Our 2nd WWOOF took us over to the west coast of the North Island. Only about a 2 hour drive, we took our time and found some lovely stops along the way. Since we've been in the "Bay of Islands” region, we thought it appropriate to head over to the actual Bay and have a look, stopping in Paihia for lunch. Probably it would be a better experience with a boat ride, but we passed on the tour and then headed out to the west coast and took a nice walk out to the peninsula overlooking the giant sand dunes at Opononi (missing an opportunity to try out sand dune surfing), and lastly stopped off to pay our respects to Tane Mahuta, the largest known living Kauri tree in all of New Zealand (an astounding 51 meters tall and 16 meters around the trunk, this tree is estimated to be nearly 2000 years old!). We made our way a bit further down the west coast to Baylys Beach, just outside Dargaville, the location of our second WWOOF.
The view at Opononi. We hope to surf the sand dunes next time!
Little did we know, today was actually going to be the best beach weather, and since we did arrive a little early, we headed straight for the beach. A bit cold and windy, we took shelter along the sand cliffs. We met our host, Trish, at the Funky Fish after grabbing a beer and some kumara wedges, and then headed back to her astounding villa. Built in the late 1800’s, she had the house moved to its current location by way of chainsawing it in half and driving it on 2 trucks. It was everything out of a story book, ¾ wraparound veranda with all the trim, classic interior decorating and colors, solid white exterior with a vineyard in the back and horse pasture on the side. It did, however, need some work since she was the only one tending to the property. The vineyard was a bit overrun, so we didn’t even attempt to clean it up. Our work hours were spent cleaning the outside of the house around the veranda and weeding the gardens. Trish was very accommodating and treated us as guests, not workers, and saw to it that we had plenty of relaxation time (perfect considering the fog and rain) and less work time.
Baylys Beach
Our lovely accommodation
The 2nd night there, we headed to the beach to try our hand at net fishing! 2 people with a 30m net wade into the water close together. We then string out the net and circle back to shore, creating a giant pool and hopefully trapping the fish as we get closer and closer to shore until we finally have them in the net. Easier said than done. The drag on the net is immense with each wave. Tiny jellyfish were all around, and sticking to the net. We strung out the net twice, but had no luck. A quick drive up the beach looking for a perfect spot (lots of plankton, fish jumping, even waves) was almost hopeless on a day like today. We tried once more anyway, but came away empty-handed. The last night here, however, we went out with one of her sons and tried again. He’s 6’5” and headed straight out to the water, a bit too deep for me to maintain traction. Before I knew it, I was swimming with the net, trying not to let go as waves crashed over my head. I had no idea how I was going to get this net back to shore, but just tried to utilize each wave to make some progress. Finally I caught my footing and began dragging the net inland. A strong wave overtook my feet and pulled me 20ft back out to shore, unable to drive my end stick of the net into the sand for leverage. Battled and bruised, 10 minutes later (normally takes about 3 minutes per try) we had the net on shore, with 1 fish!!!! A mullet. Hooray. I’d heard stories about nets being dragged in with 10-15 fish at a time, but we were so happy to finally have one! We cooked it up fresh that night and it was delicious.
Ready to head out for net fishing.
Finally caught one! And it was <---------THIS BIG----------->
Thanks so much to Trish for a wonderful stay! We’ll have to be back for more fishing and hiking when the weather is better.
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