Archive for March, 2009

Playing with Jet Kayaks!

Just taking a new Surfango Jet Kayak for a spin on Lake Hood in Ashburton, New Zealand. We’re trying to run in the motor so it’s not full steam yet but heaps of fun. This is running a 9.5hp 4stroke motor. We’re planning to take these up the rivers and gorges to chase salmon and trout!
That’s Ben in the vid – the motor”s running a lot better now we pulled out the ton of weed sucked into the unit!

Sarah & Dan – The Methven Winners



Sarah with Dan (the man) feeling very proud of themselves after cleaning up at the Methven A&P show. They won all these ribbons!

  • Reserve Champion Saddle Hack
  • Reserve Champion Novice Saddle Hack
  • First Open Saddle Hack
  • Second Novice Saddle Hack
  • Third Ladies Hack
  • and Third Best Paced Hack

Apparently Dan gets really excited when he’s in the ring waiting for a ribbon – he loves all the attention!

Julians Headshots

These are the headshots I had done today. We’re starting to need them for the ProWorkflow business. What do ya think people?

Mum and her little guy!

Just some nice photos of Sarah and Jack. I love my family! They’re groovers!

Jack at Airforce World!

On Wednesdays, Sarah takes her wee boy out on adventures. She does this each week and they go somewhere different each time. This trip was to the Airforce World in Wigram which is an Air Force museum. Jack was a star, they fussed over him, dressed him up and stuck him in planes.

They both tried the flight simulator and crashed it… but they had a great time! He’s a good lad and Sarah’s a great mum!

Ben and Julian at Motenau

On Monday Ben Viv and I decided to take a fishing day at Motenau. It’s true offshore Canterbury fishing, and has a tricky shallow bar you need to cross in only certain conditions within a tight timeframe either side of the low tide. Our boat sits about 60cm deep in the water and the whole way down the river and out the water was averaging 50-70cm – so man she was tight!

Over the bar’s waves and into the open ocean it was ver clear that the 2 metre swell was here to stay. It was confused sea, coming from two direction in a motion that made us pretty green.

Once over the bar, we are unable to come back for 4hrs til the tide is right, so we decided that we’d get out to the spot. I had marked the fishing spots on the GPS so we drove about 6kms up the coast and 3kms out and got within a few metres of the spot!

The fish were biting, but our lunch was coming up. We both spent about 3hrs vomiting over the side and attempting to fish in between chucks!

We both caught plenty of fish, but Ben caught the ‘keepers’ and also hooked into something huge that fought hard for 10 mins before breaking off. We think it was a huge shark!

As soon as the tide was right, we got ourselves together and got back in over the bar. Land sweet land!! I think I like Motenau – not a 1st choice spot but I would do it again… Just never again on a 2 metre confused sea!


Some shots above of the river going out to the bar. Very shallow and tricky but doable if careful.

Ben hooking into a massive fish! I wish we could have see what it was! We suspect he had either a shark or a Mack Truck.
The pictures don’t show it but Ben’s looking serious as we were getting into some decent waves ahead.
The Bar is by the rock. This is about 1/2 way to the spot we fished.
After crossing the bar, coming back up the river…