. They have hydrophonic equipment to do this and we watched a whale hanging out on the surface blowing and then watched it dive - hopefully I can insert the video of that!

This is the video I took on my Canon G1X!

Mapua camping Feb 2013

Two fantastic weeks at Mapua Leisure Park with the van, car and camper trailer! Stephen and I met my sister Helen in Christchurch, she was over from Melbourne to go camping. We headed to Waipara where we stayed at the Waipara Sleepers.

As you can see this is a fun place to stay!

The next day to Mapua.  The main reason for camping was to go back to an old favourite place and to celebrate Stephen's big 60 and that was a good reason to invite others along. We had 2 power sites in our old spot. My brother AJ and sister in law Janice were the next to turn up in their flash new campervan.

A couple of days later we had our first trip to the airport to pick up my niece Annabel from wellington and then later that day back to the airport to pick up another niece, Saskia from Melbourne. That was awesome. My great friend Nan and her husband Gary stayed at the camping ground for a couple of nights too which was just fantastic. The weather was hot every day after rain on the first and so kayaking was on the menu. We spent a lot of time watching the sun sets from the beach in front of our sites. I had taken a very handy herb container and hooked it to the trees. Plenty of swimming and walking and shopping in the shops at Mapua wharf. A must at Mapua is to have the local fish and chips and sit at the wharf and eat them.

To see a picture full size double click it.

And we played petanque.

Saturday the 19th was my day to get in food from the Mapua smokehouse, Nelson market and a local produce place for the birthday beach banquet on Sunday! So with a  car load, thats what we did and it was a highly successful trip and lots of fun.

And so the big day. Another trip to the airport to pick up Nina from Timaru, she was busting to get up there. Helen let slip that Saskia too had a big birthday that month and so a double doo.

To see a picture full size double click it.

Thank you Nan for the fantastic cake.

Kaye Rowley had given us a couple of runs of nautical flags for Xmas and so we used them on the wee track from camp to beach.

And it all came to an end. Everyone agreed it was an awesome holiday. A huge pack up and off to Kaikoura via Havelock marina for lunch. Picnic that is!