Whitebaiters - Eric & Robynne

Clearly today was 'another time'. . . .

I woke sometime in the early hours (when it was still dark) to the sound of rain so hard it sounded as though it might pierce the van roof. Managed to fall back to sleep and woke sometime later with the sun shining brightly. You get that on the Coast in springtime I guess.

As I readied myself for the day I realised I had no idea at all what the time was - a sign I'm in true holiday mode :) I had thought I'd meander my way back down to Westport, through to Punakaiki then call up friends who live just south of Greymouth to see if they were home and hopefully drop in for a cuppa. As I was thinking this I noticed a couple of whitebaiters returning across the park. I figured they must have caught their quota for the day and were heading home for breakfast (although later on I was to find out from another whitebaiter that these are the only fish in NZ that are not subject to a quota - interesting). As they passed I realised I'd missed a great blip-op. No sooner had I had that thought though than I saw these 2 heading home too and made a bee-line for the camera. Fortunately they were very open to being photographed. When Eric (as I later found out he was called) asked if they could have a copy of the pic I was only too happy to download a copy onto his pen drive for them.

I talked with Eric and Robynne a while and found they too were from Nelson. Small world. They come to Mokihinui each year to whitebait. This year they'd been staying in their mobile home since early September and would probably stay until mid October. They talked about the area like passionate and knowledgeable locals so when they recommended Karamea ("it's only 50ks up the road") I decided I would head out there to do a little exploring afterall.

And here I am now, at the DoC site at the entrance to the Heaphy Track. It's wild, it's windy and it's beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I've decided to stay here tonight and head back to Mokihinui very early tomorrow morning hopefully to catch some shots of Eric, Robynne and a host of others who'll be out to catch another good feed of whitebait.

Best start getting ready for bed - I still have no idea what the time is but it is just about dark now.

G'night.