Caught Red-Handed in New Zealand! Sea Kayaking in the Marlborough Sounds
It's a pirate's life! While sea kayaking in New Zealand's stunning Marlborough Sounds region, Adam visited an open-ocean mussel farm. He took his chance and snagged New Zealand's prized greenshell mussel - but with Harbour Patrol hot on his tail, would he make his escape?
The Marlborough Sounds is New Zealand's top sea kayaking destination, and a local favourite for its world-class fishing. Stingray isn't on the menu this week but red snapper is! Adam's treated to the freshest seafood he's ever eaten and witnesses a rare super-moon. Maybe there is such a thing as a perfect travel day?
Support the show and access the Lost & Found section, as Alun takes a trip down memory lane. Alun and his family took off on a road trip to visit the home he grew up in. It's nostalgic and wholesome!
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
02:10 - Where is Marlborough Sounds?
03:40 - French Pass and the nosey neighbours
06:00 - Stingrays walking on land
09:39 - Red snapper sashimi
14:24 - Super rare super moon
17:37 - Sea kayaking and snagging the prized greenshell mussel
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TRANSCRIPT:
Alun:
[0:01] Hello, and welcome to this episode of Tripology, the only backpacking podcast Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:07] where the hosts are so obsessed with travelling they can scarcely sit still. I'm Alun, and I'm here with my best friend, one of the greatest travellers of all time, the ever-muscular Adam.
Adam:
[0:18] Alun, I'm so pumped for this episode, mate. I can't wait to tell you we've got an amazing show for you guys. Thanks ever so much for joining us for another fantastic week. I went sea kayaking in the Marlborough Sounds. Loads of things happen. Can't wait to tell you about it. And then, of course, stay tuned at the end for the Lost and Found section. We're going to tell you a couple of stories that we haven't thought of yet.
Alun:
[0:36] Amazing. More travel stories from you in New Zealand. Of course, the last episode we did about you traveling on the Rootburn track got so successful, went so viral on Spotify, they entered into the UK Top 100 podcast list and really emboldened galvanized our relationship with swedish company spotify who now adore us so much that we're in the partnership program so thank you to spotify and thank you to you adam for traveling around new zealand and coming up with such wonderful anecdotes that's.
Adam:
[1:06] Quite all right if you want any tips guys when you're titling episodes just front load the keywords like root burn it's a really it's a highly searchable term root burn and we're glad that it did it so Well, I believe it got into the top 80, mate, that episode, and it was absolutely not because Spotify owed us an apology.
Alun:
[1:23] Top 80 UK podcasts. I mean, we are a podcast, undeniably from the UK, so I felt like that list was a good home for us. I can't help but notice now when we're recording, we're both sort of recording in a nighttime setting because you are in New Zealand, of course. It is nighttime when we're recording. I'm
in the UK where it's so early in the morning that the sun has yet to rise. So both opposite ends of the world, both at night. And I want to hear about Marlborough Sounds. Tell me all about it.
Adam:
[1:57] Yeah, I mean, you'd be forgiven. Maybe we can branch out, mate, into doing a bit of shadow puppeting. We can become a travel and shadow puppeting podcast. If I sit closer to the wall, people watching the video podcast, maybe that will be less disturbing. But Marlborough Sounds, mate, do you know where it is?
Alun:
[2:11] I imagine, off the top of my head, I think it's probably Australasian. I think if I can narrow my search a little bit more, I'd exclude Australia. and I'd say it's probably somewhere a little bit south of that. Maybe New Zealand sort of area. South Island. Am I getting closer?
Adam:
[2:27] You are absolutely right, mate. It's the very northern tip of the South Island. It's an amazing region. Think of like sprawling landmass, mountains and hills dropping down into the ocean. Loads of little inlets and bays and coves and that sort of stuff, which makes for unbelievable kayaking. So it's not something I've done a lot of, I'll be honest. But my partner and I, we went all the way up to the very northern tip to a place called French Pass. And we stayed there overnight and camped on the beach. Now, something I've always wanted to do, camping on the beach, and we went to this lovely, lovely little campsite, which is quite funny remembering it, actually, because it was the most packed campsite I've ever been to. I mean, it was way too small for the number of vehicles that were in there. I think from memory, it's got 18 spaces. So you drive all the way up north through these gravel roads. I mean, you know what I'm like with cars as well. I absolutely hate.
Alun:
[3:26] Intolerable.
Adam:
[3:28] What's intolerable? The road or me driving the car.
Alun:
[3:31] I know how you are with cars. And that was my answer.
Adam:
[3:36] I'll blame that and the fact you've just woken up. But, no, it was amazing getting to the campsite. We got there nice and early. And because we got there so early, there was no one else around sort of on our, what do you call it, a site, I suppose. So we backed the van right up along the beach. And it was just, it was going perfectly well. It was going absolutely perfectly. We had the rest of the day with this bay, mountains surrounding us. The sun was coming over. It was just so picturesque. It was perfect. and then cut to about an hour later this family even though they had i don't know another 12 15 sites to choose from they came and whacked their van and then their car and then their boat right next to our our little minivan our little fergie and i i don't know if i'll ever grow out of this, Still, I've still got this little niggling voice in my head that goes, why the fuck did you have to park next to us?
Alun:
[4:36] Yeah, and you have an issue, I think, keeping that voice internal. And I imagine that a little bit of it, even if you didn't say anything to the family, some of it leaked out either with a look or a sort of, you maybe like jabbed a pen into your own leg or something.
Adam:
[4:55] You're not too far wrong. So there we were, parked up against the beach. I saw the cars coming in. My partner looked at me and went, oh, that's a bit annoying, isn't it? That's a bit of a shame because they had so many vehicles and a boat. And he had parked his car right up against the front of ours, much closer than you would have done, than would be socially acceptable. And then they started pitching a tent right next to our van. I mean, I saw them pacing it out as if that was going to make a difference. But they just took three long steps, which I imagine is equal to about three yards. Maybe there's some sort of camping rule in New Zealand. and then they put up this big sort of four to six berth tent right next to our um our camper van and i walked over walked over and spoke to the bloke and he was super nice he went oh don't worry mate the van won't be staying there i don't he's not from east london um don't worry me uh you know we'll move the van and that sort of stuff give you a bit of space back so i thought that's all right oh you know we're in we're an absolute you know dreamland here it's such amazing scenery so we decided to spend a couple of hours on the beach and um i actually sent you a picture didn't i you know we did that stingray episode a couple of weeks ago yes slightly different flavor slightly different flavor i sent you a photo of a stingray from the shore didn't i oh.
Alun:
[6:08] Yeah that little picture of a stingray that you sent me cute little thing it was.
Adam:
[6:12] You don't remember it you don't remember, It was a little picture of a pig stingray, because this area, the Marlborough Sounds region, is known for lots of stingrays, especially up in French Pass and Alain Bay. We knew that there were going to be some in Alain Bay, which is where we were going in the second half of the episode, but we didn't realise there'd be some in French Pass. So we went down to the beach. We started seeing these stingrays ridiculously close to the shore. So shallow was the water that you could see their wings coming out of the water, because there just wasn't enough coverage for them.
Alun:
[6:46] Oh, no.
Adam:
[6:47] So that gives you one idea.
Alun:
[6:48] Yeah, it must have looked, with the tip of the wing breaching the water, it must have looked like very many tiny sharks sort of all swimming in close succession to each other. Now, did you panic?
Adam:
[7:00] Did I? I didn't panic, no. I didn't go in the water, I'll be honest with you. But they were almost on land. A few of them beached and then had to wait for a wave to drag them back in.
Alun:
[7:11] I'm surprised they didn't evolve and grow legs.
Adam:
[7:14] When the time that we were watching them. This place is mental. But yeah, anyway, we were looking a little bit further down the beach and we saw two little kids. I don't know, they're probably like eight and six, something like that, just launching rocks at these stingrays.
Alun:
[7:31] Oh.
Adam:
[7:32] That were just like a meter or two away from them. And we couldn't believe it. We thought, these fucking kids are those? That's awful. There was a couple of families knocking about on the beach and then the campsite, as I said, backs onto the beach. So a couple of families up top when having a barbecue or whatever. I thought, this is absolutely unbelievable. And we're throwing lots of, you know, clumps of sand at the stingrays and more rocks and stuff. And my partner and I were like, this is a serious job. No one going to stop these kids. And then a woman walked over and had a word with who I later found out was the dad. and um and then i ended up having a chat with the kids stopped obviously they'd run off they got bored they wouldn't cause some other havoc havoc and then uh the dad was pulling a boat back onto the beach slightly later on and he just looked at me and he sort of got chatting and that sort of stuff and i said oh you come here a lot yeah we come here every year bring the kids and that sort of stuff he's all the stingrays in the stingrays yeah you can even feed them if you want you can feed the stingrays here you go he gave me a big fish carcass that he just filleted and said go on go down there and you can you know they're tame and everything you my partner came along and she fed one as well and he said uh yeah they're harmless i mean i wouldn't get too close to them do you know what it's funny actually my my kids they were throwing rocks at the stingrays earlier and i was like okay yeah oh were they oh that's what do you want a rock mate.
Alun:
[8:48] Here's a rock now you've fed it why don't you twat it in the face with.
Adam:
[8:51] This rock i said uh i said oh i think yeah we did we didn't see yeah absolutely he said yeah a woman woman came up to me and said um your kids shouldn't be doing that, throwing rocks at the stingrays. I said, well, yeah, it's better than them spearing it, isn't it, and killing a thing.
Alun:
[9:07] It's better than them doing a la Steve Irwin Revenge and pulling the stingers off.
Adam:
[9:14] Yeah, I mean, it is. The only answer I had to, I didn't really know what to say, but I said, I suppose, yeah, throwing a rock at a stingray is better than them killing it. I suppose you've got a point there. I mean, it is technically, but it was such a strange thing for him to kind of admit, So I went over and, you know, a bit of gossip to the partner and that sort of stuff. And then just as we were finishing up dinner that night, our next door neighbours came over and they said, look, guys, it's our first night here. We weren't supposed to catch anything today, but we just took the boat out for a little rip and we've caught loads of snapper. So if you want, you can just have, you know, take a couple of fillets just on us. You know, we'd love to share it with you.
Alun:
[10:00] And you thought, I know a stingray that appreciates fish for dinner.
Adam:
[10:04] I was thinking, I'm so glad you parked so close to us. You know, when you were parking, I was thinking, yeah, you should get a little bit closer because you seem like such nice people. Obviously, I regretted all the negative thoughts I had had previously. Now that they're sharing our food with us. What's the freshest fish you've had? Is it in the Philippines?
Alun:
[10:20] I, like Gollum, have caught a fish out of a stream as it was going past and just taken a bite out of it because I was possessed at the time by a very special piece of jewellery.
Adam:
[10:31] Have you really done that?
Alun:
[10:32] I don't know. It's just a joke.
Adam:
[10:34] Have you done something close to that, though?
Alun:
[10:37] The freshest... I mean, I've had a situation where someone's caught a fish, whacked it straight on a fire, and I've eaten it.
Adam:
[10:44] Yeah, I mean... in malaysia doesn't really get much fresher than that does it but it was so amazing they'd already filleted this fish they were sitting on the picnic table next to us sun was setting over the sea behind us beautiful like mountains and it was it was just absolutely spot on they said go on have a couple of fillets save some for tomorrow i said how can you eat them they said well you can eat it raw if you want you should have sashimi so i was like oh my god i think it's just swimming around an hour before straight onto my plate and now it's been filleted and everything so my partner and i I just sat there, watched the sunset and had, you know, the freshest sashimi to my knowledge that I've ever had. It was so pure. It was so delicate. It melted in my mouth. It was beautiful, mate. It was absolutely stunning.
Alun:
[11:24] Yeah. I'm glad that you had the experience with the sashimi, with the fillets, with the snapper. But what I will say, it sounds like basically a fish massacring holiday, this campsite. Basically, from the moment you arrived, people started killing fish. Let me put the camera. They threw rocks at the stingray. another guy got a fish carcass which he fed to the stingray and then another family same family same family what the rock and the the fillet yes they were related and then the family that parked too close to you yeah they've also got fish so why um is it known for that is it known for fish death this campsite yeah.
Adam:
[11:59] Yeah fishing we call it in the fishing community but um it's just just nature of the area there's fantastic blue cod i was told there's um.
Alun:
[12:07] That's just a cod that some children have taken up above the water until they've gone blue from the lack of oxygen.
Adam:
[12:15] I was told, actually, there is a ban, there's a fishing ban on at the moment for blue cod in that region. But the guy who had the fish carcass and the kids that were throwing rocks at the stingrays, he went, you know, if you do want to come out and catch some blue cod with me, we just go 1.4 kilometres around the corner. And that's where the ban ends. So, you know, we can just go fishing around there. I thought, I don't think the cod know that, though, do they? It'd be handy if the cod knew that and they could just come into the zone where there's no fishing and they'll all be better for it.
Alun:
[12:42] I'm not much of a fisherman myself, Adam. Are you? i don't have the patience for it.
Adam:
[12:45] So little story happened to me i think i was about 11 or 12 my stepdad's big fisher uh a fisherman loves it he's a member of a couple of clubs goes to lakes all the time always has done um and he took me fishing once and once only and i remember i caught a fish and because i immediately got too scared that i had this thing flapping around on the on the line he was a little bit he was sitting a little bit further around the lake so i took i took the fish out of the water showed him it from a distance told him you know like a wimp that i didn't want to take it off the hook uh and he said we'll bring it around here then as i started walking around i put the rod right up in the air the fish got caught in a tree and the line wrapped around a branch and unfortunately we just had to watch the fish it was just hung and it just died in the tree we had to cut the line we couldn't even untangle it or anything it's.
Alun:
[13:40] Quite a good way to distance you yourself you know.
Adam:
[13:43] Rather than.
Alun:
[13:44] Taking a priest and bashing on the head just string it up in a tree and watch i mean it's good emotionally distancing yourself from the concept of the fish.
Adam:
[13:52] I know i mean it was it was awful especially being that young i immediately felt the guilt you know it was, It was my fault. It was my fault. And we had to just witness it die. It was very traumatic. So no, not much of a fisherman. Don't really know anything about it. Would like to try it, I think, especially in this region. But the other thing that happened, just to finish this day off, and then we can go into the second section, it was absolutely mind-blowing. The sun had set. We were just about to go and brush our teeth. We were getting ready, you know, wearing our comfortable clothes and that sort of stuff. It was dark. And then we saw on the horizon the biggest moon I have ever seen in my entire life. We found out after the fact that it was a super blood moon.
Alun:
[14:36] Oh, yeah.
Adam:
[14:37] But just to give you an idea of how big this thing was in comparison to the rest of the scenery.
Alun:
[14:42] I hate to say it. It was exactly the same size as all the other moons that you've ever seen.
Adam:
[14:48] I don't mean to.
Alun:
[14:49] Take the wind out of your sails but it was identical.
Adam:
[14:52] Seeing is believing and if this moon was the same size then i must have been thousands of kilometers closer to it because it was absolutely enormous it was it was as if someone was raising a dinner plate you know behind the horizon and it was slowly coming up it was so orange so red so enormous that i i was like looking at other people in the campsite going, are you looking at...
Alun:
[15:17] It was the same guy whose kids threw rocks at the stingrays holding up. Mate, have you seen my fucking dinner plan? My kids just ate a stingray off of me.
Adam:
[15:27] Yeah. Kids trying to chuck rocks at the moon, trying to knock it out or whatever.
Alun:
[15:31] Could you get out of the way? Because there's a super putman behind you and I'm just looking at your crockery.
Adam:
[15:38] But mate, it was magical. It was absolutely magical. And it came up so fast. and it was it was just it was one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen in my own eyes mate it really was it was just it was the perfect end to a perfect day.
Alun:
[15:49] Super blood moon stingray stonings snapper sashimi all those things in adam's new zealand adventure i'm proud of you for confronting those kids about those stingray stonings because i think it was wrong for them to do that and a little bit wrong for you to tell it here on the podcast want to hear about the rest of your story uh but first this message, Have you ever listened to Tripology and thought, my goodness, I want to hear slightly more besides what these guys have to say? If so, go head over to Patreon. There's a link in the description. You can hear two bonus things. One's called Alun's Antiquated Adventures. It's stories of me reading from a travel diary, all tales from my past lives travelling. Or you can tune in to An Evening with Adam.
Adam:
[16:35] An Evening with Adam, of course. it's basically 15 to 20 minutes of me reading news bulletins, travel news, and getting drunk at the same time. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, sign up for the Lost and Found section and the Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash Tripology Podcast.
Alun:
[16:50] Or just click the link in the description if you don't want to go to your web browser and type all those things in by hand. Bye! Right back into the conscious world. And Adam, I can't wait to hear about the second little bit of anecdote that you have prepared for us like a snapper on a barbecue tell me what happened next it's.
Adam:
[17:10] Uh it's every bit as uh eventful as a loads went on and uh essentially this is like sort of an out and back and up and down in and out road.
Alun:
[17:18] Trip you sound like you're describing my love life.
Kayaking in French Pass
Adam:
[17:25] Oh dear um so so yeah we went a french pass that does that describe your love life that's your love life i don't pass on the french french yeah pass yeah nice uh so anyway all the way back down to elaine bay i.
Alun:
[17:44] Used to date her in high school.
Mussel Thieves and Harbour Patrol
Adam:
[17:50] And this is where we were going to do some sea kayaking so uh yeah i mean i've not done loads of kayaking but it's the sort of thing that people like to be interested in isn't it kayaking it's like quite you know what i mean by that?
Alun:
[18:04] I think you do kayaking once and you can describe yourself as a kayaker you know it's one of those activities quite easy quite low barrier to entry the equipment is the worst thing about it once you've done it once you can tell people oh god i used to uh do some sea kayaking back in uh new zealand yeah i think it's fine.
Adam:
[18:21] Yeah sea kayaking um it was exactly that answer that i kind of gave to the bloke that rented uh the kayaks to us have you done it before yeah yeah i've done it before yeah all right we'll just take you down the beach for a briefing so there we were with this german couple kayaking is of.
Alun:
[18:36] Course the one where you've got a double bladed or a little bit like a darth maul in the first episode of star wars canoeing you've got just the one qui-gon jin obi-wan kenobi sea kayaking.
Adam:
[18:48] Double bladed very.
Alun:
[18:49] Much kind of like that.
Adam:
[18:51] I've got no star wars chat i've got nothing no no sort of that's.
Alun:
[18:55] All right i've looked at our analytics and there's quite a sizable crossover between the topology audience and fans of george lucas's film franchise so just trying to put it in terms that people can relate to. When you think kayaking, think Darth Maul.
Adam:
[19:10] Perfect. Okay. So we've got a tandem. We've got a double canoe, a double kayak. with, as you've said, the lightsaber. And then we got the briefing, went out. The bloke told us, look, full day, whatever, 100 bucks. Just do a little poodle around. You've got to imagine these inlets, these bays,
these lovely little beaches. It's wonderful, wonderful scenery. There's loads to see and do there. Water is crystal clear. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sun out, a couple of clouds, dead flat water.
Alun:
[19:43] The biggest sun I'd ever seen. It was like someone holding up a dinner plate on fire.
Adam:
[19:47] You think that's big you should have seen the moon last night so so there we were we went out exploring that sort of stuff he did give us a couple of tips he said if you go a few kilometers you know just around that bay i mean i was going to give you directions but it means absolutely nothing on this audio podcast um and then you'll come to a muscle farm now have you ever seen a muscle farm.
Alun:
[20:07] Yeah it's like a it's like a lot of we call them gyms in the uk places where people lift weights to go on treadmills that sort of thing.
Adam:
[20:15] That's it that's the other type of muscle farm um but i'm talking about muscle the the sea creature oh.
Alun:
[20:21] Where you grow them on ropes basically right.
Adam:
[20:23] Yes you do i've never seen one before but they they basically look like if you imagine an olympic sized swimming pool for the rope without the pool but but with with the lines separating the lanes and then you've got they're submerged as well and then you've got different types of muscles he said to me look it is a private muscle farm but if you want if you go past you can just steal a few and i was like okay is it your muscle farm he was like no but you know don't worry about it.
Alun:
[20:52] No but the the owner slept with my wife so now i tell all the sea kayakers.
A Perfect Day in Nelson
Adam:
[21:03] The owner's kids throw rocks at my stingrays um so i said okay well we'll go and have a look anyway, So there we were kayaking, you know, about an hour later, we came to this muscle farm. Much bigger than I anticipated, actually.
Alun:
[21:17] The muscle farm was?
Adam:
[21:18] The muscle farm, yeah. The tricky thing is, especially if you're in a tandem, right, I'm at the back because it had bloody pedal steering as well, which is something I've never had in a kayak.
Alun:
[21:29] The sea kayak had pedal steering?
Adam:
[21:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah, it did.
Alun:
[21:32] Mate, this is so removed from the concept. So you're in a tandem sea kayak with pedal steering going past the muscle farm.
Adam:
[21:40] Yeah, I know. It's just a day in my life, mate.
Alun:
[21:43] Wow.
Adam:
[21:43] The design, apparently, is actually a New Zealand design, original. So that's one of the reasons why this bloke's got it. You know, he's very proud of it. He didn't design himself, but another Kiwi did.
Alun:
[21:52] Yeah.
Adam:
[21:53] And there we were. What you've got to do is you've got to try and dive down. Because they're submerged underwater, if you want to steal some mussels and rip them off the rope, not only are they clinging on there for dear life, they're pretty difficult to get off, your partner has also got to... basically compensate by leaning the other way because if you both go in you're just going to capsize so she's there leaning one way i'm there getting down you can imagine the sort of the tension and the discussion lean a bit more well then you've got to lean a bit more the boat's rocking you know you idiot steal more muscles so we managed to get a couple we've been told that we should try and keep them wet as well that'd.
Alun:
[22:29] Be no trouble for.
Adam:
[22:30] You, oh fucking hell wetter than the ocean yeah that was it i couldn't believe it um i got i got a big muscle big green muscle and big black muscle just what i just you know i just thought don't don't take the piss don't don't just get a couple one of each that's fine you know my partner how.
Alun:
[22:54] Many different varieties are there.
Adam:
[22:55] There are only there are only two as far as i could tell oh i think it was just green and black the green is slightly bigger they're beautiful beautiful color shells um you know i love green yeah you know i love green i'd.
Alun:
[23:04] Have taken two greens myself but that's just me.
Adam:
[23:06] Yeah yeah maybe i mean maybe i should have done maybe i should have done but um i got the got the muscles i popped them in we had spray skirts by the way so they're like i don't know what material they are sort.
Alun:
[23:18] Of a neoprene sheath that goes over the sea kayak to prevent water going in and wetting your feet, thighs, and genitals.
Adam:
[23:27] Exactly that. So I made a little dip in the spray skirt, popped the muscles in, filled it with water, you know, just created a lovely little natural synthetic rock pool for them. And then off we went and we basically beelined it for this bed.
Alun:
[23:43] The opposite of natural. In a tandem sea kayak, on a neoprene lap, stolen from your rope where you were born in a farm.
Adam:
[23:56] They couldn't believe their luck, these mussels. So we basically found this bay the way we wanted to stop for lunch. We had a little packed lunch with us. And as we were crossing the ocean, we went from another island. And then for about an hour, we had to cross the ocean to get to this bay. And in the distance, we saw this boat coming. And obviously, the enemy of a kayak is a big boat. And as it was coming, I said to my partner, oh, we should slow down so it can go past because I don't want to be doing backflips or something like that. And she said, oh, I think it's stopping, actually. And the closer it got, the slower it went. and then it sounded like it almost turned its engine off and as it got closer oh fuck stealth mode i could i could see that it was the harbor patrol and there were people in uniform on on the boat they're.
Alun:
[24:44] Looking for muscle thieves as well aren't they what have you got in your neoprene bowl there mate.
Adam:
[24:51] The uh the the boat was enormous and the bloke who stepped off of it they came right up to a super slow um as to not create any waves but yeah he basically i was shitting myself i was thinking oh fucking hell i knew we shouldn't have taken those muscles like what the muscles.
Alun:
[25:09] Were like crikey.
Adam:
[25:10] What's that smell the muscles closed up oh bloody hell these neoprene spray skirts are good um so so yeah i was obviously feeling very guilty and i thought you know we shouldn't have done that the bloke said it would be fine this is obviously they're like i don't know private security or something like that and he was like oh hey guys you all right i was like yeah yeah we're fine i was trying to hide the muscles with my elbow and put my arm over them yeah he went yeah i said yeah i've been in the gym yeah thanks for noticing um, This top used to have sleeves. And I said...
Alun:
[25:49] They call me the Incredible Bulk.
Adam:
[25:52] I said, yeah, yeah, we're good, thanks. Yeah, can we help at all? He was like, no, it's just Harbour Patrol. We're just driving around, making sure everyone's okay, just making sure everyone's having a good time.
Alun:
[26:03] Checking if any foreign twats have stolen our muscles.
Adam:
[26:07] But it's so typical of New Zealand, mate. It's so typical of New Zealand. And he's just like, yeah, you're having a good day. And we were like, yeah, yeah, we're having a great day. He says, so, have you done any kayaking before? And we were like, yeah, yeah, we've done a bit. All right, well, you're happy with the currents, you know, the weather's okay. You're not going to get, if you get stranded, just wave your arms around and, you know, we'll have our eyes on you anyway. Whereabouts are you from? And I was like, yeah, from England. It turned into like a 20-minute chat just in the middle of the water. They were like really interested in what we were doing. And he was like, all right, yeah, well, you know, we've got our eyes on you. if uh if you get in trouble we're coming we come and rescue you i don't know if it was like was it a test or what should i have just owned up and gone all right yeah i.
Alun:
[26:50] Think they were testing you because you have two live creatures in your lap.
Adam:
[26:54] Uh yeah yeah how.
Alun:
[26:57] Were they responding to the conversation were they sort of moving around were they closing and opening.
Adam:
[27:02] Are you like trying to try to raise sort of alarm bells or something like that yeah like.
Alun:
[27:07] Someone in the boot of a.
Adam:
[27:08] Car trying to.
Alun:
[27:09] Alert the police at a traffic stop the muscles like.
Adam:
[27:13] Blowing bubbles up to the top trying to catch their eye.
Adam:
[27:19] They didn't uh no i mean they just basically drove all right guys have a fantastic time you know explore the area be safe and all this sort of stuff uh and then we we went off we had lunch, Came back, muscle still intact, still wet as anything. And then gave the kayaks back at the end of the day. Absolutely exhausted. The one thing is with this region, everything looks quite similar unless there's like a very small village there. So you think you're in one bay and you're actually in a different one. You're reading this bloody laminated map and all this sort of stuff. So it was a lot of fun. Gave the kayaks back. The bloke that we rented them from let us have a shower
Reflections on Family and Food
Adam:
[27:56] in his house, which was really nice. and then we drove all the way back to nelson and the two the two muscles i know it doesn't sound like a lot but i i cooked them in true in true backpacker van life fashion we parked on a freedom camping site which was essentially a a car park in the middle of nelson town center and i steamed them in a little pot whilst i was doing the asian squat i don't know if you can say that but you know exactly what i mean i was basically squatting on the floor and i got the little gas cooker going and I steamed these things and the green mussel honestly is the best mussel I've ever had in my life it was absolutely delicious it definitely nothing to do with my cooking um but it was super tasty I know it's a funny setting to do it in like on the floor of a car park but it was it was magic again another absolutely perfect day wow.
Alun:
[28:46] Well can you describe the flavor of the green mussel for me because a mussel I think is almost too small to to notice the flavor of unless you know when I've eaten mussels historically have had a bowl of them and after the fourth or fifth you start to understand the flavor of what you're eating did you take little nibbles of the mussel to space it out a bit more did you just wallop it in like an oyster.
Adam:
[29:07] Walloped it in like an oyster i know people say you shouldn't chew oysters um but i often do the mussel was similar uh in terms of how i ate it but the the flavor for me there's like a bitterness that comes with mussels that you don't necessarily get with oysters. It's quite saline in terms of its flavour and almost a little bit bitter, uh it tastes a little bit i'm not not quite livery or irony but there's something something like that but it was just very yeah but a little bit salty just delicious man it was just a very very it was like a the flavor of a muscle if you've what you have had but exaggerated and concentrated it was uh yeah i mean just highly highly recommend getting some getting your hands
Memories and Future Adventures
Adam:
[29:52] on some farmed green mussels if you can.
Alun:
[29:55] Amazing adam i love that story i love the thought of you and a little pedal controlled sea kayak whipping around you're very much a sort of kiwi pirate figure stealing mussels stopping people from stoning stingrays i think you're becoming a bit of a legend in that country and i'm looking forward to hearing how your journey there progresses i think that's all we have time for this week we're going to go to the patreon section lost and found link in the description next week on topology is a very exciting episode it's the last episode that i'm going to record here in the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland i'm going to go all the way to a country that i'll disclose next week it's not japan but it's you're not too far off let's go there right now uh and we'll see you all next week.
Adam:
[30:46] Thanks ever so much guys we'll see you there bye.
