Fishy tale from Matarangi

Penny was at work Tues to Thurs an I did odd jobs until she came home. Sort of gardeny things because we had great weather at home in Auk until the end of the week when fog struck the low lying areas, particularly Southward to Hamilton. Perched up at a huge 90m above sea level we can see the fog coming in across the Manukau Harbour but not be in it. So on Fri morn it was great to be able to leave home and tootle down into the fog knowing that we'd soon be out of it. not quite. We had fog all the way to Thames town where it lay in the cold 8 degrees, brr. it did fine up as soon as we rode across the Coromandel range and temperatures rose to theEnglish Summer temp.

We had gorgeous weather on Fri Sat and Sunday. the sea was dead flat and as no surf for a change, the water was as clear as anything. The impetus for our trip was really so Pen could get into her "ocean swim" routine now she's determined to do the Rangototo crossing. As you can imagine despite never ending beers on the deck (while doing a spot of painting no less), we had the beach swim thing. So we took some photos to prove we got into the gear. Surprisingly the water was still quite warm on Friday, well of course it would be with wetsuits. I plodded along the beach alongside my mermaid the water was so clear we could see the pairs of crabs marching along underneath us. when we got washed in a bit penny had one of them rear up on its hind legs, sensing her above.

Saturday we went for our "icecream walk", an hour along the seafront to Kuaotunu beach shop for a gigantic ice cream. Took a few photos, Viz

As you can see there was no-one on the beaches, but 2 horses.

Unfortunately it was cloudy when we got back from our walk so we put off the swim for the day. Sunday I stocked up with a bit more carb for breakfast as i seemed to be cold for too long after Friday's swim. We swam down the beach where as usual my uneven stroke kept washing me into the surf line and then we swam back up the beach. unfortunately this time i kept going out to sea, so with Penny a tiny bob in the distance I had to keep taking stock and swam diagonally back. While plodding along I suddenly became aware of a very large black fin just under my left side! in a microsecond I realised it wasn't Pen and then the thing drew level with me. It was big! Now remember here we had had all sorts of sightings of sharks this summer, even to them being reported in the paper, and I knew that although they didn't come inshore, that I was way out of my place. What does one do? the beach was deserted anyway and in the whole of it's 3km there were only us two in the water. All I could do was to maintain my stroke and pretend to be nonchalant and powerful, but at the same time made a left turn directly for shore! Next it swam directly under me and another came around from circling to go under from the right. Then I was aware of something really big on my right but I don't breathe from my right and I wasn't about to break stroke to investigate. I felt this was definitely getting out of hand. there's something unnerving abot circling fish. I felt like the cowboys of the wild west with my correlled wagons while the indians circled.. As they swam under I could see that they were easily as large as me. At least there wasn't any whit patch! Checking on my direction to the shore I noticed Mr Left had a very rounded dorsal fin, but rough edged, as if it had been nibbled. I was sort of getting over my adrenaline rush thinking I should have been bitten if it was going to happen. This close examination of me carried on while I did some serious swimming. Mr Right gave a snort and I realised they were dolphins. The snort must have been his signal and they just went. Plodding on I was soon at waist depth and looked around for them but they were gone. Unfortunately my swimming goggles weren't clean so I can't say I got a good look at their details, anyway I would have needed glasses for anything other than knowing they were black and large. Pen says my eyes were as large as saucers when finally we met. Anyway I thought you'd like the fishy tale as young Katie was interested in marine Biology. See, over here you can have a lesson from the real thing right close to home! talking to the lone beach sitting family on our way back it seems they had been cruising all along the beach, even broaching.

On our rather damp (it was overcast and showery ) beachwalk on Monday we saw seabirds flying at sea level in a continuous stream of several km in length. as they went down the shore we saw the now familiar fins of a couple of dolphins well out to sea. Must have been feeding time. Then it was pack the Civic and back to Auk to see Earl Grey and Tabitha. As we'd been away Earl was absolutely sure he was going to be allowed to sleep in our bedroom that night. Had to get the broom no less to winkle him out from under the bed at midnight.

Bridge to Kuaotunu Store