I recently bought myself a new “boat”. Well, its a kayak and compared to the boat it is much slower and much smaller and much cheaper. Like the boat though, its used for fun in the water and fishing, with the added benefit of being used for exercise as well. When I first heard of people fishing from kayaks, I thought it rather strange and almost didn’t believe it, but because its so easy to get out onto the ocean on the east coast, a lot of people are doing it. Most “sit-on-top” kayaks come with rod holders and more kayaks are coming out that are designed specifically for fishing. I have one rod holder and have a little anchor which is used to keep me in place once I find my spot. I have had a lot of fun so far and have caught many fish, but not many of them have been big enough to keep – I’m working on that though…

Photos
The Queen Mary 2 is a passenger cruise ship that is considered to be the most technologically advanced and biggest in the world, holding well over 4000 people (passengers & staff). It really is a magnificent beast so I made the effort (along with half of Auckland!) to see the ship – when it arrived and when it left. I was up at 5 in the morning, picked up Linda and Dieter and headed for Devonport where there are several viewing points of Auckland city & harbour. The Queen Mary II was expected at about 6:00am. We ended up at the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park, which from what I understand is yet another volcano. From there we were able to follow the ship all the way around until it finally docked in the harbour. The only disadvantage was that we were facing the sun which made taking photos not so good. Also, there were hundreds of people that had the same idea we did! Many smaller boats and yachts went out to meet the Queen Mary and cruise with her as she entered the harbour.

That evening Ingrid joined us as we made our way back to Devonport to see the big girl leave again. She did so in dramatic fashion - having been her maiden voyage – to a spectacular fireworks display at 10:00pm. Once again I was ready with the camera & tripod. Unfortunately capturing a moving ship on film at night is impossible, but I did get some nice shots while she was docked, of the city and of the fireworks. While the fireworks were going off She slowly reversed towards the display and on completion, she “wacked it into first and put her foot down”!

Then came time for us to be on our way….. well, to think about it at least, because the entire Auckland tried to get out of the only entrance to Devonport… all at the same time. You would have expected some movement in the traffic, but it never came - not until almost 3 hours later! It was unbelievable and I still don’t know what took so long. We did the sensible thing and curled up in the car and slept until kindly woken up by Linda knocking on the window to let us know that the cars were finally moving. If I remember correctly, the time was heading for about 2:00am by then.

Photos
We decided we needed to put our recently acquired camping equipment to use, so we went camping with our friends Linda and Dieter at Waipu Cove. Waipu is on the east coast about 2 hours drive north from us. The idea was that we would go fishing on the kayaks or even just fishing for that matter, but shortly after we set up camp, the weather turned to “poo” and it basically stayed that way for the rest of the weekend!? (hence not too much in the line of photos) Nevertheless, you can’t let weather get you down, so we made the most of it and enjoyed good company, food & wine in true camping style – it was great fun. We want to do another trip soon before winter hits us again.

Photos