Capt'n Chaddy

First full day in New Plymouth and the weather is superb, a great day for a harbour cruise on Happy Chaddy's harbour tour, in his 1953 built British lifeboat. This is a one hour tour that starts with the boat free falling down a slipway into the water, bit like a theme park (Tip: Do this tour on the low tide as the slide will be longer).
Captain Chaddy is a real identity and full of amazing stories, a real old sea salt, during the tour he plays some cheesy sea shanties and takes the boat around some sugarloaf rocks where you can play spot the seal.
The passengers down the back can put out a fishing line and tinny MDR's line picked up a nice sized Pacific Salmon, which the pair cooked up for dinner that night after handing over $2 to have it filleted.
Before the tour the pair dropped into the Govett Brewster Art Gallery which is hailed as the best regional gallery in NZ. It's a very nice venue but the modern "installation" type of art doesn't really do a lot for MB. The coffee shop was pretty good, apart from the snooty harridan at the counter.
MB overindulged the night before at Andre's L'Escargot and had to have an afternoon nap, which severely cut into the touring. Andre's L'Escargot should be added to the NZ Foodie's Hall of Fame, a wonderful restaurant, superb service and a really lovely dinner, venison for MB & duck confit for MDR.