A Sunset Diary

Over the past few days here at Fantail Bay the evenings have been quite spectacular. So here is a visual diary of them….

Saturday 21 February

Sunday 22 February

Tuesday 24 February

Wednesday 25 February

Thursday 26 February

Saturday 28 February

Sunday 1 March

Monday 2 March

and I will add some more when they arrive!

I am going to have a bit of a woohoo moment so just allow me my moment please. I am so stoked at the positive comments as campers leave the campsite. They are all happy and say that it is a lovely campsite with a great manager and the whole tone of the place is great and friendly and it look clean and tidy and very park-like. So it appears that I am doing a good job and tourists and locals alike are leaving with great memories of Fantail Bay 2015.

I have had a large number of foreign tourists, not all young Germans or French on their gap year, but some older ones as well including a lovely couple from Sweden who managed to arrive just in time to participate in a morning tea of smoked snapper that had been caught that morning by a lovely Polish camper who had caught his limit and was handing then out around the camp. So I offered to smoke some fillets. We were joined by a pair of Australians and had some lovely lightly fried fish bites delivered as well. So they all had a lovely nibble on really fresh fish.

Then as evening fell we managed to see a possum on the edge of the campsite and they took lots of photos of the “cute, cuddly thing”. Until they saw the claws….

Then in the morning as a tent was coming down a weta was found on the side of the tent and more photos were taken.

The the kereru started performing so they had that as well. So huge smiles all round as they left for Auckland and started their journey home back to Sweden and the cold climate there.

I also have a young German couple who are travelling alongside a motorhome couple and we have some great fun teasing him about the fishing and lack of crayfish when he goes diving and last night he was out on the point trying to catch a fish that was “This big”…..

but it wasn’t to be yet again, but the fishing calendar had February and early March as not too good for catching fish but improving over the next week or so.

BUT I have to say that my effort the other day was quite spectacular. I was drifting across the bay just south of Fantail Bay and was having very little in the way of bites and suddenly the rod was bent over and it was all on for young and old! I had a sea anchor out and two rods in the water so it was a bit of a handful getting the sea anchor in and then the second rod while trying to keep what ever was on the line from tearing away and hiding in the rocks. So after a number of reel in til almost visible then huge run again I managed to get it to the surface. A huge trevally that eventually measured in at 68cm. It took around 15 mins to get him on board and I am still buzzing. A great tussle and the larges fish I have ever caught.

So half of it was smoked for “Happy Hour” that afternoon and then a half of the remaining fillet was turned into Thai green curry for my dinner and the last half fillet is in the freezer.

An interesting aside and a little tale of helping ones fellow man. One of the campers here John is a regular here and we were chatting away and I noticed his Quarter Acre Pot so I asked him how it was. He said that he was thoroughly enjoying it and that it worked well, until the pot split! “Huh?” and he pulled out the pot and sure enough the actual sides of the pot had split.

I could not believe it but yes the pot had split around half of the circumference. It really did look like stress from the manufacturing process. Anyway John said that he had tried ringing the numbers but the message had said “emergencies only” and he was hesitant to call this an emergency. So I asked him if he would like me to try to contact them via email and try to sort something out for him. So with his permission,  I emailed them and explained the situation. Within an hour I had a response apologising for the fault, it was known to them and was a faulty batch of steel at the manufacturing end of things. What was his address and we will send out a replacement. Now that is certainly the way to treat customers who have faulty goods. Didn’t even want to see the photos or ask for the pot to be returned, just “Our fault, where do we send the replacement!”

Well done Quarter Acre Pots!

So campers come and go, sometimes a night sometimes more but its a great flow of people and I am thoroughly enjoying it. A little bit of lawn mowing each day keeping the place looking good and as a camper leaves, I will mow their patch ready for the next. Very stressful lifestyle!

Safe travels everyone!