Posts by blaiz

Quote from Kolt45

Great start, mate! Let's hook up for a dive!

I would be stoked! Headed down to the Coromandle for the next few days then maybe even down your way. Ill definitely let you know when we get close.

Sorry Dan, thanks for moving it to the correct place. I only had about 10min of internet left so posted it in a hurry.

Havn't had a whole lot of time to dive lately, been enjoying the local scenery... and vino... mostly vino.

We did manage to get out and get an appetizer's worth of scallops. The bed seemed to be pretty thoroughly picked through but we managed to grab a bag of legal ones. Had to go to the deeper end of the bed to get them but a couple hours produced a nice pan full of scallops satee'd in butter, garlic, and an awesome chili sauce I found at a local farmers market.

Quote from Don Paul

Great story mate, just wait till you see Huka Falls and Bay of Islands I love NZ. You may want to hook a dragline
to the gun soon before you meet a 50 kilo kingie.

Cheers, Don

Thanks guys, picked up a float line the next day. Didn't want to tote mine down so I hadn't had a chance to buy one yet.

Whats up everyone? I figured Id start a thread to keep you guys updated on my travels here in New Zealand. Maybe it will inspire others to see the world and experience what some of it has to offer.... not that Hawaii is a bad place to be

This trip started on the 12th of November when we said good by for now to our home on Maui. We arrived after a 9hour flight from Honolulu, and after skipping a day, on the 14th of November in Auckland city.

We spent the first week in and around Auckland looking for a "camper van" to purchase and it was a pretty stressful week. Having no idea of the scale or distance between cities and towns yet we often found ourselves making multiple 2-3 hour drives to remote towns to look at vans for sale. Most were very old and had upwards of 350,000 kilometers on them... im not a math whiz but I think thas somewhere around 250000 miles? Some were set up really nice but I had a hard time shelling out the cash on an engine that I didn't have much faith in. We finally found a nice toyota hiace with really low miles and seemed to be in great shape aside from the sub par camping features. But being a woodworker and carpenter that could be sorted out later.

We were able to get our gills wet on the first week. A local Kiwi of a town called Whangaparoa was very welcoming when we arrived. He invited us to his house for a bbq and then out on his boat with another local guy for a day of diving. Water was cold and vis was bad but there were fish everywhere. Lots of Kingfish around but most too small to shoot, legal size here is 75cm which is actually a decent size fish. I wouldn't find out till later that 75cm is actually a REALLY small kingy for NZ.

We then drove 2 hours up to a town called Whangarei to stay with some other friends. Here we were able to get our van all situated and now we have a very comfortable home away from home.

Then our Kiwi friend from Whangaparoa called and invited us back out on his boat to an island called Great Barrier Island. This was a 28mile trip that took less than 1 hour... kiwis drive their boat almost as crazy as they drive their cars! The coast and surrounding islands are a sight to behold. Huge fern trees, pahutakawa, and pines tower over the coastline looking like a scene from jurassic park. Hailey and I were dropped off at one spot while the others drove around the corner to another. Within 10 minutes at this spot I was able to put my shaft into a beast of a kingfish. I had no idea of the size of this fish as the water was fairly dirty and Im still not all that confident with sizing fish here. I almost hesitated on taking the shot for fear of it being too small. That doubt was quickly dissolved as I felt the line being peeled off of my reel at an alarming rate. As I reached the surface the reel froze up and I started getting towed off of the island. The next thing I know the fish give a huge pull ripping the gun from my hands. My heart sank as I watched the gun disappear into the depths. I immediately started swimming as hard as I could, barely able to make out the line on the reel. Made the fastest drop to 40ft that I think I could ever imaging doing again, and was able to grab the gun. I gave a hard pull and was able to free the line again. The fight ensued for another 10 minutes or so until I was finally able to get a handle on the fish and brain it.

We never got on official weight but it broke the 50lb scale on the boat. I was happy enough gutting and bleeding it to insure some good hamachi sashimi for the next few days. Our Kiwi hosts cooked up another amazing kingfish dinner with a small portion of the kingy, I took a nice slab to keep hailey and I fed for the next few days, and then the rest was put in the smoker, seems to be the kiwi standard.

We are now headed north and plan on hitting up some shore diving. There is an amazing amount of untouched territory here, scallops, lobsters, kingfish, and snapper are plentiful. I dont think we will be having a hard time feeding ourselves! The next fish to target is going to be snapper. From the way it sounds they rival mu as far as how difficult they are to hunt.

......

Quote from Joe Acevedo

we built it with kitto and used all his hardware

Ahhhh... didn't correlate "Bill" with Bill Kitto:thumbsup2: I would love to be able to watch a master such as Bill at work. Most of my building has been trial and error, luckily there are a lot of talented builders out there to bounce ideas off of and many who take the time to answer questions.

I would be happy to post some tips about the gyotaku, or what I know of it. Im no master but I do have fun with it. Any suggestions on a suitable place to post it? I don't want to derail this thread any more than I have:)

Quote from Joe Acevedo

Heres One My Freind Bill Help me build with my Son , we did the whole thing in 8 hrs , it was a blast
it was kind of a Mini Tuna gun 60'' 23lbs I think

My Freind Tom Harding Did the Finish

that was the only gun i ever shot that would keep going after the plug pulled , man it shot with some real power

That thing is a canon! I doubt too many big fish have ever made it past that thing huh? Nice work. Must have been a fun project to do with your son.

Is that a Kitto trigger?

Quote from cww

Great looking guns, do you take any requests?

Thank you for all the compliments, I would love to take requests but at the time being I am not taking any orders as I leave for New Zealand next Friday. My wife and I are heading down to spend 6 months in New Zealand traveling around in a van and taking in as much of the country as we can...And YES I am taking all my gear with me... I have been talking to a lot of NZ spearos and trying to get a feel for what would be the best package. Ive decided on a 120 euro (which Ive been told will take down just about anything that would swim my way) a 100cm for the shallow water snooping, and a 9ft O'hara pole spear to test my patience.

When I get back in March, if I havn't found a nich to fill in New Zealand, I plan on revamping my shop and making it more suitable for building guns.... basically I just need more space. So if anyone is in the market for a gun at that time I would be happy to oblidge:)

A couple more....

63" ono pick. Neptonics Tuna Trigger/SS handle frame, rear plus handle. The twin to this gun is hanging in my living room made with teak and recycled koa, it beckons me to finish it evey day but I have yet to find the time:(

90cm open track euro, Neptonics Hardware, blank is made with teak and wenge

Howzit guys/gals? I hope Im not intruding by making a post here. I was referred to the forum by Tin Man and figured this would be a perfect place to start. This is a small collection of guns I have built recently some of which feature tinmans AR-15 handle and another featuring a custom muzzle made by Tin Man.

I have really enjoyed the posts thus far and hope my guns can add to the thread as well.

1st gun
120 euro, enclosed "hybrid track" (for lack of a better term), neptonics reef trigger, Tin Man handle, 2x5/8 bands with a 7.5mm tahitian flopper shaft. blank is made of 6 laminates, 5 verticle and one t laminate on the bottom.

Next is my first attempt at a hybrid.
60" padouk/aimrite venom barrel (don't ask me how I got the barrel, I dont really know:rolleyes1:)
custom Tin Man muzzle, neptonics reef trigger/handle.

Howzit guys? I like the forum, I was referred to it by Tinman and have to say its one of the friendliest forums I have browsed so far.

I am from Hawaii, love to travel, and have been diving since I could pull back a band on a three prong. I look forward to participating in your forum and hope I can contribute a little as well... I really like the US custom gun builders thread! Think I might start there first:)

Aloha
Jake