To come
right to the point of the headline: Fishing up at the stream on top of lake
Tekapo it seems that while crossing one of these electric fences, I slammed my
watertight Patagonia backpack to hard on the ground. Because some days later I
realized that my 10-22 Canon EF-S does everything but focus and looking closely
I discovered that there was more or less some kind of moving gap in the lens between
the focus and the zoom unit. Ok something was broken. And this lens is not the
built to be used as a priest as it is the legendary 70-200 2,8 USM IS II (btw.
the most sexiest lens I own currently, it even made sharp pictures after a
Canon service, but now it is one of my sharpest lenses). Shoot! After
considering the pros and cons of a wide angle not working and having one, I
considered to order a new one. I found one source that offers it even cheaper
than at home. Thinking about an address to be delivered was the more complex
part. As we have no resident address down around Queenstown and the only person
we know is most of the time on the rivers to guide. The only constant and definitely
to be visited address was Gantleys restaurant (one of the best restaurants
in NZ). I called them and babbled something like “we know nothing, but one
thing is for sure, we will have dinner one night at your restaurant – may I use
your address as my post box?” The helpful answer was “yes!” Thus I ordered and
hope for the fresh 10-22 to arrive in time for the dinner.
Demolition
part two. Driving out of Ahuriri was not really rough, it was just a bumpy
metaled road. But arriving in Cromwell at the gas station I was looking at the
right back tier and saw it close to flat. Fuck No. 2. Ok we were right at the
gas station, but it was Sunday. Thinking back and force I came to the
conclusion that changing the tire without knowing where to attach the highjack would
not be a good idea. So at the gas station they offered one of these emergency
flat tire bottles. Buying one, letting in run into the tier and hoping. OMG it
still was leaking. On the bottle was the advice to immediately drive around 10
miles after usage. So I left Ines and Tobias for baby-lunch at the gas station
and went straight up to Pisa Range Lake Resort where we knew would be nice accommodation
to ask for one for the night. It was the same manager as two years ago, there
was vacancy and the price was ok. I went back with a still insecure tire.
Inflating the tiers once more. Knocking on wood. We did the groceries and
drove up to Pisa Range. There we choose the ground floor flat that was just
huge with 30qm terrace right on the waterfront of the lake/marina, full size kitchen,
living room, washing machine (that saw five loads from us but did only
distribute the dirt more evenly in the fabrics – who wants to import real
washing machines to NZ with us?!) - a nice
place to have a shower after Ahuriri.
Strange
feeling in such a flat – not like fishing and camping NZ - but more like summer
vacation, especially as the sun was burning. That afternoon after getting
settled we decided to go for one or two wineries around Cromwell. Rockburn was
the first one to start, but the wine was just ok, the Twelve Barrels Pinot Noir
for 85 a bottle was a strange value for money and the Devils Staircase Pinot
Noir for 25 a bottle, of which we bought one bottle, was just ok. Next was the
Wild Earth winery on the Kawaru river. This address I got from a lady I met in
the Ahuriri valley. She recommended that winery and mentioned the nice location
to sit outside and have a snack. We first had the short wine tasting (one of
the wineries that charge you for tasting) and decided for a bottle of WildEarth Pinot Noir 2009 (that I mentioned joyfully in a post before). I was close
to asking the lady doing the tasting, if that is not a bad task to make tastings
and only sell one or two or a couple of bottles. We are more used to do
tastings and then stocking up by a few cases. Here with average prices at
wineries of around 30-40 NZ$ you buy single bottles. Ok, let us talk about
money. We once had an awfully bad presentation/lecture in Starnberg from a
couple that traveled NZ and made some footage and pictures from that (not
fishing related, just traveling). They were a German couple. And with every
single fucking activity they mentioned or described they mentioned the price
and a valuation. Example: “we had a guided walking tour with lunch provided
that did cost 85,- per person and that was good value for money”. Translated to
fish-talk: “we had a dame good Kiwi-guide with a chopper for two days, catching
big browns up to 8 lbs, would do it again. If you ask, the tag was 2800,- and worth every cent” Ok, stop that.
Why did I
start that? At the Wild Earth we did not just buy one of the best bottles we
had in the last two weeks, but we had two of the highest priced pieces of cake we ever had: 8 NZ$ for a plane piece of lemon cake each. No, there was no happy
ending included. The cake was good, but the similar cake in Methven was better.
As
mentioned before we had to make arrangements for the stream we wanted to make
our attendance. But guide Bruce Leitch wanted to go there the second half of the
week with a client. So we changed plans and decided to drive up to the Nevis. I
mention that river because I really can not recommend to fish that river unless
you are willing to invest several days or years in that river. Fish are few or small later in the season. Besides that it is a remote high valley with a special touch. The valley is threatened by a crazy dam project to be planed! Sometimes humans are really stupid. The whole
valley and especially the north exit of it is real 4WD country. Did we survive
that with the glued tier?
