In November 2025 twelve wokkers went once again for Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman National Park to stay at Easton’s place. Along with themselves and various necessities (food, drinks, the trusty wok, sleeping bags and good humour etc). A couple of first timers came with us – Jason from Nelson and John A from Kaikoura. Three boats plus fishing gear. Forgotten from the list was zero alcohol beers. Non alcoholic Ginger Beer also featured but was all gone on the first day. It seems that as the members get older that alcohol is less favoured.
Fishing. Lots of snapper were caught – although it was harder to catch them on rods than on a set line. Nearly all wokkers caught a good fish. Jason suggested that all contribute $10 and the prize was to be for the biggest snapper. Jason just happened to win the competition with an eightrn pound brute but failed to collect the prize money. Most of the fish caught was snapper but several gurnard were caught along with a few of other species – a thresher shark, a barracouta, some sharks, crayfish and others. All the fish not eaten with meals was packed in vacuum sealed bags and deep frozen,
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| Glenn's tiddler |
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| Vacuum packing |
Food. Our sous chef George excelled himself with an assortment of wok deep fries and our chef had a new recipe assortment but the piece de resistance was the Christmas pudding with Santas, strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream. Other delicacies were scrolls for breakfast instead of bacon – cheese and mustard in bread roll wrapped in bacon. As an apology to the health conscious was green salad to accompany our fish and chips (both deep fried).
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| Santas all in rows |
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| Ready to eat, |
Weather. Last year’s trip featured both wind and rain. This year’s trip was a great improvement. Saturday and Sunday were clear and calm; Monday gave us some rain but didn’t stop the fishing. Tuesday was windy late in the morning and so the boats all headed back to Kaiteri earlier rather than continuing fishing. High tides were in the late morning or early afternoon and so breakfasts were leisurely and the start rather late.
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| At Falls River |
Other events. Lots of kaka came around on Saturday morning – they are amusing and rowdy. They flew past on the next day but did not visit us again. Wayne had an unplanned swim at Falls River but noone had their camera out to record the event. Tom needs to study Maths 101 to sort out the card numbers for Black Bitch
All in all a most enjoyable trip.
