For the last 2 years I've thought about the storage capacity of my truck - a 97 Toyota Surf, just about the best fishing 4x4 around. I usually end up shoving stuff in the back and it handles it fine but when I'm planning a stay away and sleep in the back I always have to shuffle stuff around at night. A friend has storage drawers in his and they make a huge difference. I have spent the last 6mths researching the different types out there which are mainly made in Aussie and cost mucho $$. So after a lot of research I finally bit the bullet and along with a friend at work I put together a design spec, which he used his free time to draw up on CAD.
The rest was up to me. So armed with a drawing, measurements and a whole lot of faith, I began acquiring the bits and pieces on a modest budget. It's NZ - where it's not what you know but whom.
A rough build photo diary is here. They aren't quite complete yet. I still have to buy some marine carpet and finish covering the top surfaces, and paint the remainder but it's functional and got christened this weekend. More of that later.
Big thanks to Ross at work for his design skills, Dave @ Dotmar who provided some off cuts of polyethylene sheeting to make the drawer runners for a princely $20, Charlie at my work who used his lunchbreak to cut the plywood to small enough chunks for me to take home and for my patient wife, who had to put up with sawing, drilling and dust for 2 weeks in the garage.
Well back to the fishing. A good friend and I were joined by another fisho on Saturday for some Canty exploration. We decided on a high country stream we know to fish well if the rivers rough out and headed off at a reasonable hour. However it wasnt' long before we realised the Canty Norwester was really going to be as bad as the forecast predicted. It was a long 3km walk from the trucks to the stream, all the way against the wind. When we got to the stream spotting was pretty impossible but we had a go at blind fishing. After getting hit by my streamer on the head and then noticing a rapid addition of clouds we decided on a hasty retreat. Discretion was indeed the better part of valour for we weren't long back at the truck when the dust storm hit and we gota cup of coffee and beat it out of there.
We drove around to another stream looking for some shelter. Indeed we did find one where the stream looked a sweet run, and off we went after the obligatory Didymo clean up. Unfortunately we weren't really out of the wind, and spotting was impossible again. After a couple of kms we retired to a local hostel for some wedges and cold liquids. That bundaberg never tasted so good.
Well today I've got manflu. Cold, sniffles, sneezing and headaches. So I'm catching up on blog time.
My lovely wife and kids are putting up Christmas decorations because tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent. Normally our tree doesn't go up until Christmas eve but because this year we're not at home we are putting it up now.
The best thing about this is that I get to be on quality control of the chocolates going on the tree. My favourite are Guylian, while the kids get smarties and other sugar rushes. Of course Christmas isn't just about decorations, sweets and presents. Living in NZ after growing up in the Northern Hemisphere its hard get used to a summer at Christmas but I'm warming to it. Christmas therefore sneaks up on me down under. I just like the excitement of putting up these things because it reminds me that the Celebrations are far away.
Some hope!
Drei Heileige Konig (Three Kings)
Next post hopefully I'll be able to talk about another fishing trip and have photos to show for it.
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