Yesterday was our last day at the beach with my family. The Bay was as calm as a lake till mid morning and we made the most of almost every moment we had left.
Unfortunately I say ‘almost’ because for some getting going in a hurry in the morning was a bit of a struggle so we were too late for the school of kawai and king fish that had been just off the bay until about 9:30 am. We did get to see other people bringing their boats in with a few good catches and heard all about how good it had just been!
A quick trawl out into the bay and back was unable to lure in any fish at all. Defeated by the ocean this time I decided to give up in favour of a swim with the rest of the family at a little private beach just before the point. It’s only private if you get there first, and come high-tide the place completely disappears under water right up too the tree line. Luckily we had a few hours to enjoy it while the tide slowly came in.
The sun was shining but the water was cold, so as the only wimp smart enough to be wearing a wetsuit, I was the only one in the water for a while (except for Miso, Dads one year old golden lab, she finally has become big enough to feel brave enough to paddle with her feet off the bottom!) That is until Dad finally decided he would jump in as well just before we went back. Being from Timaru I thought he’d of done more swimming than he did, but the water had a fairly sharp cold bite too it.
Just before lunch, after much fussing for a group photo, we all piled on boats and headed round the corner to home. The biggest surprise was that Stevens Bay which was sheltered from the southerly breeze felt positively warm compared to S beach!
After a quick lunch of left overs from various christmas meals we packed up and got ready to come home.
The flight into Wellington was smooth all the way up to the point where we hit the clouds over the city. Suddenly you could tell the locals from the tourist as the plane bounced along prepared for a potentially sideways landing. The ones who are laughing tend to be familiar with the routine while the others who have white knuckles and might have screamed a little bit are probably from out of town.
The “hold-on-to-your-hat” wind that greeted us on arrival served as a stern reminder that the summer half of our vacation was well and truly over…
The next installments of the vacation blog will be from the frozen northern hemisphere as my partner and I make our way up to her family home in Japan. Summer Christmas, Winter New Year, part 2 coming as soon as I get my phone connected up there.
The photo is a view from the plane on the way home. I find it bizarre how the camera captures the turn of the propeller like it was a ribbon being twirled, how sites that flimsy looking thing pull us through the sky?!