Whitebait on the Menu?

We have seen loads of signs advertising whitebait down the coast from about Westport onwards, but many of them have been in rural areas, and on much cruder signs than this, with rough wooden blocks and using white paint. Whitebait is a speciality in this area of New Zealand.

In my naivety I had imagined that whitebait was one type of fish, but apparently this is not so. There are five different kinds along the coast here and the most commonly fished is the inanaga. The fishes do what salmon do and swim upstream in summer and back towards the sea in autumn. The females lay their eggs in the lower parts of the rivers and when the spring tides bring salt water into the river mouths, the small inanga return to the sea.

Jean

Bond in Wanaka

We saw the latest Bond film - Quantum of Solace - at the cinema next to our motel last night. Big multi-screen cinema? No, this little hut with a maximum audience of about one hundred, was the venue. The interior was amazing, kitted out with old sofas and armchairs. There was even half a sports car being used as seating! The cinema is run by the people who own the adjoining café and clients can buy drinks of any sort to imbibe whilst watching. There was also an interval for re-stocking too! How on earth can they afford to be showing the latest films?

Jean

Motels and bikers

Motel in Wanaka on Saturday was fine until six or seven motor bikers clocked in around 5.0 pm. Reasonable enough crowd but bikes all over the place and they socialised outside the units until midnight, way past my bedtime of course.

More row when they left on Sunday morning amid various revving ups and downs. Later when I went to pick up a hire bike for a couple of hours riding by the lake they were still in town having breakfast ! V. Meldrew

By contrast, here in Queenstown, we have struck lucky at the Turner Heights motel (red building , left) which overlooks the town and the lake and is the most spacious accommodation we have had by far. Great views from our lounge window and we are here for three nights. Milford Sound booked up for Tuesday. By the way, delighted to see Queenstown has a casino, though it closes at 4.0 a.m. Dave