Last night we had a lovely peaceful evening in Nagle Bay (a small Bay on the northern side soon after entering Port Abercrombie) at Great Barrier Island. The highlight was the fishing. Soon after Richard dropped the line in the water he caught a snapper large enough to feed the four of us dinner! He caught several other smaller ones but they were thrown back.
It was a very peaceful evening, with a mass of stars filling the sky (I had forgotten how many more we see in the Southern hemisphere) and just a crescent moon hanging like a ripe banana. Our snapper was magnificent - baked whole on the barbecue (wrapped in foil with slices of lemon and onion) with roasted potato slices and salad. Dessert was a perfect refresher - thinly sliced peaches and nectarines marinated in a light Italian muscat and served with vanilla ice cream. Of course we are trying a range of NZ wines while we are here.
We spent today relaxing on the boat after moving to a spot further in at Port FitzRoy (yes there is a capital letter in the middle of the word). This "town" is almost land-locked as it is tucked into the end of a narrow bay and with small islands surrounding the entrance from the larger bay. The ferry only comes once per week from Auckland, so the local store was getting low on some produce, but we could replenish the wine and beer stock on board. Although it's 40 km long and 15 km wide, only 800 people live on Great Barrier Island permanently, with thousands more arriving for the main summer holidays. Port FitzRoy also has a boat club, library, health centre, information centre and a fuel dock and a few houses scattered nearby amongst beautiful, giant tree ferns.
Fishing for dinner was not quite as successful tonight, but I managed to catch a snapper and eventually Richard caught a mate, so we had enough to grill the four fillets in a pan. There is nothing better than freshly caught fish! The evening was again clear and starry, with the water so still it was like a sheet of glass.
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