The Coromandel is the name of a peninsula a couple hours east of Auckland. It is a popular vacation spot with lots of coastline, beaches, mountains and nature. After leaving Paihia, we drove through Waipu where we stopped at a macadamia orchard to buy a few nuts before making our way to the coast. We stopped for lunch there, and enjoyed some coffee and baked goods while watching some surfers taking advantage of the waves.
We continued south past Auckland, and drove to the western shore of the Firth of Thames. This is the body of water that separates the Coromandel from the Auckland area. We freedom camped at Rays Rest overnight along with several other campers, right on the expansive beach shore. It is a good area to watch migrating birds and enjoy some wide open spaces next to the water. The beach was full of crushed shells, so it made lots of noise when we walked on it.
The next morning, we made our way around the bottom of the firth then up the winding west coast of The Coromandel, and through a mountain range. Our destination was Anglers Lodge in Amodeo Bay, which was pretty far north. It was a nice little resort that catered to fishermen. After arriving there, we decided to try our luck at fishing and booked a charter fishing excursion for the next morning. We went to explore the beach across the road at sunset before getting a good night rest.
Our guide, Dawson, was waiting for us with his boat on a trailer hooked up to a tractor in the campground the next morning. We jumped in and away we went to a launching site. They had to time things just right between swells and waves to get the boat in the water.
Then, we were off to one of the nearby islands where Dawson suspected we could get some fish. We were fishing for Red Snapper (the fish we had eaten in Russell a couple days prior). Sophie and I have no experience fishing in the ocean – and actually very little experience fishing in general. So, it was great to have a guide!
We used pretty normal fishing rods and reels, but they were bigger than what we had fished with before. The line was set with two jigs with large hooks, and a heavy sinker on the bottom. We used squid as bait, and allowed the line to sink to about 60 feet down just until the sinker hit the bottom. The hooks were about six and twenty-four inches above the sinker. As soon as the line had hit the bottom, we would get some nibbles. Not being used to the feel yet, we discovered the fish had already taken our bait. We got a little better at it after a few tries and were able to set the hooks. We quickly were reeling in snapper – sometimes two at a time. They needed to be at least 30 centimeters to keep, and most were just under – but every once in a while we had a keeper.
Soon the biting slowed down, so we moved to a different spot. We did this a few times. At one point, we found a bunch of birds on the water so we used some smaller poles with a half dozen hooks on them to catch mackerel to use as bait instead. We caught about twenty in no time – often getting multiple per cast. Sophie and I both had at least one “big” fish that got away. Mine actually ripped the hook off my line. And Sophie’s got off the hook half-way up when she momentarily stopped reeling because Dawson thought maybe she was snagged on the ground. He felt bad, so we turned the boat around and made another pass where we thought that fish was. Dawson ended up being the one to catch it, and I used the net to bring it in.
We ended the morning with seven fish in our cooler including the giant one. Dawson (thankfully) helped me fillet the fish. We cooked one fillet from the big guy for lunch and froze the rest. Our camper has an extra freezer in it, so we are good on fish for the rest of our meals! The campground had a nice outdoor kitchen and barbecue area, so we decided to cook the fillet on a griddle in coconut oil, along with slices of Kumara sweet potato – a New Zealand specialty. Delicious meal that fed us two more times afterwards!
In the afternoon, we took a little walk across a hill to the nearby sandy beach. It was a pretty beach, and only a few locals were relaxing there on a Saturday. We swam a little before returning to the campground to do some laundry and plan our next few days on the road.
We thoroughly enjoyed our fishing experience and our two nights at Anglers Lodge, what a beautiful area!
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