The title of this blog is a direct quote from our NZ cousins Alan and Jude who took us to a bach in the Marlborough Sounds for a few days fishing!
But before that the first of a multi picture blog shows what we saw as we left Wellington on board the ferry sailing to Picton. The map below shows our route and final destination, a delightful port town at the mouth of the Sounds and the gateway to South Island. The map will help to show how fabulous the journey was, tree covered hills rising up from the water within almost touching distance of the boat.
The bach, pictures follow, was set above the water completely surrounded by bush. The only way to access it was by boat and we had to take all the provisions that we would need with us as there is no shop anywhere near by! We also had to catch our own supper, in this case Blue Cod a delicious fish found in these waters but protected for future stocks. This meant that we could only keep those between 30-35cms. Any bigger or smaller had to be put back. Fogg was brilliant at fishing hence the comment from Alan. I was too but all my fish were too small or the wrong species (Terakihi). We caught our quota for the day - 8 and filleted them on the dock ready for supper. It was lucky that we had managed to catch this many as we were housebound by appalling weather for the next 2 days. It is a tradition in the Fleming family that the female guest at the bach cooks scones for the returning fisher'men'. I was able to find a cookery book and luckily had all the ingredients. As you can see from the photo my cooker was 'retro' but I have to say very effective and the resulting scones were hailed as the best ever!!!!
It was very choppy when we were fishing from the boat (hence no photos) but there was a small weather window for dock fishing. So here is Fogg, suitably attired and under the guidance of Alan, fishing for our tea!!!
Our first sighting of our bach as we walked up through the bush from the boat, magical!!!!
Here it is seen from the water, as with most of these properties nestled in the trees on a seemingly impossible near vertical hill. But that's the way they do it here and very successfully and beautifully too.
From the deck all we could see was the water and surrounding bush. Despite being marooned for 2 days we were very comfortable, reading, playing scrabble, snoozing and keeping the fire stoked with copious amounts of bush wood - mainly manuka.
On Thursday the weather changed and we were able to leave safely on the boat. This was good as we were nearly out of basics and had completely run out of wine!! Our farewell view of the dock as we said goodbye to this beautiful place and headed back to 'civilisation' in Picton.
By contrast, here is the view from our motel room. Quite a difference but still not bad and the weather was warm enough for us to eat breakfast on the deck this morning.
We have booked a car and tomorrow head off to explore more of this beautiful country. The chance for Fogg to take more beautiful photographs.
So until next time, farewell from us both
Phileas and Fogg
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