BucksThoughts: July 2019

Hi. We are back. You haven't heard from the blog for a while, actually since last November. Google Plus shut down which was the site I used for my stories. It's taken a while for us to get the old A into gear and start up a new site. Anyway, Jocelyn and I are still out there enjoying this wonderful country of ours although at the moment we are actually living in a house. Shock, horror. Jocelyn doesn't know how she is going to cope staying in one place for 4 months.
A few highlights of some of the places we have visited over the last 8 months. We spent a bit of time around Napier before christmas. Mainly bike riding and looking around the district. Fishing was pretty poor so didn't hang around too long. Haha. We had a lovely family holiday at Lake Rerewhaakaitu, over the Christmas period. Catching plenty of trout and swimming. Dane also brought his boat so the younger ones did some wake boarding.

Remember to click on the photos to enlarge.

Bath time for Luca.

The wake boarding team.

Family selfie.

We spent some time at Simpsons Beach just along from Whitianga where we met up with John and Margot and their 5th wheeler. Jocelyn stayed here while I jumped on board Papillon with Ken and the usual crew and again fished the National Game Fishing Tournament. Again we travelled up to Great Barrier Island and fished out wide from there. The fishing was a bit of a different story this year. We still managed to find the marlin, but we couldn't get them to stay hooked up.

Shortbilled spearfish tagged and released.

Steves beautiful mahimahi.

Feisty blue marlin.

After this Jocelyn and I went up the other side of the Coromandel Peninsula and stayed at Port Jackson for a couple of weeks Where we met 2 couples who we had got to know at Matauri Bay the previous winter.

Lovely Port Jackson sunset.

The odd nice snapper was caught.

The next stop was a family gathering at Lincoln and Pams beach house Papamoa. Sean, Michelle and Troy were coming up from the south Island to fish the Police fishing tournament with John and Stan. So we had fish on the menu, great company and even Jenny's birthday to celebrate with a nice dinner out. Thanks Lincoln for your great hospitality.

Family gathering at Lincolns Papamoa.

I was keen to get back into some snapper fishing. The best place for that is go north. So we ended up at Puriri Bay again for a couple of weeks. Jerry and Meg arrived for a few days as well. It was great to be back and get out on the water in the kayak. A few good fish were caught and Joel and Julie also came up for a few days. While sitting in the rig one night Joel happened to look out the door to see my niece Billie and her partner Tim walking past. Now that was a nice surprise. They were having a quick trip around up north in their camper for a few days.

This kingi gave me a good tussle.

Next on the agenda was the annual trip south for duck shooting. We left the rig at friends Roger and Lorraines place at Whananaki on their dairy farm. We travelled down to Kaikoura in the ute and stayed with Rod and Catherine on the farm. Then we travelled to Christchurch to pick up Dane from the airport and on to Geraldine for the shooting weekend. A great weekend was had by all and to top it off Jocelyn and I became great grandparents. Monique, our first grandchild gave birth to a lovely wee boy with her partner Matt. Locklan Malcolm Murray Baxter. Man doesn't that make you feel ancient.

Our new great grandson Locklan.

Happy crew in the maimai.

The mornings bag.

Standing on the mist

Tagan with a good wallaby.

lunch break on the wallaby hunt.

We did the usual wallaby hunt and the odd look for a deer while there and just got to spend some quality time with family and friends.
After getting back up north we spent a couple of weeks with Ken and Vicki at Katikati while waiting for my appointment to see the orthopaedic surgeon regarding my crook hip. Although he said I definitely need a hip replacement he was unable to put me on the waiting list. Apparently anyone who goes on the list has to be operated on within 4 months. This is not possible so they just don't put you on the list.
So from here we travelled north to Whananaki and Roger and Lorraines farm to pick up the rig. We had been gone nearly a month and unfortunately while we had been gone a rat had moved into the rig. It hadn't got into the living area but had found his way into cupboards under the sink and bathroom and all the utility areas underneath. The heating ducting had holes chewed through in a number of places so we really had a major clean up job. We stayed a couple of days with Roger and Lorraine then moved North to Matauri Bay. As it turned out that bloody rat travelled with us. I eventually got a trap from the camp and caught him pretty quickly.
Matauri Bay camp had a number of the usual winter campers that we had met there the previous year. It was good to catch up with them again. From here we are now in our winter retreat at Tapuaetahi, living in a lovely property right by the sea. Friends Greg and Gaylene own the property but they travel to Fiji and spend the winter on their boat. So we get to look after Fletcher, the jack russell and Pebbles the cat. Tapuaetahi is just north of Kerikeri. It is a beautiful bay with a sandy beach and great fishing. It's going to be really nice to spend some time here.