Monday, January 31, 2011

Last week before back to school. We headed out to the water. Some hiking, play in the shallows, and yes, fishing. I will be the first to say, With a setting like this, you could pretty much sit there and catch nothing, and you could do a lot worse.


But we did not catch nothing. Even tho we did not know what it was we caught.


The local shop has a poster of "NZ Fishes" and we at first thought we had hooked up a scorpionfish.

But upon later reflection and reading, these were much more likely sea perch or what are at least locally known as Jock Stewarts.

Here's a close up of our ones, gone into the smoker and into our bellies.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Back to the source.

There is a lovely swimming hole at the Riwaka resurgence. Here the water bubbles up out of the rock as sweet and clear as can be. Only problem is the water is cold. With a capital C.

One can contemplate swimming in thru the opening in the rock but....




nah, too scary really. I now learn that people do dive this place. But I reckon any diver would have a wetsuit and, as they say in the text, the water is more suitable for polar bears. A fairly constant temp in the low fifties apparently. The two D's decided yes on the toes, but no on the full swim. Not on this day.

B&A decided yes.




B describes the experience as somewhat painful, so one might ask why one does such things. Then again one might also ask, how does she keep her hair like that while swimming? Let's look closer.... but no, somehow it still holds up.



In case you were thinking this is a serene spot for a bit of solitude in the woods, not so. At the main pool, thrill seekers abound, egging one another on to make a quick jump and exit, scrambling out to the nearest rock. This makes for a good spectator sport, and provides a lesson in peer pressure. I guess there's worse things to get goaded into than jumping in the river.