Spearfishing off Sandlfy Beach

Unfortunately I do not have any photos of my most recent outing with my mate Glen, but i think the story is well worth reading. On Saturday the 29th of November, I went for a surf at Boulder Beach with Glen. We caught a few waves and had fun, but the waves weren't that good. On our hike back the car Glen asked me if I wanted to go spearfishing and collect some some Paua (awesome NZ Shellfish). I agreed of course. So we hiked to Sandfly Beach and on our way we noticed that there were heaps of seals and sea lions (Sea Lions are much bigger). As we cautiously approach our destination which was off this rocky point we notice that there are nearly a hundred seals around us...oh and a couple of Penguins, can't forget those little dudes. It was cool to see so much wildlife, but at the same time it got me a little nervous about going into the water. When we get to our destination these baby seals started to jump into the water and were zooming out of there. I later realized that they were swimming for there lives, because out of nowhere this huge sea lion is chasing one of the baby seals and eventually catches and eats it. I know sad...but its nature. As I'm watching these two Giant Sea lions devour this baby seal I'm thinking "I don't think I'll be getting into the water, not only are there sea lions and seals all over the place, but now there are bits and pieces of a seal attracting the "S" word." Glen and I never say the "S" word, i don't know why, but we just don't. Glen then say's "Don't worry mate "THEY" don't come in this shallow." After witnessing all this Glen says, "All right mate I'll go first and make sure the coast if clear." Glen gets all his gear on and climbs down this kelp and jumps in like a champ. He is in the water for a few minutes when a Giant Sea lion comes over to check him out. As Glen uses the butt of his spear gun to push the sea lion away the sea lion eventually loses interest and goes away. After another five minutes Glen says, "Coast is clear mate." I'm thinking, that's great have fun then, cause I'm not moving." Before I know it I'm climbing down this slimy kelp and in the frigid water. The water was clear and it was only 10ft deep so made me feel better, and I didn't have any visitors come and check me out. So i strap on the knife and glen motions me to start looking for Paua. As I dive down I catch a glimpse of this huge black thing out the corner of my eye, and before i know it this huge seal stops and looks me straight in the face. I FREAKED OUT, I made an underwater gargled scream and hit the surface. Glen heard me and came to my aid. This huge seal was kept nugging my fins and kept wanting to play with me, It sounds cool but it was very intense. Glen used the butt of the spear gun to push it away and the seal started rubbing up against it, kinda like a backscracher. The seal then moves to Glen legs and blew bubbles against them(it looked like a kiss). Then the seal left. After it left Glen said, "Ahh she was a sweet girl" i agreed but still prefered her gone. We explored some more area and Glen spotted a Butterfish and with amazing accuracy spear it from about 15 ft away. He handed me the spear gun and dove down 20ft to retrieve it as he was ascending our "friend" came back to see what glen was doing. This time I was using the butt of the spear gun and keeping her away from Glen. She eventually left as the knots in my stomach didn't. Glen ties the dead fish to this long rope which has a buoy attached to it. We then preceded to deeper water to explore more area. After about 30 min Glen and I agreed to go back. Glen gets back to the Kelp and started climbing out when all the sudden this Giant Sea lion explodes out of the water a few feet from me and lands on glen leg with its huge jaws opened wide and Growling at Glen about a foot away from his face. Glen yells "Bobby" (I had the spear gun at that moment) but that was all I heard, I was tangled in the kelp trying to do get nearer to help. When out of nowhere this big black Seal swoops inches from my face and I see it bite the back fin of the giant sea lion. Immediately the Sea lion leaps off of Glen and onto the big seal, I throw myself onto the jagged rocks trying to get all the gear and myself out of the battle zone. Glen and I get to our feet and look at each other wide-eyed and speechless. The Giant Sea Lion and the Seal continued their bloody battle in the water until finally the huge Seal gets away with what looked like a few wounds. As we later started replaying all the events we realize that the seal that was playing with us earlier was the exact same size and had the same marks as the one that saved Glen. This an unforgettable experience and I am thankful that Glen takes me with him to do all these crazy adventures. Cheers Glen

Allen's Beach

Allens Beach

(we surf near that awesome natural rock spine)

Yellow-eyed Penguin

"dute da doo"

The big sea lion is hidden mid-left on the beach

"Made in the Shade"

Natlalie and I went to Allens beach this last weekend. I have been surfing there several times with Glen and couldn't wait to take Natalie there and check out the scenery.....and watch me surf! While surfing I saw this huge black thing swiming around me and thought.....SHARK!!!! But soon I realized that it was a huge sea lion. So later Natalie and I went on a hike around the beach and saw several Sea Lions chillin on the rocks. As we were walking we stumbled upon a few Yellow-eyed penguins, which was a complete bonus because they normally don't come out until dark. Here are some cool videos of the wild life around us. The sea lion was just getting up to move into a more comfortable position. The other video is so awesome and is pretty rare from what I understand. The penguin is leaving its nest to go get some food, watch her jump from rock to rock....so cool. The penguin makes its way to the water and takes one last look around to make sure that the coast is clear before she takes the plunge...awesome!

P

Fishing for Blue Cod

Glen with a nice beauty

I had the opportunity to go fishing for Blue Cod with my mate Glen. He owns a 10ft long rubber raft with a 30hrs pwr motor on back. Glen backed the raft up to the beach and we dragged it to the edge of the surf. We had to time it just right to we wouldn't get crushed by the waves. After an intense first 5 min we were past the surf break and out in the open sea. We got to this island within 10 min and started fishing. It was similar to deep sea fishing for red snapper, except we were catching fish instantly. We caught 25 blue cod within 1 hr. We had to go in early because the weather got "hairy." This was definitely one of my favorite days in NZ.

15 Blue Cod

White Island

Some "not to shabby" scenery behind us

I kept telling Glen that everyone back home wouldn't believe how quickly we were catching fish, and he said "Well I'll take if video of ya mate" and so this is it. I like this video because you get to really see how quick the fish would strike and because you get to hear Glen comment on the action.

Boulder Beach and the Yellow Eyed Penguins

A few weeks ago we drove up the peninsula a little ways (about 15 minutes or so) to this beach called Boulder beach. We heard that if you get there right around dusk you can see yellow eyed penguins come in from fishing for the day...they make their nests right off the beach. So we decided to go for it and see if we could find them. It was a bit of a hike from where the car park was but we ended up finding what seemed like a good spot to watch. We were told there may be quite a few sea lions too in the area so to be careful. Sure enough there were two sea lions on the beach, one was snow white and the other was grey. We all hunkered down in some brush off the beach and just waited with our cameras ready. Sure enough right around dusk we saw this little black head pop up out of the surf, he would duck down and surf the waves in. It took him about 10 minutes to fully come out of the water. And when he did, he popped his head up and wiggled up on his feet and gave himself a big shake. Then he hobbled up towards his nest by the rocks. It was the most amazing thing to watch. I still cant believe we were able to be so close to a yellow eyed penguin and sea lions in nature like that. No one else was around either. We felt like real explorers. It was great!

We had to hunker down in the brush, so that the penguins couldn't see us!

A yellow-eyed penguin making his way up to his nest, after a long day of fishing. He was about 2 feet tall, and full of spunk.....kind of like Natalie.

"Seabert the Greatest Seal of All"

Dunedin

Sunset over St. Clair Beach

Well we arrived in Dunedin about a month ago. We have all found some great part time work, and a house to rent. We are getting into the swing of things, and really beginning to feel like we live in New Zealand. Our house is great and has beautiful views of the Pacific and the city. We are a hop, skip, and a jump away from our jobs- and just a short drive to beautiful beaches, and amazing hikes. We are all doing really well and are happy to be settled for awhile. Below are some photos we have taken from the various places we like to go around Dunedin.

Natalie jumping from a sand dune on St. Kilda Beach

Johnny doing the same jump. Bobby did it too, but Natalie was too slow taking the picture.

These are some sweet trees all over the place on the drive up the Otago Peninsula.

Migrating South

Johnny and Meagan next to one of Wellington's monuments

Natalie and I at another monument
An another ...
Johnny and I walkin the Plank (In the summer kids use this as a divingboard)

As winter came to a close and spring arrived. The four of us decided it was time to begin our migration south for summer. After Napier we made our way to Wellington which is the capital of New Zealand. Wellington was sweet it reminded us of San Francisco. There were lots of historical landmarks and cool monuments. We decided to check out this huge Museum that tells a lot about New Zealand’s heritage and had sweet displays of the native animals and of the Maori people. After that we needed to give our brains a rest so we went to see a movie, which was our first in a couple of months. It was great. We then drove Jordan (our car) onto the Ferry which Meagan had informed us would take 30 minutes to get to the South Island. 4 ½ hrs later we arrived on the South Island. We decided to push through and try and make it to our destination which was Kikoura. While driving through the sudden storm we swerved to miss ….a Seal!!! Yes, sitting in the middle of the road was a huge Seal. We all couldn’t believe it. We finally made it to our destination safely and met a really cool Irish couple at our hostel. The next morning we headed to Christchurch and spent the night there. We thought we might plant ourselves there, but Christchurch did not meet our expectations. So we headed for Dunedin which is further south and on the east coast. I’ll write more about Dunedin and our Job situation on our next blog.

Just like the Seal we saw in the middle of the road

Tour de Napier

Definition of Style

Not as easy as it looks :)
Brookfields Vineyard (Our Favorite)
Vines at Mission Vineyard

After Rotorua we went to Napier (Hawks Bay region) which is known for its wine vineyards. Napier was also very beautiful. We wanted to get jobs at some local vineyards, but the timing was not quite ripe…I mean right;) We decided to go on a wine tour instead. Of course we wanted to go in style, so we chose to rent tandem bikes and wear classy helmets while we went from vineyard to vineyard learning about the wine making process. We had so much fun. We went to four different vineyards: Brookfields, Church Hill, Mission, and the fourth one I don't remember(not because of the wine, because of my bad memory:). All in all we rode 20 miles by the end of the day.

Zorbing in Rotorua

Before the Madness

After the Madness

When we arrived in Rotorua we were taken back by the horrible stench of sulphur in the air. Actually, I think Natalie kind of liked it, strange. Rotorua is a very thermal city, full of hot springs, volcanoes, and zorbing! Zorbing is a hilarious extreme activity native to New Zealand and we all have been looking forward to trying it since we arrived. The best way to picture it is to imagine a giant inflatable hamster ball with a second smaller ball inside- or just check out the pictures. We arrived in Rotoroa with Zorbing in mind. We made our way to the Zorbing hill and changed into our swimsuits and shorts. Natalie and I decided to Zorb together. We were driven up the hill, we hopped inside the tiny little opening in the side of the Zorb ball, they shot a few inches of water in it with us (warm water since we weren't from Australia or Auckland)..and we were off!....tumbling and laughing our faces off! WE WERE LAUGHING SO HARD! The whole process was quite amusing and a complete blast. The video doesn’t make it look that exciting, but on the inside we were spinning around, rolling on each other and crashing into the rubbery walls of the Zorb. It was like a crazy water ride. Watch Natalie trip right when we get out of the Zorb, she was pretty dizzy. It was funny. (video's below)

Narnia and Cathedral Cove

Natalie swinging on the beach in Hahei

They had to pry me off Entrance into Narnia

Natalie and Maegen...Natalie's idea, need I say more...

Stroll through Narnia

Another awesome rock

After Raglan we went to the Coromandel peninsula(on the central east coast) to a very quaint little town called Hahei. There was a beautiful beach just outside our hostel. As we walk along the beach we climbed the rocks and swung on a rope swing and the waves would come crashing under our feet. The next day we went to Cathedral Cove, which was about a 45 minute hike from our hostel. Cathedral Cove is in the opening scene of Prince Caspian when the four sons of adam and daughters of eve first enter Narnia. We got great photos, but the best part was that we had the beach all to ourselves. You could only go through the cave at low tide, so we timed it just right. We were able to walk through this huge cave that opened up into what felt like another world. We explored the area and threw the Frisbee around. Johnny and I worked up a sweat so we decided to jump into the freezing Pacific. While in the waves, we decided to do some bodysurfing, it was awesome.

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Natalie and I at the base of the waterfall

Johnny and I before we freeze our tookish off

Just outside of Raglan was this awesome 150 foot waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls. We hiked around it and got some great photos. Before we went to the waterfall some of the other surfers at the hostel that we were staying at dared us all to jump in and swim around. They said it was some of the coldest water they have ever swam in, so of course Johnny and I jumped in and swam for about two minutes. Natalie and Maegen thought that we were going to get some kind of parasite, but we didn’t.

Raglan

Me catching a wave at "Shipwreck Bay" in Ahipara

Natalie on a nice little wave in Raglan

I love to surf and had hoped that I would get the opportunity to go often here. I thought I might be alone in this quest but as it turns out Natalie, Maegen and Johnny had all been bitten by the surf bug in Ahipara, so it was only natural that our next destination would be Raglan (on the west coast midland) where the surf is what its known for. We rented some boards and headed out to the beach and had a blast. I have been getting more confident and started using a short board and Natalie later started using my short board…which is awesome!!! Johnny and Maegen were shredding it up on a nice long board. Natalie wasn’t able to get many good pictures of me because I was pretty far from the beach, but I did get some good ones of her. She’s learning really quickly, and I am very impressed. Surfing still remains to be the hardest sport that I have ever tried. We really want to go back to this quaint surfing town when we go back to the north island.

Tane Mahuta

Tane Mahuta

"Lord of the Forest"

While we were still on the northern part of the north island we thought we would go visit the largest tree in New Zealand, it is a Kauri tree. The tree is named Tane Mahuta which means lord if the forest. It is 2000 years old, it is 51.5 meters tall, and the trunk girth is 13.8 meters. We had a 2 hour detour from our original destination to see the tree. While on the way we were joking that the tree is probably just a big tree and not that exciting, definitely not worth the 2 hour detour in the rain to get to it. After about 5 minutes into the walk to see Tane Mahuta we came into a clearing and all four of us gasped and stared in Awe of what was in front of us, Tane Mahuta was truly magnificent! Pictures really can’t do it justice. It was so huge and tall. Look at how small Natalie, Maegen, and Johnny are.

Ahipara and Endless Summer Lodge

Above is a photo of Ahipara, driving from Shipwreck Bay to Endless Summer Lodge. We stayed at the hostel for 9 days cleaning 1 hour a day for half price accommodation- which ended up being about $12 a person. It was a pretty great deal, because we would get our chores done in the morning and then have the rest of the day to surf! We surfed most days we were there. Johnny and Maegean tried it for the first time, Natalie for the second, and Bobby just got better and better! He acted as our own private surf instructor. It was great!

Endless Summer Lodge was an incredible hostel. Bebe and Paul (a really sweet young couple) were running it while the owners were on holiday. They were really cute, and the guys really like Paul. The house itself was one of the oldest villas in the area, and looked like a yellow plantation house. This is from the kitchen door down the main hall to the front door! We vacuumed and mopped this hall each morning. Not too shabby of a job when you look out and see the beautiful beach!

Cape Reinga and the Sand Dunes!

Hello ALL! Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. Finding wireless internet around here is quite the challenge. We have visited really sweet places and have seen many beautiful sites! We will try to catch you all up on our adventures as soon as we can! We Love You All!

Bobby and Natalie on the hike to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. This is at the point on the tip top of the North Island where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The view was spectacular. It was really interesting to see the two bodies of water meet. There were crazy ocean currents going on, and huge waves. What a beautiful day it was, but quite windy. We had about a 45 minute drive through the mountains from where we were staying in Ahipara. We packed lunches and had a great time! After visiting cape Reinga we made our way to the sand dunes. Jordan has been holding up, and has been such a trooper toting us all over the country!

These are photos from the sand dunes outside of Cape Reinga. They were HUGE, much steeper than the pictures make it seem. After playing around on the sand sleds we began our drive back to Ahipara. We stopped at the Ancient Kauri Tree Museum. There were beautiful wood carvings made out of the ancient native Kauri Trees. Riding down the sand dunes was the highlight of our day for sure. Bobby and Johnny said it was actually quite scary to sled from the top of the dune. Watch the video below to see Natalie zoom down the sand dune!