Wine & Whales

After 10 days of living in a tent the Girls were ready for a bit of luxury. On the way back down the drop Mika in Christchurch we passed through Marlborough, and took the opportunity to stay at some Vinyards, and test the local produce! I have learnt a lot, and feel confident the I can now tell the difference between a white and a red wine.....but only if I´m allowed to look!

The Isabel Vinyard, where we stayed the night.

Gourmet food and wine, in the middle of the vines!

We made a final stop in Kaikoura before dropping Mika off, so the girls could get the first flight in Helicopter, as we flew out to observe the local wonder of a large sperm whale population. Hillevi being Norwegian was licking her lips at sighting this one, but was informed that unfortunately whaling is no longer permitted in NZ.

New Year and Abel Tasmen

Just after Christmas Hillevi arrived in NZ for the start of her adventure. Mika, our friend from Oslo also joined us for a 2 week holiday. We headed up the the North of the South Island, and the Golden Bay area for New year, and then entered the Abel Tasmen National park for 5 days of tramping.

The trek took us through thick jungle, and gave us access to numerous deserted beaches in a complete paradise.

Mika relaxes with a ´One Square Meal´for lunch, on yet another perfect beach.

Hillevi relaxing with a book at our private beach for the night.

Hillevi.

The sunset seen from the door of our tent!

Tonga Island seal colony.

Home for the night. More perfect beaches!!!!

Everything grows bigger and better over here. These arn´t trees.....they´re ferns! And they can reach over 10 metres in height!

A giant fern, which NZ is famous for.

We forgot a deck of cards. For the nights entertainment we Mika leads us in a matrix style long jump competition.

Family day on the Hoki River

The kayaking population in Hokitika seems to have exploded in the past couple of years, as a made breeding frenzy has taking grip on the paddling population. Dave takes his turn a babysitting while Heather spends the day Heli boating on the Hokitika River. We took both Heathers and Coopers family up for a day rafting through the spectacular Hokitika gorge.

JJ shows us that he is a real natural when it comes to children.

Pete and Karren, who have been putting me up for the past few weeks at Pete´s Hokitika Palace. The only rules are that he has to win at the poker table.......although that doesn´t seem to take much effort!

Dave and Sussie.

Heather and Sussie.

Hamish and Joan climb on board with Dando to head up the river.

Cooper guides the crew through the gorge.

Shortly before Karren and Hamish abandoned ship. If you look closely you can see the fear in their eyes!

Fishing off the Hoki Trench

I caught a fish THIS BIG! No honestly I did!!!!

Dave Kwant organised a boat for the day to head out for some deep sea fishing off the Hoki trench. We were fishing at about a depth of 200m, and the first catch of the day was this monster from the deep, a Ling Cod. It tastes better than it looks!!!!




I was really proud of myself for hooking such a catch, but the Hamish had to put me to shame by pulling out a shark a couple of minutes later!






All in all it was a pretty successful day. Between 8 of us we pulled in 21 Grupper, 11 Trumpeter, 3 sharks and about 40 perch. We came hope with more than 70kg of fillets, and the freezers around Hokitka are still overflowing with fish.

Small but tasty! Lisa with a perch.

It was an epic job getting all the fish filleted and skined on the 2 hours cruise back in to Greymouth harbour......luckily the crew took care of all the hard work.

December In Hokitika

I´ve been a bit lazy about getting the camera out recently! After a smooth move to the Southern Hemisphere I set up base at Pete´s place in Hoki for December. Located on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, the mountainous weather beaten coastline make for a perfect location for all kinds of play.

Hoki church seen from the beach.

Hoki beach

Pile of drift wood washed up on the beach

One of the highlights of the coast is the abudance of rivers, and the afordability of helicopters to access these relatively remote drainages. We been spending a good amount of times flying around in Dando´s lawnmower sized chopper!

Bruce Dando, the best lawnmower pilot on the coast

The exit drop to the Upper Toaroha Gorge

Brendan Bayly on the exit to Billiards, Aruhura River.

Being put to shame by a shredder!

Brendan Bayly, on the exit drop to the Toaroha River.

Toaroha Gorge.