SUNDAY MORNING FISHING

I am now in Wellington, where I hope to get into the routine of working remotely for a few hours every morning, then in the afternoons gather my baking apprentices and get lots of baking and recipe making done.

Yesterday my son took me out in his boat to do some fishing! Now, you and I know that I ‘don’t do well’ on the water but he had been watching the weather and his special ‘wind app’ and was excited to have discovered what is almost impossible in Wellington – a calm day. Perfect for shipping.

And it was incredibly calm. We started out really early. Getting up at 4am to be at the ramp by 4.30 and we were on the water setting up lines at 5 am.

We caught a few small sharks and elephant fish and threw them all back then after a few spots and with me at the helm of our little boat we trawled a line through a school after school of Kahawai.

I discovered that if I am skipper I don’t get seasick!

No one argued with that – I grew up literally on a beach beside the sea so I know the sea but have no ‘sea legs’ – manning the bridge was perfect for me.

We stopped to fish in a few more of my son’s favourite spots but the fish were not biting. Later when we motored back to the marina we discovered that many of the other fisherman also had no luck. ( We all blamed it on the previous nights earthquake.) We did catch a few kahawai to smoke that evening – just enough for a perfect feed with a salad of garden vegetables.

My goal was to go fishing with my fourth son and that goal was achieved! Of course my Fourth Sons goal was a bit different. But never mind.

I just loved it out there!

Above is a small shag in the water. He spent a good deal of his time floating about by the boat diving every now and then to check our lines. I am fairly sure this is the little New Zealand shag. See what you think. Tig told me that when you throw a fish back into the water the shags will often collect them and swallow them whole.

We weren’t catching much so the shag soon got bored and flew off to check out some other fisher people.

It stayed beautifully, eerily calm until lunchtime and as the wind picked up so did my sea sickness.

So after packing up the boat and stowing everything away on our little tidy deck – we came about and raced for shore!

A perfect morning in Wellington Harbour.

And now to work!

Love love

Celi