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"