While in Kaikoura, Go Fishing!

I really enjoy fishing, especially ocean fishing. This fact has led me to almost constantly pester Mom and Dad about going on a fishing charter since we stepped off of the cruise ship. Eventually they got info that a town a little less than two hours away from Christchurch, called Kaikoura, has really good fishing. I have been looking forward to the charter since I heard we were definitely doing it, and having just done it a few days ago, I can vouch it was not overhyped.

We arrived a few minutes early, and while I was waiting for everyone else to arrive, a boat pulled up on a trailer. It was not our boat, ours was much smaller, but this boat already had a group in it. One person, evidently with them, was not in the boat, and as soon as they stopped, she came running over. She had something with her, and even with a hundred years you might not guess what it was. She ran over waving around… A PARROT! It was a great performance, all of the people taking pictures with the parrot hanging off of them while on the boat. During this time we walked over to a smaller boat that was already in the water. We met our captain, Malcom, and talked for a bit about what we were going to do, and also a little about the parrot.

Unlike many other charters I’ve been on before, it was only a matter of minutes to reach the fishing spot, and once we arrived the rods were almost instantly in the water. Several birds had followed us over, including multiple albatross! At first, none of them were the species we had seen nesting at Dunedin, but as time went on, more and more birds arrived, several of which were Royal Albatross. The fishing itself was fun, but mostly just the same series of actions. Drop the line down, wait for a few abnormal twitches, then reel up 107 or so meters of fishing line. We were mostly fishing for Ocean Perch, but we caught two Blue Cod and a dog shark as well.

The reeling up was not the most exciting thing, but the bird watching was an excellent thing to do while reeling, and while waiting a few seconds for a bite. As we sat fishing, more and more showed up, and they got progressively more bold. Eventually, it got to the point where Malcom had to spray them with water to keep them away, or else they would dart for the fish as soon as they were able to be seen from the surface. Fights broke out between the birds fairly often, but the biggest ones occurred when Malcom threw a carcass into the water. It was absolutely crazy how much the birds screamed and fought over the fish.

Despite the birds’s best efforts, we came home with every fish we caught and wanted to keep, plus three crayfish, aka spiny lobsters. Malcom strongly recommended we go to a place called Coopers Catch to cook our fish, but we ended up with so much that we ate there twice, and still had two other meals with the fish! Yum! Yum! Yum!