We Parked the Boat Outside
An Overlander service call at Opito Bay turned into one of those afternoons you can't plan for.
There's a particular kind of afternoon that only seems to happen on the Coromandel. The kind where the original plan quietly disappears somewhere around lunchtime, and nobody minds.
This one started as a service call. Richard Walsh's Overlander was booked in at Opito Bay for some work on its Anura system, and once that was sorted, the plan was simple: take it out for an on-water test, tick the box, head home.
Richard had other ideas. Halfway through the test run he asked if we felt like dropping a line. We did.
That was really where the afternoon started.
From there it stopped being a service visit and became something closer to a tour. We ran the longline, then pointed the Overlander toward Otama Beach, drove straight up onto the sand, and went for a walk while the boat sat there waiting — parked on the beach like it was the most normal thing in the world. Back aboard, we followed the coastline round to the river mouth to have a look, no ramp, no trailer, no plan beyond curiosity.
Somewhere in there, the idea of a beer and a pizza at Luke's Kitchen came up. Fair enough — it had been that sort of afternoon. Luke's sits right on the water at Kuaotunu, and the original plan was to beach the boat nearby and walk up. Then we spotted an old boat ramp and a narrow, familiar stretch of gravel leading straight up from the beach.
So we took it slowly, and drove up. And parked the Overlander right outside the pub.
We had the best car park in Kuaotunu that day, and it wasn't a car.
Beer and pizza done, it was back down to the water to collect the longline as the light started to go. The fish weren't exactly queuing up, but a couple of good snapper came aboard as the sun dropped — about as good a way as any to end an afternoon on the water. Then it was back up the beach at Opito Bay, into the garage, and home, without either of us ever getting our feet wet.
What had started as a routine service turned into fishing, a beach walk, lunch by boat, and a sunset catch — all in one afternoon, all in the one boat. Nothing about the day was planned. That's really the point. An Overlander doesn't ask you to choose between the beach, the water and the pub car park. It just goes to all three, and lets the afternoon figure itself out.
Opito Bay is a special place to be doing this job. It's an even better place when the person who owns the boat loves it as much as Richard does.
Oasis Overlander OP725
