Sunday, June 24, 2007

Kontiki - Hawke's Bay, May '07

Last May, as Hawke's Bay's Indian summer was drawing to a close, Kerry and his son Caleb took me fishing in Napier - first to the river mouth at Haumoana to catch bait and then to Westshore to launch the kontiki.

A kontiki uses the wind to tow a longline rigged with bait out to sea. The kontiki itself takes many forms - some are small floats or rafts, propelled by kite, sails or an air sac; some (as in Kerry's case) are as simple as a weighted rubbish bag!

At days end, there was quite a respectable haul - seven Kahawai, five Gurnard, Mackerel and Red Cod - plenty of good eating to be had.

Here's a selection of photos from the big day (or click here to be taken to the set at Flickr) - please bear in mind I'm no Annie Leibovitz...


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Want to learn a little more about kaimoana (seafood)? The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council website has a wealth of information - check these links:

- Shopping for Seafood
- Handling and Preparing Seafood
- Cooking Seafood
- Seasonal Availability (PDF file)

A big, many-tentacled back slap to Kerry and Caleb for putting up with me that day - thanks guys! Ta for the raspberry buns and spare batteries too...

6 comments:

Nigel Olsen said...

While I'm not the flashest photographer in the world, I'm not completely hopeless - the Flickr screen shaves off a chunk of the picture it shows, a feature particularly noticeable when you see the fish shots - bah...

Shaun said...

I'm sure even Annie Leibovitz has her days off. Your pics are really great. What a beautiful day it was. Try being artsy with a webcam (oh, the shame of it!). I've never had red cod - how would you prepare it?

Nigel Olsen said...

Red cod isn't really worth eating because it's often infested with sea lice, which is quite a shame as it's a fine looking fish.

Shaun said...

Nigel - Thanks for letting me know, mate. Now I'll be sure to pass it up should a "friend" offer it! :-p

Nigel Olsen said...

You could always repay said "friend" by thanking them in the form of some reciprocal gift, say, a vintage bottle of meths or a floor-dropped casserole... ;-)

Nigel Olsen said...

Actually, red cod isn't that bad - it's just that there's a raft of better tasting fish available.