Cleaning the boat
Trip Start
Feb 17, 2005
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109
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Trip End
Feb 27, 2006
Kaitaia,
New Zealand
Saturday, January 14, 2006
After about 20 minutes, we stopped and set the anchor, before taking the dinghy out to set some nets. It was then just a case of waiting for the tide to go out so we could get to work on cleaning the underside of the boat.
In the meantime, we moved everything to one side to help the boat tip over, and enjoyed a game of crib at the front. By the time we'd finished, you could certainly tell that we were on an angle, and Graeme nearly lost one of his sausages that Ann had made for breakfast
1. Me as the boat gradually tilts over.
! He'd put his plate down briefly, but one of them slid off and he was lucky to salvage it before it slipped into the water. He wouldn't have been amused by that!When the boat was eventually beached, my job was to scrape the barnacles off the side. It was quite an arduous task as there were hundreds of them, and each one left a white mark that also had to be scraped off. We had to work quickly as we only had a few hours before the water started coming in again, and Graeme had to apply the paint and wait for it to dry. So the 3 of us worked hard during this time, be it scrubbing, scraping or painting. We managed it though, and as the water began to rise, we went off in the dinghy.
The water was still shallow though, so most of the time we just walked through and dragged the boat behind us. My eyes were fixed on the water as Graeme had given me a spear, and he'd told me what to do when I saw a fish. Suddenly I felt like an old Maori warrior, searching for food with a spear his only weapon! Unfortunately there weren't many fish around, and the parore I did see were way too fast. I had a couple of wild stabs, but I came away empty handed. Fortunately we'd caught a few in the nets so we wouldn't starve, and I enjoyed the thrill of the chase anyway.
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Graeme dug in some poles to mark where the channel was for future reference, before we went off looking for oysters. We soon came across some beauties at the bottom of a tree near the water's edge, and I bagged them up and gave them a rinse. It was turning into a productive day, and the boat looked a lot better as we returned to it late afternoon.
We gave the boat another clean as we waited for the water to make it float again, before I went for a paddle in the luke warm sea that was getting deeper all the time. I spotted a stingray on the sand at one point so I was careful not to stand on it, while the adundance of mullet kept on jumping out of the water all around us - a peculiar sight! A couple of them had jumped into our net earlier on, and they made for another nice meal - I'd not eaten this healthily for a long while!
It was 8pm by the time we were ready to head for home, and we were all due a good nights sleep. Luckily Graeme didn't have too much planned for Friday as I was starting to feel it a bit after all these early starts. I'm a backpacker...I'm not used to it!
Friday began with an oyster opening session in the kitchen, with Graeme doing the opening and me doing the rinsing
3. Fern on the boat.
. I ate one raw and to my surprise, it wasn't half bad. It tasted very salty though! So after my bad experience with the mussels, I was starting to get into this seafood lark, and next on the agenda were the tuatuas. Only they'd gone off and weren't suitable for eating anymore as we didn't open them the previous day. Graeme was disappointed, but we planned to go up to Cape Reinga on the Sunday and there'd be more opportunity to catch tuatuas again. All was not lost...Graeme got a few of his guns out afterwards, as he'd promised to let me have some shooting practice. We painted some old targets, paced out 30m, and away we went. He was very safety concious, telling me the dos and don'ts and watching me closely to make sure there were no mishaps.
I wasn't exactly a natural at holding a gun...it's not something I do on a regular basis back in Doncaster! Graeme kept on telling me to tuck it firmly into my shoulder, as well as correcting my stance. When I was in position, he'd say his familiar catchphrase ("that's the story") and I knew I was ready. So I took aim at the black cross on the target and slowly pulled the trigger, a little taken aback by the power of the gun.
After getting the all clear from my mentor, I placed the gun on the floor and advanced to see how good an aim I had
4. The farm in the distance...
. As it turned out, I managed to hit the target with each of the 3 guns I used...a good achievement (although in reality it was probably more difficult to miss!). Despite this success, I've no plans to pursue a military career...I was excited about the plan for the afternoon...I was going to be riding a tractor for the first time! Graeme uses it to mow the vast areas of grass on his land, and I jumped on the side while he did the difficult parts. He was giving me instructions on how to work the thing, and even though I suffered from information overload, he assured me it was just like driving a car. Apparently a previous farm helper, a young Japanese girl, had freaked out when approaching a steep decline...and forgot how to stop the tractor! Graeme had spotted the 'situation,' and promptly ran after it, climbing over the back and stopping it in the nick of time!
I just kept it in a low gear and took it nice and steady, mowing the rectangular top lawn in about 20 minutes. No problems whatsoever, and Graeme said that I'd be able to drive it again later in the week when we pulled fence posts out of the ground. I was looking forward to it, as riding around in the tractor made me feel like a real farmer!
After watering the plants, I helped prepare the evening meal (by that I mean I peeled a few potatoes!). I excelled myself...I was usually redundant until it was washing up time! But this was a special occasion...we were having oysters! Unfortunately there was no champagne, but we had a glass of wine and I really enjoyed the oysters, and the potatoes of course...
Graeme had looked horrified earlier in the week when I'd said that I'd never really listened to Pink Floyd, so he made me watch The Wall that night, and I must admit it was pretty good. After watching 24, he played a live concert of theirs from 1990 in Berlin. I do think that you have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to them, but I'll certainly buy some of their cds when I get back home...
I didn't get to bed until midnight, but it was ok because Saturday turned out to be another fairly laid back day, beginning with a game of Crib whilst eating breakfast. I did some pruning and we finished off the mowing, but other than that it was an easy one. Part of the reason for this lack of action was the sweltering heat...the Far North is renowned for it. So again we found ourselves playing cards in the afternoon, although my luck wasn't in as Graeme dished out a thrashing!
We watched a superb Roy Orbison concert that night, as well as some old Elvis videos. It was great listening to all this old music, particularly as I've overplayed all my minidiscs of late...it made for a refreshing change.
I'd had a great few days on the farm, but Sunday promised to be the highlight as Ann and Graeme were taking me up to Cape Reinga, hopefully to see the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean...
