Pursuit of Happiness

December 21, 2007

We got back to Rotorua last night after spending 3 nights on a fantastic fishing boat called Pursuit, with lots of stories and pictures of big catches in the Bay of Plenty.

On Monday, Will and I spent the day with Emily (John had one last day of work) and we headed to Whakatane (prounounced fa-ka-tan-ee; weird, I know), where we would be boarding the boat. On the way, we stopped at Julians, a berry farm, for homemade frozen yogurt and ice cream, yum!

We got to Whakatane early, so we went to Hopi beach to walk around. The three of us got caught in a little rain shower, so that was our first taste of getting a little wet before getting on the boat.
We had some beer at a pub down the street from the harbor, and then had our last meal on solid ground at the Whakatane Sportfishing Club before we started loading the boat.

Pursuit is owned by skipper Rick Pollock, who is renowned in New Zealand for running one of the best charter operations and has been fishing for over 30 years. He gets help from his new deckhand, Zane, and together, they were our best resources for great fishing.

John had been fishing a couple times with Rick and had planned all of the details for us. Along with the four of us, two of John's fishing buddies, Dave and Pat, were along for the trip.

The goal of the fishing trip was to head to Ranfurley Banks, about 120 miles from Whakatane, where the fishing is supposedly fantastic, so long as the weather cooperates and allows you to get out there. The weather report was a little pessimistic, so Rick had suggested that we head straight out to Ranfurley overnight (approximately 8-10 hours away) so that we would arrive early morning and get fishing right away. So, we went for it, and it was quite the choppy ride and a lackluster night of sleep. I did my best to load up on dramamine ahead of time, but was definitely a night of discomfort.

We got to Ranfurley Banks around 5:30 am and the boat was up and ready for action. It took me some time to get my bearings, but Will, Dave and John were at it immediately. The first dropped lines picked up action as soon as they were in the water and the fishing action was off to a quick start.

Throughout the morning, we were hopping with good fishing action, with catches of hapuka and bass fish. Rick had literally dropped us in amazing fishing zones. The current was very active, but once you got used to the movement of the boat, it was much better to be out on deck fishing than inside getting ill. Everyone was bringing in good catches.

I got in on the action finally and managed to get a big bass on my line. It felt like ages (when it was only about 20 minutes) of hard and painful (if not torturous) reeling. Thank goodness Johnny held onto my harness, as there were a couple times when I thought I was going to be pulled into the waters with the fishies. I finally pulled in a large bass fish, approximately 40 kg (~90 lbs). I was exhausted but happy:

The day went on, and Rick kept putting us in the best spots for getting fish. There were some great feats of physical work, with each of us pulling in fantastic fish.
Double-header of bass and hapuka:
Near the end of the day, Will just had to out-do my big catch of the day by catching an even bigger bass, weighing 63 kgs (~120 lbs):
When we weren't fishing, Rick and Zane were treating us well. They fully cater and take care of all meals and clean-up, all the while navigating the boat and making sure that we're all taken care of with help on the deck and pulling in our big fish. They are a well-oiled machine.

There was one moment during the day when I had a bad spell of sea sickness (despite the dramamine), when I had gone below to get more sunscreen (bad idea) and then went to the loo right after (really bad idea; really small space in rolling waters = bad), and I lost a little bit of my powerade into the ocean. Thankfully, that was the only time in the 3 days that I lost it. It really is amazing how much of it is in your head as well. Once you start thinking you're going to get sick, you might as well get sick.

After a big day of fishing and little sleep, we were all knackered, so we got to bed early. Thankfully, we had pulled into Hicks Bay (2 hours from Ranfurley), so it was calmer and we got some zzz's.

On Wednesday morning, we headed back out to Ranfurley Banks after breakfast and got back into the action. Rick had dropped us in an area where we were targeting kingfish, and as with the day before, we had immediate action.

One of the first bites with jigging were some good-sized kingfish. Johnny was reeling in a big kingie when he saw a mako shark in the water going for his fish. He reeled in a big kingie that had been bitten in half by the shark as it was being reeled in:
It was all action, with strong currents, so we could get a few fish in before having to motor back to the good spots. We were catching a lot of small to mid-sized kingfish (lots of tag and release) and will brought in another huge catch, this time a big hapuka fish weighing 43 kgs (~99 lbs). Will was on fire!
Emily caught a big kingie as well:

And so did everyone else:

I did some jigging, and it was a lot of fun, in a short amount of time when Will and I were trading off turns on the jig rod, I caught and reeled in 7 smaller kingfish, it was so much fun!

At some point, Zane convinced me that it would be a good idea to go after a mako shark, so he struck a deal with me, if he and Rick got one on a line, I would reel it in...what was I thinking?
And so, it was like fate, Pat caught a small kingie that a mako had closed in on and taken a piece of, so Zane quickly took the half-eaten kingie and put it on a rod with a mako tracer and after some skilled work, Rick got the mako on the line, passed the rod to me, and I was strapped into the rod and holding on for dear life. It was about 20 minuts of sheer grit and pain, thankfully Johnny was holding onto my harness again, because the shark would sporadically have fits of energy and almost pull me into the water. Rick helped me out by using the boat to help me reel in the shark. Check out the pics below of this amazing experience:



Once we got the shark close to the boat, Zane got a hold of the leader line and Rick was able to dislodge the hook and we released the shark. Rick estimates that the shark was about 85 kgs in size (~200 lbs). Thank goodness the mako didn't charge the boat and try to jump onto the deck (which they are sometimes known to do), as I wouldn't know what I would've have done. Zane says he would've made sure I was safe...right. Check out the pieces of kingie that were left after the mako shark:

It was another epic day of fishing, with lots of kingies, hapuka, terrakey and trumpeter fish. Everyone pulled in lots of good fish. We headed back to Hicks Bay late, and it took us longer with the stronger winds and currents, and we had a late dinner followed by immediate zzz's.

On Thursday morning, we had to start heading back to Whakatane, estimating another 10 hours or so back, with some trolling for fish along the way.

After brekkie, the boys started the big task of cleaning and filleting the fish that were kept. We also took a few more pics of the epic catches:


Along the way, we spotted some dolphins (adorable!) and tried to catch some tuna, but alas, our fishing luck had come to an end, but I got some photos of the dolphins swimming in our wake:


It took the boys almost 2 hours of filleting to get all the prime cuts of fish from all the catches that we actually kept.





We were happy to be back on solid ground, it's a day later and I'm still feeling a little wobbly. Will was the only one who didn't feel much effects of the sea (brat), and I realized that the main difference between this trip and previous ones was that we never set foot on ground in 3 days, whereas with other trips, they were either day trips (in Cabo) or we would anchor and go to land during the trip (during my high school week-long marine biology trip).

It's too bad that Will and I can't take any of the meat home, we'll do our best to feast on the fish as much as possible before we go, and John and Emily will be giving much of it away because they would be eating fish for months otherwise!

Thanks so much to Johnny for planning the trip, and a huge thanks to Rick and Zane for giving us an amazing experience. Rick is truly an amazing skipper and I would highly recommend a trip with him if you ever are in this neck of the woods.

Rotovegas!

December 17, 2007

We slept in after the epic bbq at Dorny's house and we finally rolled out of the house with Alex for brunch in their neighborhood (Tolcher had amazingly woken up early for a mountain bike ride). We walked over to a cafe nearby to meet up with Alex's friend Tasha, and got some grub.

After brunch, Alex dropped Will and I off in Sky City to catch our bus to Rotorua (a.k.a. Rotovegas, for some reason that I have yet to find out about...).

The bus ride was just over 4 hours and we rolled through some fantastic country, lush forests, rolling grazing lands with lots of sheep and cows. We got into Rotorua after 5 pm and John picked us up...the Lavery boys were reunited!

John and Emily bought their house less than a year ago and have done some pretty amazing renovations to the guest area, the living room and kitchen. Emily and John whipped up an awesome dinner and we had some great catch up time.

The four of us are heading out on a 3-day deep sea fishing trip (hopefully out to Ranfarley Banks if the weather holds out) and we're looking forward to some great fishing stories (and hopefully not any sea sickness stories).

Stay tuned for pics and stories of massive catches!

Auckland/Waiheke Island - 12/15/2007

On Saturday morning, we got up and had some muesli, yogurt and fresh fruit on the deck of the cottage, overlooking the valley and part of Onetangi Beach. We set out on foot down to Onetangi Beach to grab a coffee and check out the beach.


We stopped at a beachfront café called Cats Tango for coffees. The sky was overcast, so it wasn’t a day that screamed beach. The rugby ball was thrown on the beach for a while. We wandered down the beach and looked at all the beachfront properties for sale.







We headed back up to the cottage, packed up our stuff, and embarked on a driving tour of the island, exploring the east side of the island that is less inhabited and toured. The land was lush and diverse, lots of wonderful views and unbelievable valleys with sheep and cows grazing.

By the time we headed back towards the western side of the island, our stomachs were complaining and we went to Oneroa Fish & Chips, highly recommended by Ray and some of Alex’s friends. We had enough time to grab our order (battered hoki fish, fries, sweet potato kumara fries and spice crusted calamari), have a few chips, and head down to Matiatia to catch the next ferry. The side story here is that while we were waiting for our order, we saw actress Kate Bosworth (of “Blue Crush” and “Superman Returns” fame) with some good looking guy ordering flat whites at the coffee shop next door.

We got back to Auckland around 3:30 in the afternoon, and Tolcher and Alex headed to an early bbq while Will and I chilled out a bit at their place. They came back and picked us up to head off to another bbq for dinner at their friend Chris’ (a.k.a. Dorny) place. We also met Paul (a.k.a. Rugs) and we had a pretty amazing feast of three different types of sausages (my favorite was the lamb), chicken skewers, bbq-roasted rosemary potatoes, garlic bread and salad. We are being spoiled.


We had a blast learning New Zealand phrases/words ("mothered"), sharing stories, and trying new drinks (Dorny’s 42 Below Backyard Batch was yummy!). Thanks to Dorny, Rugs, Tolcher and Alex for a fantastic evening!

Auckland/Waiheke Island - 12/14/2007

Will and I slept in the next morning, while Tolcher and Alex headed off to work. We went to a nearby café called Meola Kitchen for brunch, where we had some pretty amazing dishes. Will had a gin-cured salmon with potato posti and cucumber salad. I had the Meola club sandwich with crab, bacon, rocket, and a fennel salad. Delish!

We pulled the rookie travel mistake of not having NZD cash in our pockets, so we had to walk to find a bank machine before catching a bus downtown to the Ferry building. Our plan was to catch the ferry to Waiheke Island, spend the day exploring and playing frisbee golf (we like to call it frolf) at a course that Ray had recommended, then meet up with Alex and Tolcher for dinner and spend the night on Waiheke Island. Alex’s friend was gracious enough to offer us the use of her car and cottage on the Island.

Once we found a bank machine, we caught a bus right away to the Britomart stop. We got our tickets to the 1 pm Waiheke Island ferry ($28 round trip), and had some gelato (I had mandarin and blueberry) while we were waiting. The ferry ride was lovely, the clouds were opening and the sun was out. Our ferry made a quick stop at Devenport on the way, and the journey was about 45 minutes. There’s an express ferry that does the trip in 35 minutes as well.




Waiheke Island is referred to as the “Jewel of Auckland” in the Hauraki Gulf, with lots of vineyards, olive groves, restaurants, beaches and villages. Once we got to Waiheke, we immediately found the bus we needed (#2 to Rocky Bay) and saw a bit of the island on the way to Onetangi Sports Park, where the frisbee golf (spelled “frisbie” on the tourist map…ha!). When we arrived at the sports park, it was another 10 minute trek (we’ve been doing a lot of walking on this trip so far) to find a completely quiet complex. Luckily, frisbee golf is free and we had the course to ourselves.

We took a picture of the course map (just in case we needed to refer to it) and thank goodness we did, we were referring to that picture every hole. The course was in good shape, but the little wooden plank that marked the tee was sometimes covered by grass and it was a bit of a treasure hunt built into the round of frolf.





I’m pretty bad at frolf, but it was fun. The course was quite hilly and the sun was out in all its glory (go SPF 50!). There were a few times where we had to hunt for a disc, and Will ended up losing one of his drivers (awww…).

After frolf, we were itching for a beer and some snackies, so we walked a few kilometers to a vineyard nearby, but it was 5 pm and they were closing. So thankfully there was a bustop at the winery and we hopped on the bus back to Oneroa (the main little town close to the ferry stop at Matiatia).

Will and I found a cute little bar called SandBar with a view of Oneroa Bay (gorgeous!) and had a few New Zealand beers by Mac’s Brewery and snacked on a “calzone” which looked like a quesadilla. Nevertheless, it hit the spot. Tolcher and Alex found us at that bar and from there, we drove to MudBrick Vineyard to grab some wine and cheese with a view all the way back to Auckland, it was so pretty here.





For dinner, we had dinner at the Palm Beach Clubhouse, a cute little restaurant just off of Palm Beach, a 10 minute drive from Oneroa. The dinner was delicious, I had the rack of lamb with a roasted garlic rosemary crust and merlot jus.




After dinner, we drove over to Onetangi Beach and found the cute cottage we were staying at. After five hours of drinking and a full day of exploring, it was no surprise that we crashed pretty hard that night.

Off to Auckland! - 12/13/2007

On Thursday morning, Will and I packed up our stuff and checked out of the Westin Sydney (boo…), hopping in a cab to Sydney airport and en route to Auckland. We quickly discovered that the Air New Zealand lounge is tremendously better than the United Airlines lounge (lucky me, still riding on the coattails of Will’s status…), where we dined on some yummy breakfast croissant sandwiches before our flight boarded.

The flight was shorter than I expected (under 4 hours), and other than the intriguing beef salad snack (it was exactly as it sounds), the only other highlight was that we watched a movie called “The Ultimate Gift”, which was ill-timed and they shut it off with less than a few minutes to go (or at least we think it was almost finished). Painful, now I’m totally curious how that movie truly ends and I don’t want to have to watch the whole thing again.

When we landed, it was pretty quiet and we rolled through customs quickly (they cleaned our mountain bike shoes for us…thanks!) and met up with Tolcher, who picked us up (yay for friends when traveling!). Tolch drove us to his place in the Westmere district of Auckland, just in time to meet up with Alex, who got home from work around the same time. We enjoyed a beer on their awesome deck and took a quick walk down to the water (Meola reef).

For dinner, Alex whipped up an awesome pasta dish with shrimp and peas, as well as a yummy avocado, orange zest and fennel salad. Yum!



There may have been a couple bottles of wine and lots of catch up talk, it’s so great to spend time with Tolcher and Alex! Hooray for friends and travels!

Sydney - 12/12/2007

On Wednesday morning, Stephen picked us up and took us for brunch close to Bondi Beach at a great place called Skinny Dip. I opted for a chicken pide while the boys went for brekkie food (Stephen kept going on and on about a dish called the Dean Bean…)

From brunch, we walked down to Bondi, just as the sun was out and the day was turning into a gorgeous one.







From Bondi, we checked out the Bondi Icebergs Club, and then embarked on part of the Coastal Walk towards Tamarama Beach and back.






Stephen then took us on a driving tour where we stopped in the Vaucluse area at another scenic point with a fantastic view of Sydney city center, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I took more pictures of course. You really can't take enough pictures of the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge.






Stephen was set on taking us to Botany Bay so that we could see the infamous snake charmer (generations of one family of snake charmers have been doing a show from a spot at Botany Bay for almost 100 years, according to Stephen). To our misfortune, the snake charmer apparently doesn’t work weekdays. So, defeated, we went to Coogee Beach for a beer (or cider in my case).

Late afternoon came around and we had to head back to Woollahra to meet up with Stephen’s folks and hand off the car, so we met them for another beer/cider at Light Brigade, a pub around the corner from Stephen & Jo’s. Stephen's parents are adorable.

Stephen had to head out to meet Jo for her graduation from design school, so Will and I went off to meet up with John and Melinda for drinks and dinner.



We wandered over to The Rocks and ended up at the Lord Nelson Brewery Pub for beers/ciders and dinner. I had a pretty fantastic chilli and crab spaghettini, while Will had the fish and chips.



After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and sure enough, the ciders made me a bit wobbly. Swell.

Thanks to John & Melinda, and Stephen & Jo for taking us around Sydney and showing us a great time! I heart Sydney!