Do we need to fish such a river? Let’s go to a pristine river instead! Or: 112 km/h on paved roads seems to be too fast.

The drive to the next stream – that was recommended to us – went via a long winding unpaved road over the Danseys Pass. Barren Otago country. Passing the Danseys Pass Hotel we briefly considered to book two nights to fish from there, but we made a good decisions not to ask as it turned out later. We went over the rather long drive over the pass, made a short stop at the lavender farm there, had some yummy lavender ice-cream and continued to the holiday park / campground close to our fishing.

The campground was nicely located on the – on first distant sight – nicely looking river. As it was still early afternoon we packed our gear and went up to check the river in the lowest section of a 8km no exit gorge thing stretch of that river. Arriving there: rather strong didymo infection and frequently used tracks on each side of the shore. After an hour Ines made the right decision: she turned around. I only saw the first fish just minutes later in fast turbid water from very short distance as I spooked them. The river became even more gorgy, some scrambling of rocks was required. The third and the fourth fish I spotted deep down in a gorge pool where I decided to turn around and to call that river a river, as I already walked 2,5km as the crow flies of that 8km stretch. Do we really need to fish a river like that, if we have several other alternatives? Definitely not. Disappointed we decided to leave the next day back to QT. 

On the way towards QT we passed Naseby, a small village with some serious addiction to Curling and old houses tourists make pictures of. Making some pictures, thinking about what it is about to make pictures of semi old rotten buildings. I did not figure it out, so I stopped. During that stopover I took care of some surprise for Ines: another night in QT with a dinner again at Gantleys (the close date of 14th February was more a fake-excuse for that plan than the real reason). We had to book another Hotel, right on the lake (Novotel – decent, look for low prices by booking in advance!), made a reservation at Gantleys and hit the road. Wondering when Kiwis overtake and whom and if and whom not. No pattern found.

Driving up the Kawaru River valley we realized that we had only one wine tasting. As we passed Peregrine we set the indicator and turned right. Peregrine is one of the smaller 'boutique' wineries with a modern architecture cellar and tasting room (but lucky they do not call them 'boutique'). We tried the Pinot Noirs – of them only the Karearea 2009 at 75$ was promising, but the mentioned Wild Earth Pinot 2009 offers much much better value for money! But we bought there a bottle of our first white wine of the trip – a 2009 Gewürztraminer – very fine, in case you like that special kind of wine. In the cellar we met a friendly couple Americans on honeymoon, she immediately fell in love with Tobias.

 


(The order of the above pictures is totally unintended, but I wanted to have two in one line and the Blogger does this totally randomly, after a while of trying I gave up and left it as it is)

The evening at Gantleys started with a long awaited surprise: Jessica was happy to see us again and handed me over an DHL Express envelope. The charger for the Ericsson R290 Globalstar Satellite Phone. Thank you Markus so much, that it finally showed up and did arrive quiet quickly in Queenstown! Testing it the days before with the other charger I ordered in Germany it showed, that it most of the time does not get a Satellite connection and if, it just does not dial the number. The idea was to use the phone in distant (fly/boat in) locations in case of emergency, if e.g. Tobias would be in sever danger. 

Travelers’ advice: forget about the Globalstar phones, they seem not to work in NZ and if you lay with a bloody leg fracture in a tight valley in the middle of the forest: a phone would not help either. The bailout is to chew up 1500mg of ibuprofen pain killer and make your way with arms and the remaining leg to the defined pick up point. Keep fingers crossed you have some time for this way. And Tobias would just have to stay healthy. I checked out all the other solutions such as Spot, New Spot and DeLorme Inreach – all did not persuade as too complicated or only one way communication. Might be the IsatPhone (Inmarsat) might have been the right way to go. Now I am absolutely serious: if you do some solo fishing excursions you “wander” most of the time – unless you are right at the river or ON the trap line tracks – in quiet rough forest or slopes or rocks where you can pass another person only few meters away without realizing it. So if something happens, the rescue will be funny. This implicates maximum caution to avoid slipping, dropping or any other kind of self-injury. Concerning the last: there will be a story on that issue two posts later. Always take great care and only invest what you are willing to risk for a fish!

Back to Gantleys. Both of us went for three courses with the main and the (shared) desert the same: The main was absolutely delicious venison. The wine consideration was in favor of the PegBay Cab/Merlot 2009 again. Yummy! Tobias was lovely (most of the time he is in that mode) and woke up halfway through. Thank you for the second nice evening at this place to the crew Jessice and Lauren and the chef!

To end this post, two more nice anecdotes. All the way from QT towards the south end of the lake Wakatipu we had to follow some young tourist driver that went 60 in curves you could do easily with 90 and still he did brake at the sight of the curve and after the curve. Finally safely overtaking it at Kingston (south end of the lake), driving on for some miles with the normal traveling speed to avoid the vibrating noise that our car develops around 105km/h. I got the impression that one passing car was flashing its headlights once. But I was not sure of it and limited the driving speed a little. And bingo, just before the last bend before Garston there was a white car on the left side and friendly blue capped man waved. Police. You went to fast! 112km/h! Do you know the speed limit? Yes. Waiting for a few minutes, considering this was not the Swiss and not Norway, we probably would be able to drive on and Tobias would have his father not sentenced to prison. Answering to Ines question how much I would expect as a fine: around 100NZ$. After a while the officer came back and showed a detailed ticket of 80NZ$. Online payment possible. Ok. Cool. Thank you! Don’t drive so fast with the child on board! (And without?). To sum it up, that was as good as it could get, I was not really fast, all were friendly and we meet that policemen after a coffee break and some miles more on another street where I actually expected him again. This time passing him I was very slow. In the end I was only pissed that I did not see him, as I am more or less always slamming the brake seeing a white car (yes I know there are some other police cars around).

While taking care of this not value generating payment and having some coffee at the Lazybones Café in Athol (again there…) I noticed a rather simple bike with very few luggage for its obviously long distance rider with a sign on the back saying something like “NZ North to South – Frank Burns – Donations for children in Syria”, I memorized the URL mentioned and after the first payment I made another (shame on me) lower payment to his project. Only then I turned around and said “I just made a donation.” And an interesting and friendly conversation about his project, traveling and so on started. You can read that on his page and if you go there please make a donation for his project. Even if it is just 10XY it helps! Thank you!

After that refreshing incidence we continued our way to a remote location we have been twice before (part of it on metaled / dirt roads close to the legal driving speed of NZ). But this time we wanted to go beyond and accomplish a 4WD track that would lead to a paradise unknown for us up to that moment… 

QT, rain, meeting friends or the change of a green to a blue shirt

We are still in that hut of the post before and I am still on the same red as it is the same night.

Arrival in QT (Queenstown) coming from Glenorchy. We got a room in the Scenic Hotel in which you could really hear the air con, thus we friendly complained and after a while we got a upgrade to one of the suites with full sized kitchen two rooms and view on the Remarkables. Lucky! Cool, as I even thought about booking this kind of room / suite. QT meant for us some kind of program: The first night at one of the best restaurants of NZ. The Gantleys. We booked a table and got one for the same evening. Wondering but exactly that week seemed to be some kind of slow shoulder season.

At the Gantleys we went for the six course degustation menu with a bottle of my absolute favorite NZ reds: Pegasus Bay Merlot/Cabernet. This gets 4,5 of 5 flies. The menu was good, but I was not over excited, the two entrees were really good but a little too skinny, the bread was a joke the 3g of butter should have been interesting spreads instead, the main of duck was ok, the second main (rack of lamb) of the same kind. Sorry, but mine rack the night before was on par or even better. But nevertheless the Gantleys is a recommendation (and this is not self-serving bias, the value for money is good, do not miss it and evening at the Gantleys is a must and very decent way to spend an evening! I get back to this on a later blog post). We had two friendly young nice ladies taking care of us that evening at the restaurant. Lauren and Jessica. Lauren could even remember us from three years ago! 

 

One good and one sad thing about that evening. First I received my fresh 10-22 Canon lens. That made me really happy. All worked out flawlessly and at a really good price. And second. The beloved cat of the restaurant, which even became part of our annual calendar for friends and family, was killed by one of the cars on the road nearby. Fingers crossed for our two beloved cats at home Pinja and Livi. Take care, we love and miss you! You two listen, please be all right when we come back!

We had a real good evening at the restaurant. Tobias did sleep the first hour and then was very cooperative and lovely later on during the progress of the dinner.

(I did not yet write about fishing, but I am sitting in a hut in Fjordland - Ines and Tobias sleeping since an hour - where there was a roll of toilet paper two years ago that had printed the label 'Livi' on it!)

The bottle of Pinot gave its last drop to my glass, fuel is going to an end. I have to go to bed.

…

Several days later I try to pick the threat again and continue. We arrived in QT on Saturday, having dinner at the Gantleys. Sunday I thought again of the stream on the north end of the lake, so I went there again – you should really not do that. I got up pretty early, having a quick brekki. As the streets were empty it just took me 40 minutes from door to the stream. Walking down the stream to fish it back up, changing sites, falling in swamp holes, getting a sever electric-massage by one of these electric fences (they are much stronger charged than in Europe, around 3.000 V here), but finally managed to catch a decent Bow on a dark self-tied size 14 nymph. 

I was back in QT around late noon. We went to the usual QT procedure: Outdoorsport-shops to shop for things you urgently need or do not need at all. Best example: a large Diamond Back camp light. Icebreaker stuff. But this time we really limited our self to only socks and one top. And a nice warm softshell jacket at Kathmandu for Ines as birthday present. But no real fancy stuff like titanium cutlery for camping. Or was it the next day when Ines bought the top? With me as consultant she went to the shop twice more to reconsider the color and finally change it from bright green to a vivid blue. The blue looks and fits better. That evening we went to the VKnow restaurant out of town in Fernhill. A nice place, the locals go there and only some tourists. Unfortunately my Pizza was more on the ‘special’ to poor side, Ines dish with venison was good. I had eaten there better before. The crumble for desert is a must. We saved the extra 40 minutes for that as we were full and Tobias announced his preference to go to the suite again.

On Monday slight rain was announced and exactly that happened – unusual sight for the last weeks: rain. The idea of the day on my side was to drive down beyond the south end of the lake to fish a spring creek there. But with the slight rain I started to fish Mataura on one of the most visited access points on the upper part, surprised to find fresh water and cooperative fish. Several went for my fly, several spooked or not hooked log enough for the net. Still this bad ratio … The last times I got the strike timing quiet well, this time it is a mystery to me. The rain eased and the clouds became less. Close to ending the day around early afternoon, as the water was starting to get slight murky, I had a look towards the creek I originally intended to fish: two groups of three persons each on 300m of water, one of them was the local guide. The guide with that shop, in which the lady said “never without a guide”. What is the reason of a guide if he brings you to hammered waters? Might be he was not guiding but showing the aquarium of the creek (as I call one specific section there). Nice day in light rain. Back to QT. Monday evening we had a date with friend Bruce Leitch and Chico for a rainy BBQ. He prepared a BBQ beef filet that was definitely five plus out of five stars with a nice sauce and sides prepared by Chico and Bruce. We just had the job to bring some red (Church Road Cab/Merlot and some beer unfortunately the brand Bruce might not like …). It was a very nice evening with friends. Thank you for these hours! Those make a journey like ours outstanding!

Tuesday was the day we figured out to head over to Lake Te Anau to spend a few days at the beloved Fjordland Lodge. No just kidding, as they indicate some kind of dislike for small kids and the current exchange rate make a stay there not suitable for traveling for such a long time. But we stayed there more than a couple of nights. And based on that experience: if you want to afford it, go there. Enjoy the setting, food, view and relax after a good day's fishing. The last time I spend there, it was the end of the vacation two years ago. Just coming back from one of the rivers on the west side of the lake, totally excited, as I had a terrific day fishing there. An American party in the lodge thought I would be the guide for the next day: suntanned and fishy looking. No I was not. And I did not tell them to excited from the days I just had. Nevertheless of the four days there, two were pretty much non fish days due to flood. That is Fjordland - terrific or horrible.

Exactly that river was the place to go on Tuesday. The days before we made arrangements with a boat Taxi we knew that would bring us over there. Now it was time to get the timing more precise “afternoon”. We still had to do some communication, shopping for three nights in a hut, one camp-out from the hut and do the packing. Besides that we had to go to the DOC (Department of Conservation) to get our clean gear certificate. This is needed to confirm that everything that gets in contact with the river is clean, dry and free of potential didymo algae parts. This algae is a pest, it spreads from river to river and covers the river bottom with an ugly and aquatic life threatening mass. Actually this algae is quiet common in Europe but does not do any sever harm at home. Several of the NZ Rivers are already infected. To keep the remaining rivers clear it is HIGHLY IMPORTANT to check, clean, dry your gear before changing according rivers (Please refer to the DOC page on that issue! And follow it!). At the boat ramp in Te Anau Downs I wanted to call the boat man to make appointment for 5pm – no cell connection. Back in the car, up around the next corner. Nothing. No. There is a simple lodge close by so I used their landline.

An hour later we were finally in the boat. Pretty much with all what we had except two boxes, the large tent and the table. Pretty much close to anything else went with us. The boat did not drown and went over the lake. Tobias was wrapped in a live belt that was for adults. It looked so funny. And he felt strange as he was pretty much tied up, unable to move. But the motor made him fall asleep after ten minutes. It felt really good to go back over the lake to that specific river!

We did arrive at the hut and as it seemed, we would be the only guests at least for the night! And the weather was supposed to be good and the river in perfect condition. Cool! It could not get better.

When you travel, you destroy tools

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.

At the time of writing, sitting in a nice cottage on the north end of Lake Wakatipu after a fine dinner with some – again – outstanding beef filet, beans, mashed potatoes and salad, I am just enjoying the last sips of a Church Road Merlot CabSauv 2010. Besides the Wild Earth Pinot this gets four out of five flies of a to be created section of that blog on wine evaluation. Sorry, have to mention the money topic again. Hint for the traveler: buy your wine in the supermarket (wineries charge most of the times more) and look out for the significant reductions. The wine mentioned was reduced by around 50%.

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?