Annual Trip to Rangiputa Friday – Monday 18-21 November.
Spaces filled up quickly for this trip. All eyes were on the weather forecast from a week out with thunderstorms and a wind warning in force. It couldn’t be that bad after all we are in November? Surely? Come Friday Patrick towed his boat up with not much hope of actually using it and I packed the board games and expected a long drive to sit inside and drink.
The first photos came in from Patrick and the water looked flat and 2 kingfish had been shot. Luka landed a nice eater and Patrick shot a kingi big enough to take the gun to the bottom and rip through the bungee. Not to be outdone he spied the fish on the bottom with the spear still in it and dove down and wrestled it to the surface before it slipped off the spear. He got the gun back but no trophy Kingi.
The hardy crew that ignored the forecast started to arrive late Friday night as the kingfish sashimi got served at Phil’s bach. George and Michael and last Kai and Summer at about 10.30pm.
So Saturday morning we looked at the weather, 20-30 knots barrelling directly into the bay and 2-3m waves and went out to try our luck anyway. The vis was bad, reeaall bad. Heaps of fish but tough to get a clear view of them. We tried several spots and they were all much the same. We kept working our way out into the teeth of the weather and all the statics and pool training came into their own.
One boat headed back in to shore but Phil and his hardy crew stayed out on the seaward side of the rocks. Somehow Phil nofins shot and landed a lovely big kingi and Kai shot two big kahawai.
So time to cook and eat our kaimoana. We had some more sashimi, Cerviche, Smoked and Pento. Lovely.
Sunday morning only Kai was keen to head back out into the wash so we broke out the water toys and did a bit of kayaking and standup paddle boarding before heading home in the arvo. We each had several Kilos of Kingfish to eat over the week. Thanks to Holley for doing the organization, Phil and Patrick for providing the boats and Phil for hosting.
The plan is to go again in late March when the weather and visibility should be on our side because it can be beautifully clear vis.