Fish, eventually.
Salty Sea Dog reporting.
Kate received a telescopic fishing rod for Christmas and to christen it we chartered a boat for the day for guaranteed results? A guarantee was what was required after Kate catching nowt around Australia. We motored 10kms offshore got the bait on and within minutes a snapper was over the side followed by 16 Kawai, good smoked but not cooked. We kept a couple and put the rest back. More than once they caught two at a time, brisk work getting them off the hooks and returned.
To change fish we moved nearer to shore for some Terayki and they didn't disappoint. Some 12-15 later we hauled anchor after the cool box was full with 20 odd x 2kgs a piece. Naturally a major fish gutting ensued at home followed by fish & everything for days. For the afternoon we went up onto Matakana island for some water sports. Jack & Kate were first out on the biscuit behind the boat hanging on for their lives. Mine host wasn't obviously concerned about bad press of the type,”Fishing charter operator has licence suspended after breaking children's bones”.(and wills)
When it came to my turn he decided that an old hand like me could take the 6g's trip. My god he was keen to meet the copy deadline at the press. After tearing all muscles I slipped under to the cheers from J&K safely onboard. After 10mins recovery I was back out on a mono-ski, bad mistake. Once my pride had been dragged around the bay enough I was winched on board like a wet rag. Another 10hrs sleep followed.
We kept up this “fitness” regime with a few hikes to the stage that my wasted muscles eventually wouldn't get me into the espresso bar without the bath chair.

Sand Boarding at Hokiango

We took a drive one day to catch a boat across a bay to a huge sand spit that was probably 50m high, all sand. Jump off at the other side and grab a boogie board, up the dune and come belting down but making sure you stop before the sea. Jenni used a new braking technique first(and last) run, she braked using her nose and lips, very ineffective. The rest of us stuck to traditional sledging methods sticking in you toes before entry into the sea. Kate failed on one run and in she went. Another exhausting expedition runing up sand dunes.

Gary

Not for the faint hearted, poles and paintball.
The children had requested (Nz'rs & Scots) a trip to a pole climbing centre to see how long their respective parents lasted before buckling under fear of heights.
The site consisted of 10-15m high poles joined up with wires, bridges and other tall apparatus. All with one thing in common, to test how far you felt like going. Going home didn't seem a bad idea at all at his point however, as we had paid we had to stay. Angus was raring to go so up he went and monkeyed along the wires at 10m. The chiels all romped through and graduated onto the shaky chain bridge with no hand holds at 10-12m. Quite the test, Jack fared best skipping over Billy Goat Gruff's death trap bridge while Jen had to be airlifted off.
The best news I heard all morning was that we had run out of time and couldn't graduate to climbing the 10m pole and jumping off to the trapeze bar. It would have been a humiliation for the family having their father weeping at the top and be taken off by one rifle shot.
The next challenge was the paint-ball firing range to vent all disagreements leftover from Christmas. How the children were looking forward to legally damaging the parents without a beating to follow. We teamed up with three others making ten in all and went into battle to capture the flag and retain it. The junior officers felt that an example should be set by a more senior member of the red beret command who would be backed by their massive fire power. Fine in principal until my own brother shot me at close range in the back, sinbin for him. After Jen and I doing our commando rolls and “Dirty Harry” manoeuvres we won the day.
Fish suppers all round and off to bed.
Gary(bruised, physically and mentally)

pics Kate on bridge and Darth Vader(Jack or Angus)

Waitomo caving & abseiling

Caving & abseiling Waitomo caves December 06
Jack here, today we went caving that was great fun. Granny and Grandpa sent us $$ for Christmas
which we decided to use at Waitomo. Our first trip in the morning was black water rafting and we rafted on inner tubes through a cave system that was full of glow-worms and even an eel. In the middle of the caves we had a hot drink and some chocolate to warm up before going into the water again. We tubed in the dark and you couldn't see a thing, it was pitch dark unless, we were under the glow-worms which did light up the tunnel. We changed out of the wet suits had lunch and then went for our second trip to St Benedict's caverns. First of all we had to abseil on our own down a crack in the rock which was 60m into a tunnel. The crack was really tight in places and Dad just made it. We then had to walk over a 3-4m log as the tunnel bottom had collapsed. On the way through the cave system we saw loads of stalagmites and stalagtites. The exciting bit was in St Benedict's which is a huge cavern only discovered 20yrs ago. To protect the cavern we had to go on a flying fox for 80-100m to keep us off the ground. Dad had to go first and the scary bit was we had to do it in the pitch dark. It was fun though. We walked on a bit until we came to a big stalagmite that was thousands of years old! We walked up some stairs and into an air lock that was cylinder shaped and we all squeezed in and shut the door. We opened the other door to find out we're outside. It was actually an air lock because the air would dry it out the stalagmites and stalagtites. We walked up the hill and into the van. I really enjoyed it. It was great fun!
Gary. We had a long day as we were up at 6am and didn't get home until 9pm. A good 10hrs kip that night. Another good NZ experience, thanks Mum and Dad. Oh, if you saw Billy Connoly in NZ he too did the flying fox through St Benedicts. An interesting 20secs in absolute darkness.