Our butts were too sore for much the planned a.m. walk, so we had a leisurely breakfast, worked on our blog (Straw Lodge had good internet!), and took off for today's adventure about 11:00 a.m. Our drive to Havelock was only 30 minutes. We spent 40 minutes looking for a bank.....can you believe there isn't a bank in Havelock, population 2,000? Nearest bank is in Nelson or Blenheim, a drive of more than 45 minutes either way!
Love the name of this place which has only been built and open for 4 years. It has enjoyed huge success, being highly rated in every guide book and local periodicals.
This is a caricature of the greenshell, greentip, greenlip mussel (nomenclature varies, depending on whether written or verbal...and by who is speaking or writing). Havelock, NZ, is the Greenshell Mussel Capital of the World!!!! Do you even know there is such a mussel?
A caramelized onion/red pepper (capsicum in NZ) tart and Tom's mainstay: fish n chips. Better than Hans could do!!!
After waiting at the wrong dock (the one that they advertised), we were helped by a friendly water taxi captain to find the Galileo one dock over. We board to learn that we are two of only four passengers and a crew of two
Heading out on Pelorus Sound, the Captain informed us that we would be out until 5:30 instead of the scheduled 4:30 due to the tides. The entrance to Havelock Harbor is very shallow. We had about 1.7 meters under the keel going out.
The Galileo draws about 2 meters. The tides in this area can swing about 3 meters.
We sighted this boat on the way out and again coming in. It is the work boat used to build the mussel farms. It plants the concrete anchors at each end of the mussel line and strings the floats used to hold up the lines.
Houses along the Sound are mostly holiday homes many of which are accessible only by water. John, the captain, told us that the houses nearer the water were pretty simple of basic construction. Later houses were built farther up the hill due to better means of material supply (helicopter) and improved construction methods.
Approaching the mussel farm. You can see the floats lined up. The farms must be far enough out in the sound to have enough salinity -- too much fresh water closer in.
A typical mussel farm consists of 10-12 lines. A line is 110 meters of a roughly braided plastic line about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The line is draped between the black floats shown above.
As usual in New Zealand, the wine comes first, in the middle, and last.
Mussels are filter feeders for phytoplankton. The can filter 360 liters/day/ each. The farms must be located in an area with good tidal currents.
You can see clusters of mussels on the stringing lines -- usually the undesirable blues or blacks which are discarded.
The spat (baby mussels) are harvested in the wild and put in PVC pipes like the one shown above. The lines are pulled through the pipe to pick up the spat on their way into the water. A mesh made of flax and linseed oil is over the spat and the line. The mesh is to protect the young mussels from fish and birds. The mesh dissolves over time in the salt water.
The female mussel is the one with the lipstick (roe). These guys are loaded with omega-3 and 6 plus vitamins A-Z.........many times more nutritious than the black and blue ones we eat.
We also get to eat the mussels. They are put in a pot and heated until they open. They cook in their own liquid. Among the additives is Louisiana's own Tabasco.
Lovin' it!!
Our fellow passengers, Allen and Karen, from the north island.
We were fortunate enough to see them harvesting. They pull up the floats and mussel laden lines, knock off the undesirables, swipe the greens off the line, and bag them in 1-tonne bags.
This boat will hold 75 tonnes. (Tom says that most people will know that a TONNE is equivalent to 1.1 TON!) (PLEASE, those of you who already knew this fact, send us an email saying so!!) A line will produce about 30 tonnes in 18 months. That is about 220 tonnes/farm/year. With some 600-700 farms in New Zealand that comes out to 140,000 tonnes/year. That is a lot of mussels and part of the reason that greenshell mussels have dropped from about $2500 to $700 NZ per tonne.
John is a former NZ special forces policeman with lots of insight about US government.
This is one of Galileo's electronic navigation charts. The green is water and we are the red dot near the center of the screen. Havelock is the red near the bottom left.
A little side story. After WW II, the NZ government decided that the soil was too poor for agriculture. Super phosphate fertilizer (that which could be applied by air) had been invented; NZ had lots of surplus large airplanes and pilots. Let's fertilize our nation from the air. It was too far to Nelson or Blenheim to reload. So they built air fields on site. The brown area above is one of them. They would land going up the hill and take off going back down. How would you like to land a big plane on that, Blasberg?
Nearing port on the return trip, we can see why we are out an extra hour. When we left, this was all under water. We actually bumped the keel on sand. Thanks to John and Aussie for a great trip.
Bill and Nettie's 10 yr old grandson drew this picture....on paper which you can see tucked in to the metal fixture. An artist duplicated the child's drawing and gave it the above motto.
Bill is doing his share of dinner preparations....At breakfast this a.m., Nettie invited us to join the 3 of them for dinner....as "part of the family". We were honored, touched and gratified and accepted without hesitation.
Bill....his wife of 42 years, Nettie.....and Jane, their dear friend and partner for 8 years. Jane and her husband had been best friends with Nettie and Bill for many, many years, raised their children together....then a divorce. Jane was invited to continue to share life with her buddies....yet another definition to "family".....I fear we overstayed our welcome....we had such a fun time....no way to say enough "thank you's" for such a generous, warm, hospitable experience!!!
