Fish At Last

We have friends also staying at Papamoa at the moment, so it has been quite nice to catch up with them. We have known Peter and Josie for many years.

Yesterday Peter and Eddie put out the long line with the kayak. They have a new long line where the bait stays up off the bottom so the crabs can't get it. Success! We caught a snapper and 4 kahawai. One of the kahawai was bled to eat and the rest were cut up for bait to try again tonight.
Eddie and I shared a fillet of snapper and a fillet of kahawai for our lunch. Very nice too.

No fish yet

We are confined to indoors today, because the weather is very wet. We are very cosy in our van.

We tried to catch some fish at Plummer's Point near Katikati and didn't even get a nibble. It was a lovely day though so it didn't really matter and what else was there to do.

Eddie put out a long line on Wednesday, but we only feed the crabs so that was  a bit disappointing. At least something got a feed. Probably the crabs. Hopefully, when the weather clears we will be catching lots.

Some Introductions

We have a glorious day today with a frost to start the day.
Below are the views we have from our caravan.

Looking South. Whale Island is just visible

Looking north towards Coromandel Peninsular

The sea is lovely and calm and there is no wind, which makes a change as it has been quite stormy over the last week. I went for a walk up Mt Maunganui last Thursday. I was sure I was  going to get very wet so I took a towel, but the rain stayed up on the Kaimai Ranges and all I got was wind blown.

Over looking Matakana Island with the storm clouds 

Storm clouds over Mt Maunganui

I have to introduce you all to Browning. He came with us when we went truck driving in the USA in 1996. He sat on the dash board and watch the world go by and didn't get into any trouble. I took him with me to South America and he got into all sorts of drunken mischief. (See Three Amigas on Facebook for our adventures and Browning's). We will have to see how he behaves now. So here he is below. Not as innocent as he looks. 

 

We decided to buy a small car after all. We weren't able to use our bikes on the main road in Katikati because of the heavy trucks thundering past. It would have been too unnerving. No doubt it won't be the only place that we won't be able to use the bikes. We have bought a 1997 Ford Laser. Bright green, so I am the green full stop following behind the Bronze Whaler when we travel. I have called her Elvira. Eddie isn't so sure, so may be the green full stop will be the name yet.

She looks blue in this picture but she is really more green.

We went to Ngaruawahia yesterday to visit friends. Elvira didn't like the Kaimai Ranges at all and really struggled to go up. We were down to second gear a lot of the way. Eddie thought it was a fuel problem, so when we got to Matamata we went to Repco and bought a fuel filter and some injector cleaner. We went to a friend's house in Matamata and used his tools to change the filters. The old one had brown watery stuff in it. It went  better after the repair, but still struggled with the Katmai's coming home. Tomorrow she is going to the work shop to have a tune up. Hopefully we will then have a reasonably reliable car to get us out and about in. 

A New Place to Stay

We left Woodland Rd yesterday morning. We made the climb up the drive with an inch to spare at the first turn, so all good there.

Ready to leave Woodland Rd photo Natalie

We have come to the Papamoa Beach Resort camping ground and have a great spot over looking the ocean. Today it is windy and wet and the caravan is doing a bit of a rock every now and then with the northerly wind that is blowing straight at us. A man was out on his wind surfer earlier today and he was certainly getting up some speed along the beach.

The weather was a bit nicer when we arrived.

Today we are just chilling in the van watching the waves and feeling cosy in our home.

Last pictures of Woodland Rd

Well our time at Woodland Rd has come to an end, but first here are some pictures that I haven't posted yet.

The pond and the little house for the ducks

The pond 

The pond's inhabitants.

of wind turbines and things

Well who would have thought retirement was so social.
 We had visitors for lunch today. Josie and Peter, (old friends from forever ago) who are traveling like us for the moment until they build a new house. We also had Niki, a girl I worked with at Paper Plus. It was a lovely day so we sat outside to eat our lunch.

lunch with Niki Peter and Josie photo Kay

Eddie has put a wind turbine up to add more power to the batteries. Ironically there was no wind until the next day and Katikati is quite famous for it's wind. We already have solar panels, so this is just to boost them if we are reliant on our batteries and there isn't much sunshine.

Waiting waiting waiting. It must blow soon. photo Kay

The next day we had wind. Hooray it works! I can't make the picture I took work on the blog so you will just have to take my word for it.

On Sunday we went for a bike ride up Woodland Rd. There is a pretty stream running through this valley.

photo Kay

latest news

Retirement is so busy.  Don't ask me what I have done today, apart from making a stew in my new electric fry pan, as I am not too sure. Every day is the same. We seem to be busy all day, but not really sure what we have achieved by the end.

In saying that,Eddie has been busy over the last few days. He put the WiFi booster on to the roof of the caravan which turned out to be a bit of a mission, but he got it in the end. He has also made the tv go  through the stereo so we get surround sound. A technical day.

Today he has put the wind turbine up, to boost our battery power if we need it. Ironically the wind isn't blowing today. It can get very windy here in Katikati as the wind blows over the Kaimai ranges and dumps down onto the land below. We have taken down our awning twice to stop it from being ripped by the wind. We wait with baited breath to see how the turbine works.

The weather is getting cooler now. Winter is beginning to knock at the door, but we are very cosy in our van. We used the gas furnace one night last week and I had to turn it off in the middle of the night as I got  so hot. It was 26 degrees.

Yesterday we took the jeep into Tauranga to sell, so now our only transport is the truck and our e bikes.

The truck has had graphics put on to it's sides. Thanks to MJK graphics in Katikati.

The front had a little extra added too  photos by Kay

Our new graphics representing Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe