Scalloping in Marlborough Sounds.

Scalloping with my Brother, Bob, and Sister-in-law Jan and Erle.


Bob is very comfortable Skippering his boat, Jan is all ready for the picnic.

A few weeks ago when the season had not long opened my Brother Bob rang and asked us out for the day in his boat to do a bit of scallop dredging and some rod fishing, plus a picnic on the shore.
Wow we could hardly wait for them to arrive, it was such a lovely day all over blue sky, sunshiny and calm seas, there was no wind either, making it a wonderful smooth ride.



We had a lovely cruise down the sounds to the outer sounds near Ship's Cove. Bob rigged up the dredge and we made a couple of sweeps but the dredge kept lifting and letting all the scallops go, so he dragged it in and set about making adjustments to realign it with the oceans bottom, he is a mechanic and good at these kind of things. We dropped it again and made a quick sweep, lifted the dredge to test whether it was working and found a heap of wonderful big scallops, so it was back to dragging the dredge back an forth across the bay till we had about 100 scallops, not the full quota allowed but plenty enough for us four.
We did an hour or so of rod fishing but it wasn't our day for fish we got masses of bites but no fish big enough to keep, so we headed back to Ship's Cove for a picnic., thats Bob's boat tied to the wharf at Ship's Cove.
Back home we shucked all the scallops and had a big meal of wonderful sweet scallops.

Sun Kissed Sky.

Sun kissed sky over Picton.
Enjoy hundreds of other wonderful views of the sky worldwide on this Meme.

on the wings of a Dove.

He sends down His love on the wings of a snow white Dove
Taken at Goose Bay Kaikoura New Zealand.

Engagement and 21st birthday party

My World for this week.
It is years since we have been to a 21st Birthday Party, often now young people celebrate their 20th or even their 18th Birthday instead of the old way of getting the key of the door at 21. But Amanda who is living and working in Australia chose to come home to her parents house for her 21st and to combine it with another wonderful event, her engagement to Daniel - Erle's grandson, who is also living and working in Australia.
We hadn't seen either of them for quite some time so it was nice to see them both again and catch up with them and help celebrate in grand home style their big events, As it was held in Rangiora it meant most of us had to travel down so it was a great opportunity to have a nice long weekend away for us and many of the others.


There were masses of friends and relations of all ages at the house inside and outside. A big barbecue meal was prepared by Amanda's Father, and he made a great job of it, no charred chops and half raw chicken! Everything was cooked to perfection, rather more than we were able to manage to devour, but we all made a valiant attempt.
Amanda's Mum had been very busy baking and preparing all the food.

We watched the young ones down some 'shots' which we had never done and decided we didn't want to, but we did have a tiny taste of the strong liquor they were downing with the salt and lemon, with the loud toasts to the couple.
I wouldn't want their hangovers tomorrow!
.


Afterward there was lots of fireworks let off to make the day.

Feathers in the sky

Our Final day in Rarotonga

Our final lovely day in Paradise.
After our usual lovely breakfasted up our picnic gear and our swimming gear, packed it all into the convertible and headed out for the day. We had seen a Tropical gardens Café as we drove along the coast road, so today we just stopped and went in for a coffee, we didn’t bother with a muffin even though they looked delicious, but we had not long finished our breakfast, so settled for just the coffee. To get to the little Café we had to walk in through part of the gardens, over a rustic bridge where there were masses of colourful fish swimming in the creek/pond. This was a man made pond, apparently this land was once just a swamp, and the couple worked really hard to drain the land and grow all the great plants.
There was a nice welcome water feature with Hibiscus flowers floating in it.
Near the table we sat at was an old native out-rigger canoe. Which I had to photograph, while I did so the owners offered to take a photo of us both enjoying our coffee.

While driving on the inland road we discovered a Prison, so even in Paradise there is crime. But the prison is quite small and didn't look very high security.


We wandered around for a while then left to find a great picnic place, at Avo harbour, we watched a small fishing boat come in and then set about cleaning and filleting a big Tuna fish, we were surprised how dark red the flesh was, this is not a fish that is caught around the area we live in. The locals trawl for these fish, just outside the reef.
We sat on the grass in the sun and enjoyed our picnic and watched the boats on the lagoon, before driving further along the coast for a swim and snorkel among the little fish and coral.
Drove back to the Resort and quickly had another nice swim, while in the sea I was amazed to spot what looked like a black and white checkerboard like sea snake! It was quite close to the shore too, so I alerted the families with small children to move away from the ‘snake’ and told the activities men about it. They were certain it must be a conger eel, which is a blotchy brown and white colour, oh no that was not what it looked like at all. They tried to tell us that it couldn’t be a snake, but a man came over to me and whispered that there was indeed some sea snakes around Rarotonga but they were not at all aggressive and wouldn’t harm anyone unless in danger themselves, but he said they were very venomous and best left alone.
We decided a quick dip in the pool would be good after that.
For our last night we decided to have a good meal at the resort, we have mostly avoided expensive meals, but as a grand finale it was wonderful, well cooked well served, after we had enjoyed a wonderful cocktail watching the sun go down.
I got my very best heavenly sunset photos at this time. It hardly look real, but, it and all of my photos are completely untouched.
Tomorrow morn early we will be picked up and taken to the airport and we shall leave for home, taking lovely memories with us and the knowledge that we will return.

Rarotongan Tropical Storm

There was a big storm while we were in Rarotonga, black clouds were gathering in the evening, making quite a pretty but dark sunset, and a dark moon rose and seemed to fly through the sky. Because the clouds were moving quickly.
In the morning we awoke to the sound of water pouring, We were on the ground floor of a 3 story building so couldn't hear rain on the roof, but we could hear the rain water pouring over the overflowing gutters! We could also hear the thrashing around of the coconut fronds in the strong winds and the heavy pounding and crashing as the big waves smashing into the outer reef then went right over the top of the reef and crashed onto the sandy beach. Soon most of the lovely sand was washed off the beach into the lagoon. The storm lasted most of the day and the sun made no appearances so it was quick dark all day.
A good night to have room service and dine in our room, far too wet and windy to go outside for us. Pity the poor waiters that had to go out in it to deliver our meals.
But by next day it was all clear again, though it took a few days longer for the ocean to calm down again.
We were pleased to hear the locals say the sand would all come back again.