Weekend Wonderland!

We have a new playground - the stunning Bay of Islands where I've spent the last 3 weekends free-diving for fish and shell fish with a new friend who happens to have an awesome boat!

We got up at silly o'clock and headed out on the water not long after the sun had come up and as we motored out through the network of bays and islands, we had to slow down for a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins which swam straight towards us whilst putting on an acrobatic display (all but the last picture is taken from Google images as I never remember a camera!)We saw dozens of fish the first weekend we went out, hundreds the second and thousands this time - no exaggeration. We spent over 4 hours in the water and I'm getting better at staying down longer each dive. We were accompanied by an experienced diver who stays under for a minute or more each time and went to depths I could not see despite the good clarity.

I shot a few fish for the dinner table - beautiful Pink Maomao (both in looks and taste)And some equally pretty and delicious Blue Maomao (bizarrely no relative of the pink species!)After one dive we noticed a certain 6-foot bronze whaler shark following us and it later fed on the fish guts we threw overboard. It was also quite beautiful and its amazing to think that these must pass by us all the time without us realizing... including bigger ones!A few funky blue penguins were also after a good feed in the plentiful watersAnd look at the one that didn't get away! Its a Kingfish and my friend shot it, not me! It is a relatively small example of a common fish that is the main quarry for many a fisherman in these parts. It tasted delicious - we smoked some and had Kingfish pie the other night which I highly recommend!

Will is jabbering away heaps and getting close to walking - he just needs the confidence to take those first steps. His favourite words are Bum, Ooooh and Muma and Dada gets a reasonable use too!

Bernie is doing an ace job as Mum and house wife and is loving the new bread maker we got through the insurance company - Will and I are loving the many wonderful products that keep being churned out of the kitchen in general - I'm off to eat Cape Gooseberry Cheesecake - Ooooh as Will would say!

Love to all,

CBW x

On the up!

We are all becoming more and more settled in the Bay of Islands thanks to our New Year's resolution - to go to the beach as much as we can!

There are hundreds of beaches, bays and rocks to explore and we have begun in earnest. The past two weekends have been spent free-diving looking for crayfish, shell food and spearfishing food for the table. We have made friends with some awesome people - many of whom have boats which makes for even more possibilities. The sea is almost always flat and visibility is really good. Last weekend I swam with hundreds of powder-puff blue fish and an arar of other colourful fish - a few larger grey ones ended up on our dinner plates too!

Will and Bernie come out on the boat or hang out on a beach - roughing it as you can see!

Our boy continues to develop fast and is talking, pointing and moving more and more each day.

On Tuesday night, a lady from work took us out on her 33-foot yacht for the evening - a couple of us dived for mussels before boarding for fine wine and food in a secluded bay. Will loved it - pointing at birds and islands, before going below deck to open al of the cupboards - heaven!

I cooked the mussels and have never tasted such creamy flesh on them before - they're not exactly small either:

We had cherry-picked the smaller ones as they get tougher when they are much bigger than this!

Hopefully we'll get out again this weekend - life's a beach!

CBW x