A few days with grandkids.

After our Golden Bay experience we were on our way back to Kaikoura to meet up with Rod who was going to drop James and Grace off for a few days.  The Takaka hill was still covered in ice even though we had left it until mid day to travel.I had the ute in 4 wheel drive a lot of the time and still had a couple of 4 wheel drifts with the weight of the rig on behind.  But we made it over safely and arrived in Kaikoura about six hours after our departure from Pohara. We stayed up at the farm that night then in the morning we moved down to the coast and set up at Omihi camp.
  Rod arrived with the kids who were excited and enjoying the school holidays.  They had all been busy moving into the new house and job at Oxford.  It was good that the shift coincided with the holidays as it had given them all a chance to get settled.  Catherine and the kids are still going to be at Oamaru until the end of school year and just come to Oxford in the weekends.  Jocelyn and I are coming to terms with the fact we are going to be starting work very soon as well.  I guess we will cope but it's been awhile now especially for me since we have had any sort of gainful employment.  We are really enjoying being lazy buggers.
  Anyway we got the kids settled into the rig and Rod headed for home.  The next morning was fine and very frosty with a low tide so it wasn't long before James and I were out clambering around the rocks.  It was really cold so neither of us had mentioned getting out the snorkelling gear.  We  just had our sneakers on poking around in the rocks looking for Paua.  It was James who first slipped and filled up his sneaker with freezing water and it wasn't long and he had filled up the other one as well.  So after that he was in there up to his knees lifting rocks and getting splashed with the incoming swells.  We found a patch of Paua and it wasn't long and we had 5 keepers in the bag.  I was still nice and dry and giving James all the encouragement to keep looking with his freezing legs in that extremely cold water.  We moved along a bit to a large rock pool with deep water surrounding a large rock.  James was up on the rock looking down the sides in the kelp when he slipped and in he went up to his chest.  There was a lot of gasping and high pitched squeals and his eyes were as wide as saucers with a very expressive look of shock on his face.  I would like to say I showed concern and expressed immeasurable  sympathy for his plight but alas I failed miserably.  After I had recovered from my laughter and wiped the tears from my face I asked him while he was there if he could check under the rock and see if he could see any Paua under  there.  He suggested I wasn't the loving grandfather he thought I was and wanted to go and get changed back at the rig.  I thought this showed a bit of a lack of commitment but we had enough for a feed so away we went.


My hard working helpers

James had a hot shower and warmed up then a bit of breakfast went down well and we made plans to head into town and do the Kaikoura coastal walk.  This walk starts around past the wharf by the seal colony and follows the cliffs around to South Bay.  It is a very picturesque walk as you are up quite high looking out over the sea and there is a large expanse of reef below with nice clear water exposing the channels and larger rocks.  The seal colonies are surprisingly large with many hundreds of them stretched out on the rocks and beaches. As you get further around even more large colonies appear and you have to wonder how many tonnes of fish are eaten every day by this huge hoard of hungry mouths.  And these are just a few of them as when you travel the coast in your car they are all over the rocks where ever you go.  On the way back James spotted 2 whales as they came up for air. We found it was easy to follow their progress by the spray they blew from their blowholes but then they dived and were gone.  They looked like humpbacks from where we were.   When we got back to the carpark Grace found lots of baby seals were coming out right onto the carpark and they were quite happy to come right up to you.They certainly look very cute with their large wet eyes and strange out of water gait as they flop and waddle up to you.

Next morning at low tide James got a bit braver and put on his wetsuit.  He still wasn't keen to go for a proper snorkel but he waded out and backed into the waves and looked under the rocks.  He started to pull a few Paua out and threw them to me to measure.  I got my feet wet and managed to find a couple of keepers and after about an hour we had our limit of 12 Paua.   Gracie came down and helped us to shuck clean and beat the Paua.  Then we headed up for a warm up and a feed in the rig.  The rest of the day was spent around camp and going for a walk up the beach.
  The following morning we decided we were going to harden up and get the gear on and get wet.  Low tide was about 10 am so it meant the sun had time to warm things up a bit before we had to gear up.   There was still a bit of a swell running  which makes it a bit more difficult to hold your position when diving down to look for paua.  Once we got the gear on and got in the old hunter gatherer gene just kicks in and it was enjoyable getting down under even though the water was freezing.  The suit does a good job of keeping you warm though James wasn't as thick as mine so he felt it a bit more.  It wasn't long and we had our limit of ordinary Paua and we also had 6 yellow foot as well.  So back to the rig and a hot shower to warm up.
After lunch we packed everything up and headed for Oxford.   We spent a couple of days there then we were off again and heading inland and south to Twizel with the idea of catching salmon and trout in the hydro canals.  We got to the NZMCA spot by the salmon farm not far from the town of twizel and found only one other camper van parked there.  Unfortunately the snow started to come down in little squalls that were drifting through and it was pretty bloody cold.  The hills around were covered in a heavy coating of snow and when the sky cleared it was very picturesque.  Jocelyn pretty much stayed inside the whole time we were in the area but I was out and about fishing without much luck and I also went for a drive up to Mt Cook and went for a good walk up to the hooker glacier.  That took about 3 hours and it was such a clear fine day the scenery was spectacular.

We then moved the rig down to the shores of lake Benmore at the Ohau C canal outlet and set up at the council camp there.  Last time we were there a lot of campers and caravans were set up and a lot of them had gardens and paths leading to the door.  But this time the camp was totally empty.  Maybe these south Islanders don't like the cold.  Or maybe we are just stupid...Anyway I got the kayak out and tied a fly onto my trout line and straight away was into a nice trout.I ended up with 2 and dropped another one then the next morning went out again and got 3 nice ones and released them all.   The frosts were  brutal but the days were magnificent. Out in the kayak paddling along, the lake was like glass and all the mountains around were covered in snow, it was pretty spectacular,although when I
got back in after getting a bit wet it was a while before my feet would warm up.

We packed up and decided we would head for Tekapo and stay a night there at the motor camp but when we got there we were told it was $20.00 each per night and if you wanted a shower it was another $2.00 each.  This was the most expensive camp we had come across especially for winter rates so we decided  to keep moving and ended up back at Oxford ready to start work.