Photo Journey- Lake Brunner to Hokitika

Here are some photos that got left behind in the last couple of weeks...

Iveagh Bay, Lake Brunner from the water-

You'll remember David saving the swan signet, well we went out in the boat the next day to check on them. He was a little worried his saved signet had joined the wrong family....that one at the back looks a little smaller don't you reckon? 

Lake Brunner reflections-

Whitebaiting at the Hokitika River- this was last Tuesday, November 8th. Looking down from the bridge as one 'baiter returned from an island in the middle of the river.

This was taken today, a week later with the river in flood (after a few days of rain including 54mm overnight), the kayak above was sitting on the shingle in the middle of this pool.

Stands along the town side of the river-

Last week the stands below hardly reached the river and in fact, the one in the foreground was nowhere near the water-

And today, you can see the blue tarpaulin from the photo above, tucked into the scrub below-

Some whitebaiters fished from the town steps-

Today the water was one step from the top-

This stand is on our side, the south side, of the bridge, it's totally under water today.

And I had this one ready to post the other day, the title was 'High & Dry'- today he'd need a snorkel.

Sailing on the next tide? I took these photos of Sunset Point, at the mouth of the Hokitika River, today just after high tide. People come here to capture the sunset from the lookout on the concrete ship. It won't be long before the ship will be marooned on its own island, the waves were crashing over the point into the river behind-

I take my sunset photos from the other side of the river and over the fence from where we're parked....sometimes I'm just too lazy to stand around for half an hour waiting at Sunset Point. These ones from last week were a lucky surprise. And not only because of the lovely colour and the added interest of the cows.

It wasn't until I was processing the photos I suddenly spied not one, but two White Heron/Kotuku in amongst the cows! You can see one of them on the right in this shot. I'd been looking for herons in the paddock all day, I know they are regularly seen around the park and in fact we saw one resting on the house roof next door but I hadn't managed to spot them in the paddock.

It had been overcast for most of the day, then the clouds parted just as the sun went down. I didn't have time to get across the park to the clubroom deck where there is a clear view so I leant out over the fence (and received an electric shock for my efforts) and snapped away. The cows are wondering who was making all the noise! 

And here's a few more photos from Lake Mahinapua where we stayed the other night at the DOC camp and where we were when the 'quake hit. There's a good view of the snow covered Southern Alps behind those clouds.

Sunburst sailing dinghies, boats we are very familiar with. A very long time ago when we were in Napier, David had business making fibreglass Sunbursts for many secondary schools; it's the boat they use to train their sailors in.

While I was watching the yachts, I spied a White Heron/Kotuku hiding in the nearby reeds. 

Later I went for a couple of short walks, I thought I might get a good lake shot from Swimmers Beach. 

The 1km walk was lovely along a nice wide path through bush and ferns and over a couple of open glades. Towards the end a sign told me the beach wasn't too far away. 

Imagine my surprise (and anyone else who walked the track thinking they might take a swim) when it ended here. A small gap in the undergrowth with thick bush on either side. That was a huge disappointment. 

I suspect a long time ago when the lake was a popular place for early settlers to spent weekends picnicking and boating, and when there was a paddle steamer plying its trade on the lake, the beach was once a proper beach where people came to swim. Now the bush has regenerated and this is all that's left, it's now a name only. Maybe DOC should put that on their sign to save the disappointment.

Oh look, weka are back in my good books. This family of one adult and 3 chicks were feeding around the van at Lake Mahinapua.

The chicks were quite independent but came quickly when the adult found something to eat. They were all very submissive to the parent and came in from underneath when begging for food.

The parent was quite tough on the youngsters too, pecking and chasing them if they did something wrong. The chicks cowered down on the ground if they thought they were in trouble and waited until the parent moved off before dashing away.

Other times she took no notice when one or the other stuck like glue to her side (I'm thinking it was the mother).

How's that for an eclectic mix of photos!  

But wait there's more.......in another short blog coming soon (if there's a internet connection down the line)

Reluctant Hitchhikers- Lake Brunner

Real-time

Keen, mad, or both?

David set out yesterday morning in an annoying mizzle which hung around for most of the day. After 4 or so hours he came home happy but empty-handed.

I told him he should have stayed home and saved the fuel; this guy was fishing off the lakeside just behind the van. He caught two trout within 20 minutes.

Heavy grey clouds greeted us this morning, but at least it was dry. New neighbours in their caravan arrived early last evening. After a bit of memory jogging back and forward between David & Stuart, they worked out that we'd been parked next to each other once before, at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. 

Of course if we'd waited until this morning before the guessing game it would have all fallen into place; Stuart has an unmistakable inflatable canoe, he'd had problems with the motor at Rotoiti and David had helped him out fixing it.

With visions of those trout close to shore, David threw out his line a few times...

...before he got bored with that, kicked the outboard into gear and roared off into the wild bl...grey yonder!

He headed off to his favourite part of the lake, a large drowned kaihikatea forest and swampland across the other side of Iveagh Bay and slowly trolled off around the point.

Sometime during the next 5 hours, I got a call from David to say he'd been on a mercy mission for the last hour. I wonder if you can guess what's under the cloth? (The following photos are courtesy of David's cellphone)

The large bundle of fluff lying in an undignified manner on the floor of the boat is a signet (baby black swan)- it flipped itself over just before David took the photo. Apparently a speed boat roared around the point just as a family of swans was swimming across the lake. Swans and signets went flying (the adults literally) in all directions as the boat sped through the middle of them. 

Other than cursing the idiots, David didn't think any more of it until he was trolling further out back along the same route 20 minutes later and found one lonely signet cheeping loudly and swimming for its life in the wrong direction. There was nothing for it but to scoop it up in the net (after a short, fast chase), and return it to the family now hiding in the drowned forest. It took him another half hour to locate the family before he could release the signet, who took off at a fast pace towards its siblings happy to be reunited at last. More brownie points for David!

But what about the trout, you ask. Well, two were caught and both released- one unintentionally, it jumped out of the net! And this one was foul hooked in its dorsal fin so David felt bad for it because it wasn't a fair fight. 

It's probably just as well he didn't bring any home, a cheeky weka had done a little bit of his own landscaping, scattering the bag of smoker wood chips over the bark garden beside us when David wasn't looking the other night!

Such is life on the road...

Lake Brunner- Trout & Weka

Real-time

In fact this blog is hot off the press. We're back at one of favourite lakes, Lake Brunner, all set up for a weekend of fishing.

The Iveagh Bay freedom camping area has had a major makeover since our last visit.

It's lovely and has been very well done but I'm not so sure we didn't prefer the old site with soft grass underfoot and a more relaxed camping area.

May 2015

A Britz rental motorhome arrived late in the afternoon and the young couple went fishing along the lakeside not long afterwards. They were soon back with a lovely big Brown Trout in a plastic bag. I spotted the guy attempting to fillet it on one of the rail sleeper barriers so David walked down to see if he could help him out.

Next minute (nek minute) he's smoking it for them in our smoker! Kane & Kayleigh were thrilled to sample a trout cooked another way. I say 'another way' because the day before yesterday Kane caught a Rainbow trout at Kinloch, Lake Taupo and they baked it for dinner! Midas touch and a fast mover. 

So, if David has no luck or feels inclined to 'catch and release' all his fish, we can still say we've had some trout- we had a small section of the smoked fish courtesy of our tourist couple.

We've been doing our little bit of PR for tourists lately. Of course we're often asked about places to visit and we readily pass on information (and links to my blog) when talking to overseas visitors. Then there was the foreign couple sleeping in a car at the Featherston free camping area. David felt very sad for them, as they clambered about, hopping in and out of the car in the rain. And even though they shouldn't have been camping in the park he wanted to give them breakfast. So I made them each a bacon & egg sandwich which David took over to them as we were leaving. They were very grateful. Soon after we gave a guy a push out of the mud at Kaitoke and now today we've smoked a trout. 

I love being back on the Coast where there are dozens of weka families with various sized chicks. They are such curious characters full of personality. When I do the ghost town blog, you'll see some tiny newly hatched weka chicks but today the families had elder chicks in tow. 

This family were foraging in the mown grass beside the dump station in Greymouth.

There are three or four families here at Iveagh Bay and I sat myself down on the sleeper beside these guys as they were digging, scratching and feeding in a small boggy hole. Once the mother got going there was dirt and grass flying in all directions and very loud clucking noises coming from down in the hole.

'You say you dropped it down here somewhere?...'

'I see it Mum, I see it!'

There is a distinct size difference between these two chicks, the 'runt of the litter' missed out on many of the worms, its bigger sibling barging in and snatching food at every opportunity. I'm not too sure why one is smaller but perhaps it is because there's just the one adult looking after them. All the other families I've seen have had two adults (and in one case 3) feeding the chicks.

Tasty worms for lunch.

And a few more weka photos (can you tell I love weka)...

The chicks finally settled down for a rest on the side of the bush while their mother carried on digging. 

'A rare two headed weka chick'

Although the bigger chick still kept racing over to get a feed of worms when he spotted her approaching the pair.