We have bought a boat.

After our party win, we flirted with the idea of dropping $50k on a boat, but after investigating the matter further we decided it would be like dropping money in the sea with the upkeep costs etc.

Well after last Monday’s success we felt we were due a reward. We did a bit of research and discovered we could pick up a motor powered dinghy for $5k that could be kept in our garden and carried out to the sea as and when we needed to use it. We only have to go out a couple of hundred metres to catch snapper by the bucket load apparently.

The boat shop saw us coming, maybe the golf shop in Auckland had warned them. An hour after arriving at the shop we were leaving with a 4 man boat and an 8 horse power engine. We may upgrade the engine to 15 so we can use it as a motor boat, but 15s are a lot heavier and we have to carry it down to the beach every time we want to use it.

Carrying a 50kg boat from our house over the sand dunes to the sea proved more difficult that first thought. On purchasing the boat Neil and I imagine we could easily carry it down there by ourselves, but we really struggled getting it out there for its maiden voyage even with the help of Shaun and Dom – granted Dom isn’t the strongest, but Shaun is a pretty big lad at 6′ 3”.

After fighting with the waves we eventually got it seaborne, motored it out a couple of hundred metres, then took it back in. We’ve got our fingers crossed that all the difficulties we experienced were because we’re mere amateurs. I’m sure in a couple of weeks we’ll be experienced fishermen, returning home every evening with 23 fish. There’s just two issues, where will we keep the fish and who’s gutting them? I think these are bridges that can be crossed when we reach them…