Ahoy, Matey!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

I really enjoyed Kaikoura, so I was happy that I had the time to go back and spend a few more days there. Katharina, our French roommate and I got to go on the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway yesterday and see the immense amount of local wildlife like fur seals and various interesting water birds. Today I booked myself on a Kiwi fishing trip, the main reason why I wanted to come back to this cute beach town.

Thank goodness I made a quick visit to the chemist to pick up some “Kaikoura Crackers,” the resident prescription for sea sickness. For a calm day, the sea was surprisingly rough. What a wise decision I made to choose only a two hour tour. I can’t tell you how many stories you hear of people just hugging the bucket the entire time on any given Kaikoura boat outing. Regardless of the sea conditions, the fishing was great fun. Our crew consisted of a Swiss girl, a French girl, two English girls, an American girl (myself), a British bait boy and a Kiwi captain. I don’t know what happened to our Captain Nick, but he looked like a true pirate as he had lost one of his legs and walked around with a prosthetic one. For the sake of a good story, in my mind at least, he lost it in a freak New Zealand shark attack. There are no lethal sharks in New Zealand.

I am happy to share that the Ameri-CAN in me caught the first fish of the day, thank you very much! The majority of the girls on board had never fished before, so I claimed my skills to living at the beach even though I am convinced that fishing is more luck than talent. I cannot remember what those pretty red fish are called, sea something, but according to Captain Nick, they were “lunch fish.” We all reeled in a nice collection of fish, and I know the nearby albatrosses were eyeing our prizes with sheer envy. We collected a handful of crayfish, the cousin of the lobster, from our crayfish pots and made our way back to the steady land.

Patrizia, my Swiss roommate and fishing buddy, and I decided to try our hand at cooking our fish, and used a recipe the captain had given us: a few fillets wrapped in aluminum foil with one capsicum (red pepper), onion, tomato, garlic clove, a little oil and freshly squeezed orange juice at 150 degrees Celsius (I have no idea what the Fahrenheit conversion is) for 20 minutes. I was shocked that it turned out so well! We feasted for lunch, and savored every hard earned bite.

Later that afternoon, we met back up with the crew at the boat owner’s house for a crayfish BBQ and endless amounts of wine. Let me emphasize that last part: endless amounts of wine. Empty glasses just didn’t seem to be an option. It was a great turn out, and a smashing good time with new friends and music, just how a proper summer cookout should be. I think the tour was called Koura Fishing Charters. Highly recommended.