Bay of Islands
I love New Zealand. New Zealnd can do no wrong in my eyes. When we left the South Island to head to North Island, Danna and I were both full of excitement. In truth, I was a little more excited than she was. You see there was only one excursion I booked before we left for the trip - a full day of deep sea fishing in the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand. It was something I have been looking forward to for a long time.
We had such a good experience driving in the South Island that we decided to get a car again in the North. We called Jucy again but they had no cars! We found another company but did not have such a Jucy experience with them. They were located far from the airport, they misquoted us their price over the phone and oh yeah we also forgot to mention that the extra insurance is mandatory! I tried to calmly explain that my credit card covers me – they said the only way not to pay for added insurance is to put a $1,000 deposit on our credit card for damage. I was so frustrated and mad at this point I said fine – I'll put the thousand on the card just not to pay you thieves anymore money daily. We left the Auckland airport and headed straight to the Paihia in the Bay of Islands.
The scenery in the North Island was completely different than the South Island. Large mountains were replaced by rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. As we have come to learn, sheep are a very big deal in New Zealand and on our drive we passed a place called Sheep World – we had to stop. The place is basically a farm and all things sheep. It turns out that they had two sheep shows everyday. We missed the shows so we decided to keep going and go back to Sheep World on the way back.
As we made our way north, we finally reached the Bay of Islands region and the hills gave way to vistas of the unending ocean. I chose the Bay of Islands for our one big fishing trip because of the variety of big fish that call this place home. But, at the end of the day going fishing is never only about catching big fish it is really about spending a day on the water in nature in a beautiful place. The Bay of Islands is actually a region that depending on the time of year has dolphins, whales, sharks and beautiful island and rock formations.
I arranged for a combo trip with the captain to try and catch as many different species and see different things in the area. But, there is always one variable included in every fishing trip that is out of your control – the weather. We had got extremely lucky in the South Island having picture perfect days the entire time. Well, that streak ended today.
The day actually got of to a promising start. We left the docks at sunrise and was greeted by a golden ray of sun shining over the clouds. It looked like a painting with exaggerated yellow streaks coming from the sun. But, all the wind we encountered in the South Island had worked its way North and I knew pretty early on it was going to be a rough outing. Danna and I both get sea sick. I have vomited over the side of so many boats in my life it doesn't really phase me anymore – but it is never fun. But we came prepared, we had the seasick patch (prescription strength) that has worked for us in the past. It must not work in the Southern Hemisphere.
Within an hour Danna and I both started feeling drowsy. We fought it off as we reached the fishing grounds. We anchored and started to feel the swells – easily 4-6 feet in size. But, the fish were biting. On my first drop I hooked up with a big Yellowtail Kingfish – the major gamefish we were fishing for. These things are like trying to reel in a runaway truck. But a few minutes into the battle the line goes slack – the sharks were down there also. We lost the fish and the hook and everything. Meanwhile on the other side of the boat Danna or “Snapper Slayer” as she was known for the rest of the day is fighting a fish of her own. She is really cranking away and finally we see the fish reach the surface – an absolute monster Snapper! What a catch! A true trophy and dinner for us!
The waves are relentless, but the fish keep biting - I lock horns with another Kingfish and this one I get closer to the boat but as soon as I think this one is coming aboard - wham! I feel a huge tug and no more fighting – I land half a Kingfish as the shark and I learn how to share. Meanwhile Danna pulls in another whopper Snapper. A few minutes later I catch a Snapper that looks like it was just born compared to Danna's and she catches a third Snapper just for good measure. Amazing! The Bay of Islands living up to expectations big time! But, 4-6 foot waves take their toll and so does a crippling drowsiness side effect. When the action slowed down, my nausea acted up – and I was hanging over the side of the boat chumming the water. Danna has all but lost the fight and is laying down. I tell the captain it is time to pull anchor lets go trolling for something big.
The Bay of Islands also happens to be a world class fishery for Striped Marlin and all the the other Marlin species as well. We had the outriggers out and flat lines being dragged by the boat as Danna and I were both laying down when I heard one of the reels start screaming. In an instant I was up and in the fighting chair. The captain and mate cleared the other lines while I secured the rod with the fish on it into the rod holder in the chair. Then I settled in. The fish went on a tearing first run peeling off hundreds of yards of line. The captain fired up the boat and gave chase as I reeled as fast as I could to try and regain the line. The fish felt huge – it was just toying with me. Every time I tried to crank he would take it right back. The mate, realizing that we were in for a long battle put a harness on me to fasten to rod and reel to my back. The whole point of the fighting chair and harness is to allow the angler to use his/her biggest muscles the legs and back muscles to fight the fish. I have never fought anything in a chair before and fifteen minutes into this fight I had no ideas on how this would end.
As we kept fight we kept getting battered by the huge swells that were rolling through the ocean. Already feeling weak and nauseous from the morning I was now strapped into a monster fish and running on fumes. It felt like I was running wind-sprints – the fish would take line and we would chase so I had to reel as fast as I could to keep up. We did this a dozen times. At one point everything caught up with me and I literally turned my head to the side and vomited while fighting the fish! I was completely spent – but determined not to give up. An hour into the fight were were making some headway – the captain would spin the boat trying to get the fish's face out of the current to get him swimming to the boat – we did this half a dozen times. Finally, the fish made a move and started coming to the surface – about 50 yards from the boat he jumped. It was a monster striped marlin and over 200 pounds him cleared the surface. But that was the last we saw of him. On one of the spins, the hook pulled and the fish swam away. Just like that – over an hour and every ounce of strength I had and the hook simply fell out of its mouth. Nobody did anything wrong – it just fell out of the fish's mouth. I can't believe I didn't catch the fish – it was the best and worst day of the trip. The fight of a lifetime and nothing to show for it – not a single picture of the beast. At least we got to see it but that is little consolation – I can't believe I did not catch that fish.
We headed back for shore and came right through a pod of dolphins playing in the bay. The were jumping and swimming right in the wake of the boat. We always love seeing dolphins but we were both so exhausted and sickly feeling and I was still replaying losing the fish over and over in my mind (for the record I still do it from time to time). We came back to shore and finished our day of fishing in the Bay of Islands. It truly is a remarkable place for fishing and we had a very decent day of fighting and catching fish – but I still cannot believe the big one got away.
The next day we headed back toward Auckland had I needed a little pick me up from my still lingering depression about the fish-who-must-not-be-named. I was glad that I had Sheep World to look forward to. You may think I am being sarcastic, but the truth is, after seeing thousands of sheep on this trip I really wanted to get up close to one. The demonstration was very good. The speaker was a real New Zealand sheep farmer who displayed the different skills of the sheep dogs and spoke about the entire farming industry and process. The highlight of the day was to watch a professional sheer a fully grown sheep while keeping the entire fleece (that is the name for the wool that come right off the sheep) in one piece. Danna has wanted to see a sheering really badly and we were very excited when he brought out the clippers.
Half way through the demonstration he looked at the crowd of about 30 people and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer. I immediately raised my hand not wanting to miss this opportunity. Danna grabbed my hand down – she thought the farmer was joking – no way he lets someone try sheering a full grown sheep. But, he saw my hand and called me onto the stage. The first thing I had to do was to secure the sheep to make sure it did not squirm or kick while I was sheering. This is done by placing the sheep's head between your knees and grabbing one of the front legs. Now that I have this sheep in a scissor hold I am ready to start trimming. I took the sheers and ran it right along the belly of the animal and the wool came off smoothly. The sheep did not try to get away. I did a few more strokes and took a piece of the fleece as a souvenir. It was really fun and you can't get much closer to a sheep than that! After the show we headed back to see the rest of Sheep World's animal collection. They had all kinds of animals there but Danna fell in love with a baby pig. She has always wanted a baby pig and now she finally got to hold one – and that is as close as we will get to owning a pig.
We left Sheep World and continued our drive into Auckland the city of sails to spend our last weekend in New Zealand.
