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Pirate Pete's Home Page
This is Pirate Petes home page it is just an index to some of the gonzo journalism/blog - like accounts of what he has been up to
Who the hell is Pirate Pete?
He's a middle aged, diving, kayaking, boogie boarding, multisporting, boat building, British seagull outboard racing adventurer ... of sorts.
Pete lives in Wellington New Zealand
Pirate Pete's Web sites:
Pirate Pete lost control of the site for a while during the transition from google page maker to google sites. But we are back on track. In the full course of time I will migrate and re-organise to google sites and provide a link.
The pirate has not been idle and most recent adventures including another trip to Bermuda, British Seagull outboard motorboat racing, swimming with whale sharks in Ningaloo, a mid-winter Cook Strait Crossing on a 36 ft Ketch ... etc, etc, are loaded as picassa photo albums:
These aren't working at the moment .. I'll work on it
Building a wood strip SUP Stand up paddle board
My latest serendipitous building project ... and I thought I had retired from boat building. Building a wood strip SUP standup paddle board from the Wooden Surfboard Supply co. With my kayak building experience, it should be a doddle and an easy fun build at my leisure.
Trout Fishing in a Kayak, Lake Taupo
20 years of not catching trout on Lake Taupo and finally the Pirate finally gets his act together. An account of how he made the break through using his Nick Schade expedition Kayak and the "trouble maker" fly rod.
Pirate Petes best ever antarctic adventure - the sequel
The Plan - fly down to Antarctica and go diving twice a day and live in a tent. A photographic journal limited to one photo a day.
Petes Fabulous Bermuda Adventure
Pirates [absolutely] Fabulous Adventure to Bermuda. Primarily for the annual RISR 2007 Round the Island British Seagull outboard motor Race. A long winded blog about the race and some of the other things that he got to do in Bermuda.
South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium
In June 2005, Pete spent the family fortune to fly to Seattle to attend a traditional inuit kayak symposium. He had a sensational time and this was some of his experiences
Having travelled a long way to the SSTIKS 05 conference, Pete figured it would be a good idea to go kayak cruising through PUGET SOUND for 9 days. Not wanting to be a burden on anybody he did it solo. Pete had a sensational time and this site is a work in progress ...
Nothing so much fun as mucking around in boats. Seagull racers get together for a day out on the water of Poirua, Paramata and Plimmerton harbours just north of Wellington, New Zealand.
Pete and the art of bicycle maintenance cycling blog
Midlife crisis - nah. But a bit of spare time with the kids grown up and the Pirate revisits his competitive cycling roots with varying success.
KAYAK BUILDING
The pirate has been beavering away building kayaks for some time now. Here are a few photo journals of his builds.
An account of a short pool polo kayak (with built in wave potential) SOF = skin on frame inuit inspired build
Pirate Pete has been beavering away in his garage (I mean boat shed) building a replica MAE593-76 Aleutian Island Baidarka out of planks of wood that used to lie in a pile in the middle of a paddock. By popular demand, photos of some of the construction and smoke and mirrors magic that was used to hide the Pirates shabby wood work are here.
Building a cedar strip plank Guillemot Expedition Single - a photo documentary
Movie slide show of my Expedition single build. 2 1/2 minutes-ish
Nick Schades (free on the internet) guillemot S&G - A photo journal of how Pete did it!!
Free-building a replica World War 2 - "Z-Force" military type kayak for a movie
A Military Kayak 'look-alike' build for the Devils Rock Movie
KAYAK ADVENTURES
Infracon Akitio challenge 2007
An only slightly biased account of a multisport event held in the country. Race starts at Dannevirke and finishes at Akitio
An account of an early morning paddle (in between storms) on the South Coast of Wellington
Pete was doing a paua (abalone) survey around Stewart Island and got out in his YOST folding kayak one evening and discovered that a pair of rats can be worse than teenagers at making a mess in a tramping hut.
Rebel home built kayakers big day out - a visit to the Chocolate Fish Cafe
We didn't have a great summer of 2006/07 so when the weather came right, the unofficial and unauthorised Rebel home built and Greenland techniques club was called to a top day out on Wellington Harbour waters on one of their favourite paddles to the Chocolate fish Cafe ...
In April 2005 the pirate paddled accross Cook Strait in his home built cedar strip Expedtion Single kayak. This is an account with pictures of the crossing.
Picton Portage Kayak Race 2008
Gorrillas in the mist? Fog made for a dramatic and delayed start to the 2008 Picton Portage Race. The old Pirate showed his age finishing 4 miserable minutes slower than last years performance. Notes from a unique and challenging race.
And some picasa albums of photo graphs:
Christmas Holiday snaps 2009 - 2010
Not the best ever summer weather, but I got some mountain biking in, a couple of kayak paddles in on the Waikato River coming across the biggest fresh water fish I have ever seen - a grass carp at over 1.25 m long (but no photos) and a good days fishing off Whakatane
Sydney and Penrith to watch Son Sam compete in the Oceania Kayak Polo Championships October 2009
Son Sam made the National under 21 kayak polo squad. He wanted to do it all by himself, but what proud parents wouldn't grab the opportunity to go over to Sydney for 5 days and watch the finals. A bit of sight seeing around Darling Harbour and a snorkel at Cabbage tree Bay at Manly rounded off a pleasant adventure. Sure, it did rain most of the time we were there (as much rain in 3 days as they had for the entire month of Septmber ... but meanwhile in NZ a cold snap and mega snow trapped 700 motorists on the Central Plateau) maybe it wasn't so bad.
Adventures diving in Lyttleton Harbour and a Tsunami warning
A week spent diving in Lyttleton Harbour inspecting wharf piles for invasive Sabella Mediteranean tube worms. Commercial divers removed most of them and the pirate didn't find any. Got to try out the underwater camera housing and strobe combination in extreme <1m viz. A Tsunami warning as a consequence of the devastating Samoan earthquake (and Tsunami) meant all diving suspended for the day ... so the pirate visited the Christchurch Museum.
Lyttleton Harbour September 2009
Sunday 20 September 2009 - The Inaugural Foxton River Boat club classic boat run
A moderate SE breeze tempered what otherwise might have been the perfect day for a run from the Foxton River Boat club up to Foxton City via the 'Foxton Loop'. Highlight for me was another hardy soul with a minimax. Boating as a gang of two minimaxs was a hoot and reinforced my notion that the minimax is the best little motor boat ever.
Foxton River seagulling September 2009
27 - 28 June 2009. Lake Rotorangi Seagull Outboard run
An early start and a drive around Taranaki countryside I ended up at Lake Rotorangi and caught up with some fellow seagull racers exploring this 'tucked away' Lake. The weather forecast for the weekend was horrendous, but we lucked out with oily-calm-before-the-storm conditions and had a marvellous midwinter adventure.
Rotorangi Rascals - British Seagull outboard motor adventurers
7 March 2009 Seresin Estate, Lake Rotoiti Antique and Classic Boat Show
At the last minute I hitched a ride with Ross Leger over for the 10th Lake Rotoiti Antique and Classic Boat Show. Just an excuse to try out my minimax racer and Brititsh Seagull 5R motor. It is a great excuse to preparing for the Great Easter Race down the Waikato River .... and to look at boats.
Lake Rotoit Antique and Classic Boat Show 2009
February 2009 Fiordland dive survey photos
Topside photos from 9 days of dive surveys around Fiordland with John Hawkless ('John the Pro' from such movies as "Million dollar catch" Great South TV )
A family christmas based with my folks up in Hamilton.
Finishing off the racer x kayak project, eating too much, fishing, paddling, surfing, watching the kids playing golf badly and generally chilling out in good weather ... has to be good for the soul:
Notman family christmas vacation
3 and a half weeks in Antarctica - camping on ice and diving twice a day just to chill out
The pirate survived and with 3 and a half weeks of 24/7 sunlight and good weather - who wouldn't have had a great time???
The pirates best Antarctic Adventure yet
Waikato Easter (British) Seagull (outboard motor) Race 2008:
http://picasaweb.google.com/piratepetester/Seagull2008
Lake Rotoiti (St Arnaud) Antique and Classic Boat show 2008:
http://picasaweb.google.com/piratepetester/AntiqueBoatshowRotoiti2008
Wellington - Auckland - Waiheke Island for Cousie Traceys glamour wedding:
http://picasaweb.google.com/piratepetester/RacyTracyWedding25