And Then They Were Gone

After a busy Easter weekend with people, boats & vehicles coming & going all day long Easter Monday arrived and just as quickly as they had arrived the camp emptied out. With military precision everything was folded, wiped, washed & stowed away & they were gone. It had rained overnight so a few had to wait a little longer for their tents to dry out before packing them away. This gave the children a last minute reprieve from being bundled into the car, belted up & driven across that long & winding road. As luck would have it the sun came out & they were off for a last swim.

 

Our neighbours came to say goodbye brought across a couple of their unused 20 litre water containers & emptied the contents into our drinking water container & the remainder into the fresh water tank. Very generous of them, they even invited us back to share their Christmas with them. I’m not so sure they’d be too pleased if we had the same site again though. 

It was very quiet on Monday night & although we both preferred the peace & tranquillity that descended on the camp site we also felt a little lonely with no activity happening or people passing by & stopping for a chat. I know Jenny & Len (the camp managers) heaved a huge sigh of relief. They had both had a very busy weekend.

 

I was up early to catch the sun rise on Tuesday morning, I could get used to waking up to this every morning. Tuesday also saw the last of the campers depart leaving just us & two or three campervans & a couple of tents.

We decided to head back around to Fantail Bay or a little cove just before the bay so David could go fishing. We still haven’t decided what boat we will take with us when we go full time on the road so for this trip David has brought our small(very small) inflatable that used to be our tender on the launch. We also have a 3 metre Porta-Boat at home, they’re a plastic fold up boat that is quite a bit bigger that the inflatable but it’s also heavier too. It would have to fit on a roof rack on the ute if we decide to keep it whereas the inflatable folds up & fits into the hold on the van. Mind you if we decide on the inflatable we’ll have to get a slightly bigger one with a solid floor; one that would fit us both in as we want to take it for exploring when David isn’t fishing.

 

With no outboard motor yet he had to row the inflatable; back & forward across the bay. The trouble was the wind was quite strong & no sooner had he rowed into position the wind carried him back to the other side. He got a few nibbles and a couple of small snapper but nothing for dinner. David decided it was too much like hard work so we packed everything back into the ute, tied the inflatable to the deck & returned to Port Jackson where it was very calm and the wind not so strong. The sun had also come out and I had a lovely swim, the water was warm & crystal clear with no waves, ideal for swimming but not for surfing.

And off he rowed again, back and forward across our bay. Again he got a few small fish and quite a few strikes but didn’t come home with anything but a very sore bum from all the rowing. Jenny must have felt sorry for us because when I dropped down some magazines for her, she offered us some of Len’s snapper if David didn’t catch dinner, Len obviously knows the secret spots! He’d caught a few; David had seen him out when we were down at Fantail. When David came home empty handed I sent him down to Jenny to collect dinner, nice big fat fillets they were too. Thank you very much Jenny & Len!

And then when Len realised David was rowing he offered him his 2hp outboard to use tomorrow. Sweet! People are just so generous. It really shouldn’t be a surprise though; Kiwis are well known for their hospitality. It’s just lovely to know that the real New Zealand still exists out there.

More photos here of Port Jackson