Sunday, 4 October 2020

IN A STINGRAYS GARDEN, IN THE SHADE ....

 I guess Robert will find this post boring like he did with the FISHING GONE POST.



Robert. like many christians consumed with an incomprehensible guilt, prefers to sit inside a church mumbling thank yous to a mythical creator rather than getting out and enjoying life's treasures.


Oh, wrell, that's his misfortune I guess.


Today is beautiful. With a high tide, still water, blue skies, sunshine and no wind I decided to go kayaking.

It's been a few months since I took the kayak out so I made the most of it, giving myself a good work-out.

I feel a bit exhausted now but it was worth it. I went across to the other side of the bay - sometimes in fast spurts and at others in a slow and leisurely fashion marvelling at the birdlife*, the scenery and the interesting sea creatures that I disturbed on the way.

I was out for nearly two hours and now that I'm back home it is still sunny and windless outside.

I might consider a game of golf later in the afternoon.

 The most interesting sea creatures I saw today were the stingray. I must have stumbled on stingray city over by the sandbank because there were dozens of them. These beautiful creatures are really interesting to see close up. The water was crystal clear and the bottom was very visible. It reminded me of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. In some of the really shallow parts I glided over some 'sunbathing' stingray which were only a couple of feet away. While beautiful they still can be a bit scary. I had visions of them leaping up and stabbing me with their barbs like what happened to the Crocodile Hunter guy. Crikey!

When they take off they 'fly' like stealth bombers and move remarkably fast.


With there being so many I was expecting to see orca or dolphins as they hunt stingray. I stayed around for a while but no luck. Of course Murphy's Law dictates that while I'm inside writing this there will be pods of them out there. 


Got to go and make lunch.


* I didn't see any Holy Seagulls

5 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

Your title needs a possessive apostrophe. I bought a $40 bottle of Church Road Hawkw's Bay Grand Reserve Chardy. Is it supposed to have little bubbles in it?

Richard (of RBB) said...

I had a chardy at Urban Winery last night. You won't believe this but they didn't have any cleanskins. I should have complained.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Well done on buying the Church Road Hawke's (not Hawkw's) Bay Grand Reserve Chardonnay (not Chardy). This is one of my favourites although I don't pay $40 for it. I wait until it's on special at Countdown coupled with their regular 20% off wine sale and the price can come down to about $25. I then buy at least half a dozen.

Going by the spelling mistakes I guess that you couldn't wait and guzzled it straight out of the bottle. This could explain the little bubbles.

As the Urban Winery has a winemaking facility there the 'house wine' might come straight out of a barrel or a tank and therefore would not have a label. I bet that you didn't ask.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Robert, you truly would have loved it. The beauty of 'our' bay is that while there are some deep channels to allow some fairly big boats in, a lot of it is shallow with sand banks, oyster rocks, mussel beds and, generally the water is pristine clean and clear. The shelter provided by the surrounding hills and the shallowness makes it a safe place for swimming, kayaking, windsurfing and yachting. I would have loved to have been brought up here as a kid.

There's a general holiday feeling with the residents up here and most (except for ex school teachers) don't think that apostrophes are important.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

I just heard that both dolphin and orca are in the bay and surrounding bays today..

Maybe they read this blog post.