Winter Down Under

Before moving to Australia, we definitely were under the mis-impression that it was always hot and sunny here. 

Chris in action

Much to our dismay, it turns out that there is in fact a winter season, and it does actually get cold here (down into the 40s at night).

The colder nights have us huddled around a heater (almost no one has heat or insulation), but on a sunny day there are still plenty of activities to keep us busy.

Need a bigger eskie!

A few weekends ago Chris and James were out fishing in middle harbour and had the best fishing day of the year by far, catching 6 kingies in total, with 3 of them legal size (+65 cms).  

As you may remember from previous posts, these are one of the most exciting fish to catch as they put up a massive fight, and even more importantly, taste amazing. 

After cleaning the fish we had just shy of 2 kgs (4.4 lbs) of fish to eat, so we enlisted the help of some friends to make sure that none of it was wasted.

Since you can't just eat 2 kgs of fish in one way, we presented a trifect of fish with some sushi, fish tacos, and beer battered fish.  Amazingly there were almost no leftovers and everyone went home stuffed.

 Catching a kingie is still a dream of mine, so the boys brought Debs and I along the next weekend, but unfortunately the kingies knew I was out there, and I only managed to snag an Australian salmon.  Sounds great, but they are quite awful to eat so this guy got to live another day.

With the sun rising so late in the morning we've also been treated to some particularly spectacular sunrises as we are getting ready for work.

It's tough sometimes to get out the door on time when you can't tear yourself away from the show outside to get ready.

Every surfer will also tell you that the winter is the best time to catch a good wave with clean, offshore winds and smaller crowds.  While it's a bit chilly when you first get in, as long as you are paddling around a bit your wetsuit keeps you warm enough.

On one sunny afternoon I managed to catch Chris in action at Freshwater.  The waves were a bit sparse so after some quality time watching him do a great job of looking like a surfer sitting on his board in the line up, he caught a few great waves.

While the wave may not look massive, this is proof that he does now actually surf across the wave instead of just straight down which is a major improvement from how he was when we arrived in Australia. 

So while we might pine for warmer weather and dream of how glorious summer is here, winter still has a lot of fun things to keep us busy.