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Carl and Belinda Muir chose Tairua as their home because of its spectacular coastal location, relaxed lifestyle and as an ideal spot to base an adventure tourism business. They want to share one of New Zealand’s best kept secrets with you! They enjoy nothing more than seeing people discover Tairua for the first time, catching big fish, and having a great time on holiday, so in 2005 Epic Adventures was born!
Carl grew up on The Coromandel in Thames which is about half an hour from Tairua. Many weekends were spent boating on both sides of the Peninsula and this is where his love for fishing, diving and the outdoors comes from. He has fished and dived many of the reefs out of Tairua since he was a young fella, and knows them inside out. He has traveled and worked overseas, as an exploration diver in the Philippines, dive instructing in the Pacific and and deckhanding on top gamefishing charter boats in Vanuatu. |
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Carl with a 74kg yellowfin in Vanuatu
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Fishing runs in his blood and he has written for many of New Zealand's top fishing and diving magazines, and now writes regular articles for Fishing Coast to Coast magazine, usually on his favourite forms of fishing - Jigging, livebaiting and softbait fishing. As far as fishing goes, he is always searching for new spots, new techniques and ways of doing things - if you're coming from overseas, expect him to chew your ear off finding out what works in your neck of the woods.
Catching and cooking seafood has always been a big part of Carl's life, and in his previous career in tourism he got the Whitianga Scallop Festival off the ground, a huge annual local event which celebrates the areas seafood and marine heritage.
Over the course of the last five years since Epic Adventures has started new friendships with repeat visting anglers have grown and Carl has developed a reputation as the "go-to" operator on the Eastern Coromandel. He was recently voted "Skipper of the Year" by NZ's largest online fishing community. |
Carl, Belinda, Oscar and Bella |
Belinda grew up on a dairy farm in the Waikato. She has traveled extensively and worked in the hospitality industry in Swizterland and Germany, and speaks fluent Swiss German. Belinda spent eight years with the ANZ Bank in Wellington, Melbourne and Vanuatu. She cooks a mean ‘bacon and egg’ pie and chocolate brownie which always go down a treat on our fishing charters. Belinda also runs her own Human Resources consulting business - Dynamo Consulting, from the Coromandel, working with many local and NZ businesses, team building and getting the most out of their staff. She is also currently the 'Sustainability Advisor' for Tourism Coromandel, the regional tourism organisation.
Since they have settled in Tairua, Bella and Oscar have been new additions to the Muir household!
Bella (5) is an avid explorer already. She loves going for bush walks and she's already trying to outfish Dad!
Oscar (3) came on to the scene in Feb 07 and is already helping us to keep the bait freezer stocked with fish he is catching off the wharf! |
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We waited five years to find someone who fitted the Epic Adventures mould, finally we found him! We were rapt to welcome Toby Kemp (Tobes) into the Epic family in April 2010. |
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Capt Tobes is Coromandel born and bred, and grew up fishing the idyllic waters of Port Charles at the remote north of the Coromandel. His career since then has provided him with an enviable background, commercial longlining for snapper out of Tairua and the Far North, working on pilchard boats out of Bream Bay, as well as time spent in the marine and chandlery industry. Put all of that together and you have a gun fisho who knows the fishes movements through the year, someone who knows boats inside out and most importantly how to look after customers.
Ultimately Toby's passion has led him to fishing tourism. As he puts it himself "there is nothing better than taking a group out fishing, seeing them enjoy their time on the water, and the elation and satisfaction on their face after boating a prize kingfish that has dragged them all over the boat!" Tobes is well versed in all angling techniques, but admits his favourite is surface fishing "seeing a kingfish come in and smack a popper or surface bait just gets my blood pumping!"
Toby now resides in Whitianga with his wife Lindy, who works remotely on the Coromandel as a production manager for Rugby for Sky TV, and kids Sophie and Charlie who are both developing a healthy fascination for fishing and marine life. |
So far during his time with Epic Adventures Tobes has already fished with everyone from Pony Liu (the guru behind the Jigging Master brand), groups from Australia, Singapore and we've had great feedback from our regular Kiwi client base. |
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