Backcountry Christmas

As two years ago the packing for the chopper flight had to be done pretty quickly. I was lucky that I did not miss any substantial items. Except that I should have taken the pack of toilet paper I had in my hand but did not throw on the pile, thinking that there would be plenty at the hut as experienced before. It turned out that there was nothing at all. So I had to use a workaround in terms of some 50NZ$ bills I packed. Lucky I had some. No just kidding, kitchen paper was the bail out. It worked fine.

Flying solo is a plus as there are no weight restrictions. Lots of stuff - good for three people was loaded to the R44.

The sky was grey and the clouds where very low, thus only a pilot knowing the terrain very well was able to fly the direct line. Wayne knew exactly where to fly so the sneak through over the ridge with close to zero visibility for some meters was perfectly mastered and down we dropped to the river valley and towards the hut.

A big cyclone has hit the slopes around Karamea around Easter, deforesting large areas. All trees on some slopes lay flat on the ground, several houses must have been damaged by that extreme storm.

First evening at the hut. I had it all for myself. Love that calm. Dinner: appetizer, filet, rice, salad, yoghurt with some cold beers with candles lightening the room in a warm light. Reading at candle light. Nice evening. Unfortunately it was much too warm to lighten the fire.

Candle light, that is the word, if you travel to a hut take three things in particular: a pack of long burning candles, toilet paper and insect spray to get rid of the sandflies in case there are too many in the hut (cover food before you spray and then leave the room for some time). And for the joy of the next guest: leave all three left overs at the hut.

 

First day at the system I decided to fish branch A due to the rather high main rivers, which made crossing the confluence section impossible (ABC refers to the three branches according to the old blog post nomenclature two years ago). Out of that reason I had to grass-bash through blossoming grass as tall as I am – hello hay fever... that was the maximum dose possible that day. Every single grass bush exploded to a yellowish cloud of poles. Same did my nose and eyes: they just exploded. 

In one of the early pools I caught an active feeding fish and unfortunately ripped it off. But after a couple of minutes it was back on station and was feeding again. I set up another nymph and caught it again! This time it saw the net and I could remove both flies. Did somebody say NZ fish are supposed to be spooky?

I fished well beyond a gorgy section and beyond smaller forks following the main right arm. Very low numbers of fish even in the highly promising pools only one or none… That was rather disappointing compared to the last visit, back then there were considerable more fish not to say many.

 

In total I caught some 4 fish of around 5 to 6,5 lbs. All browns, all on nymph, all in good shape but not sign of mice at all. Such a low result that I tend to count the double hooked fish twice.

Back at the hut I was surprised to see it full: an elderly tramping couple and a group of four young men on special vehicles, obviously not used to sports as they were all sleeping in their beds – it was just around 8 pm. I felt a little bit unfair to fry my filet second round and having a couple of beers. That night a lot of wood was sawn… by the snoring sleepers.

Next day was the turn of branch B. The whole thing was a little bit limited in terms of fun as my left Simms wading boot for some reason caused awful pain with every single step on the upper inner ankle. No explanation for that never had it before. Now I understood a picture I saw once before of totally intentionally cut Simms boots. I was close to consider the same. After some days I just ended up to tie only the lower part of the lace and keep the upper section open. That made me looking very stylish! It might be the fish did not like that.

Fishing was tough. Very low numbers of fish and low numbers of eels. Lots of walking up until the bush and well into the bush up to a big pool that was the point of return two years ago. Back then there were close to half a dozen fish feeding in that pool. This time I saw three not feeding. Water was clear and dropping, a recent spate had added fresh water, spotting was good, thus perfect conditions. I had no explanation for the low numbers of fish. Catching three fish the whole day. Nevertheless the fish were in very good condition around 5,5 to 7lbs, but no sign of mice died, as the area was heavily covered by 1080 just weeks before.

At night I came back to the hut rather late. And to my surprise it was busy again: this time with two Germans, one relocated a decade ago to NZ, who had a fishing rod and funny nymphs with him. The other one was his tramping buddy. We chatted for a while. I had NZ sausages that night – not too bad at all. 

Next morning we made arrangements to share the fishing. I went to C branch and the two others to another section. I walked for an hour strait on the track to cover previously unknown water later that day. The whole day was starting very slow in terms of fishing. I hooked a first fish close to the bridge that was pulling me through two pools downriver. Strange it did not come to my mind that it might be foul hooked. Exactly that was the case. Landing it, the fly was hooked on the back fin, so this fish did not count. Close to that section I caught one soon afterwards that was regularly hooked. At least that one was a real beauty of something close or around to 6,5-7lbs (think I mentioned before: I am unable to memorize more than three fish a day by weight and details, and after some days most of that is blurred as well). To make a long story short: it was the single one fish of the day. I followed the river a little bit more upstream than before and was happy about the track leading back to the hut. What a strange day celebrating Christmas. It was the 24^th of December. At the hut Tortellini and some red wine I shared with the two folks from Germany. The only reminder of Christmas was unpacking a very generous present from my parents and my thoughts of the usual joyful celebration at home.

No fly out on the First Christmas Holiday or Christmas NZ-style (they celebrate on the 25^th) – thus I had to spend another day on that system. Branch A saw me again. Not so far up this time just below the gorge. More kind of taking pictures as there was not much action in terms of fish walking upstream. Even the always good lower pools and a specific section did not show sign of fish! I ended up blank! It happens, but not often.

On the way back to the hut I had some casts to educated fish on a pool of the main river. After a while I gave up and layed down on the bank. Not much sandflies thus a quick snooze was an inviting option. After a longer while I got back to consciousness and got upright and to my surprise – first thought was “it is a dream?!” – there was a fisherman coming up at the bank. An elephant would have surprised me slightly less. It turned out that this time it was a Swiss tramping couple,  he casting an evening line and she around the hut.

To my surprise he did not ask me thousands of questions about NZ fishing and the local river system but about where I have been traveling the years before. Being in NZ I would use every slight chance to gain more on site information about fishing before I would ask somebody about his international travel experiences. His high visibility orange fly line, the experience the days before and some other experiences made me silently thinking: folks if you travel to NZ to fly fish then DO your bloody homework. Read books, internet, collect information on fishing, do your preparation thoroughly and behave accordingly! It just improves your chances to catch the odd fish massively.

Nevertheless the conversation that night was nice and I shared the next bottle of wine with my “guests”, this time it was a rather young but still pleasant Cabernet/Merlot from The Mission / Napier. In Napier Tobias made his very first steps three days after his first birthday. Back then he was so unbelievable proud and excited about what he just achieved.

10:30 the next morning – it was Friday the 26^th December – the chopper flew me out to Karamea. Farewell River – take care and get the fish back!

On the way out I made an aerial shot of a house close to the water, a house where I wanted to say hello to the residents after being back out of the bush…

Four days in Karamea by ines

I waved the helicopter as they flew over the Karamea Lodge, I don't know if Florian and the pilot saw me but it felt funny (Florian: I did not realize the two, but I looked down at the lodge so I did physically see them).

So there we are – four days just on my own with the little one. 

Sunday, the first day after Florian left at late afternoon, we had a relaxed day. Just some walking and playing in the huge garden around the lodge.

The next day we did an excursion: we went to the Oparara Basin: a beautiful area with a huge limestone arch, native forest and a cave called the Moria Gate. It was a really nice walk in the sun, Tobias was sleeping half of the walk - so I could hear the birds singing. Close to the end of the walk we passed a beautiful pond called Mirror Tarn. At the information center Tobias was crawling around flirting with everybody who wanted or not. In the afternoon we went back to the lodge via the narrow and winding gravel road. Luckily I didn't met anyone coming towards me.

 

On Tuesday (March 26) we had again a relaxed day. Tobias was having a bath outside in one of our gear-boxes and had lot of fun - like always when being in the water.

Last day without Florian. Tobias and I drove to the trailhead of the Heaphy Track, one of the Great Walks in New Zealand. The beauty of the track started right at the beginning! I decided to walk for one hour on the track to Scott’s Beach. This track is really nice. Walking through the bush sometimes with nice views of the sea. Scott’s Beach is just a beautiful long white sanded beach - just like you see on a brochure! We stayed for a while, had lunch and Tobias was crawling around happy to be out of the of the backpack (aka Kraxe). I really enjoyed this walk in the stunning nature. 

But it was time to leave. Tobias and I wanted to be back in time because I wanted to pick up Florian in the helicopter as the weather was beautiful and I did not want to miss than chance of flight-seeing over Kahurangi National Park and the coastal mountains. At the beginning of the flight Tobias was really afraid of flying but by the time he got more confident and started playing and watching. Definitely he was happy to see his dad again!

The Lodge that closes and a wired project – plus heaps of trout

Karamea is a rather remote village on the end of a 100km no exit road. In that way it resembles Ammarnäs in Lappland pretty much, a small village that I visited first time back in ’99 and unfortunately last time 2000 with Ines. In both cases there is good fishing close by and a long distance track. Here it is the Heaphy Track, there in Sweden it is the Kungsleden. The first could be done by Mountain Bike in the offseason (Mai! It is on the list for future plans) the last is not so much fun on the bike.

In Karamea we were absolutely happy to have a warm welcome at the fabulous non-fancy down to earth, still cool Karamea Lodge. Before I make you to bookmark their page, I have to disappoint you. It seems after eight years in business the owners consider time is right for a change and close the lodge business in a few weeks. In case, you want to invest, give me a call and we might join forces. We discovered that lodge three years ago and unfortunately did not make it two years ago. But now it was the perfect home base for Ines and Tobias for a couple of days as I wanted to chopper into the bush again from Karamea.

The plan was to luxury-solo fish a remote river system that we did not fish before. It is a highly regarded system and provides a variety of options and branches. But there was one problem as the pilot was not available on the preferred fly in date. So I had to rearrange plans and to fly right on that evening. Doing groceries for the bush (butter chicken, wine, beer and muesli), packing and charging batteries. It is always chaos, even if you are not limited by weight. I took the huge tent, a chilly bin, a box of food and tools, a big bag and a small back back. Don’t do that if you travel with other friends / passengers. This volume would be way to much! Unless you have some larger chopper on hand.

During my stay in the bush Ines and Tobias would stay at the Lodge and around Karamea, getting some time off from me and doing excursions. They had a very good home base to do that.

 

Due to the busy schedule of the pilot the fly out time was pretty much undefined but “late”. Around 6pm the chopper passed the lodge towards the hanger so the pilot was back from his assignments and ready to fly me. The clouds where hanging low, just right on the peaks and ridges of the coastal line, but the pilot found a window of less than 50meters in high between the ridge and the clouds to sneak through and access the valley that lead us towards the destination. Arriving there he pretty much urged me to stay in the close by hut. Thanks to that I had a very convenient accommodation up there. 

This late arrival actually was not a bad setup, as I was arriving close to dark, I head plenty of time to arrive in the hut and set everything up for the next day. The hut was a little surprise. It was redone just recently but was equipped with items normally not found on a DOC hut.

The next day I went to the – let’s call it so – alpha branch of the system. This branch, as all the others, were quiet low, but this was not a surprise at all after this dry summer. Interesting was that the branches in some places where more like creeks and in others they were medium sized rivers. Part of the water flows in some sections in the shingle and thus subsurface. On this semi covered day I pretty soon started to catch fish. Around lunch time I was already out of the river flats close to the more gorgy section and the bush line was close to the water. After a brief lunch of a big sandwich and some sweat cookies I continued upstream Some of the fish caught on that day where cruisers and some feeding fish in faster moving water. All of them on nymphs. Around afternoon I observed some increasing feeding activity. Trout seemed to be more vary. None of the trout was particular crazy because of the low water. The river got more narrow, I entered the gorgy section late afternoon and as usual in this situations it was pretty much a exploration pool by pool upstream, driven by curiosity and the question when I might come back to that pristine place again. Caught some, lost some, spooked some. I wanted to catch the very last trout of that day to make the magic one digit number of fish caught so I went to the next and the next pool, till I finally pretty much run into a cruising trout and caught it. A nice closure of that terrific day! I turned around and had a walk of close to two hours to the hut. Tired and hungry I made a brake somewhere. Not over pacing it as a single misjudged step on a boulder here can cause some trouble. Two hours from the hut and four days from the fly out a injured capsule should be avoided.

I had a last look on the “hut pool” without seeing any big fish there and was back at the hut.

Just this single first day was amazing! It could not get better. A beer, tortellini and a solid sleep ended the day. The sleep was just interrupted by four times call of the wild… to much tea and water late. Once I nearly stumbled over the Weka bird that was searching for food in the moonlight close to the hut.

Next day head down the beta branch, again a semi covered day. I knew that this branch was fished by a guide two days before, I saw their footprints. The fishing was little harder with less fish to the net. Around late 2-3pm again the fish where feeding on some – in the meantime I figured it out – medium sized brown mayfly emerger. Before and after they could be fouled with other nymphs, during the hatch they were pretty much locked it. The most curios take I got from a fish that I pretty much saw to late – I was already upstream from it (!) – around 5-6meters and from its position around 1:30-2pm on the clock (12 would be just upstream) so I was to his right. Seeing it I just freest and went slowly down on my knees. Most likely the fish did not realize me as it was in rather fast broken water. I tried with some conventional nymphs at first and then got an immediate take on the ESPT. It scored again! A totally ridiculous take. The fish taken this day where either cruising trout that interestingly liked the blob a 2,8 mm tungsten beat head fly makes when dropped on the water two meters away or more or less feeding fish in the faster currents. 

Due to the progressed time I was forced to end the fishing day around 6km as the crow flies from the hut. I knew I would at least walk for two hours, might be even into dark. There was supposed to be a track paralleling the river. So I bush bashed too find they track – after 300m distance from the river I was in doubt and rushed back to the river. A wise decision, as later on I got the information that there is nowhere a track at that location only further down… 

For now the task was to gain ground towards the hut as fast as possible. I knew it would be around 8:30pm to arrive the hut and thus dark. I hoped for the light of the bright moon, because by intention I did not take a headlamp with me to be back at the hut before dark. Obviously that plan did not work out. Crossing the river to take the shortest way a several times. The last half an hour and finding the hut was funny. The GPS helped a lot to find the most direct way through the wide shingle banks of the river and at least to find the hut at all (vision with my Smith prescription polarized sunglasses was still better than without). Just arriving at the hut the rain started heavily. Wow that was close – I was already thinking of how to build a camp from one emergency blanked, fern and six meters of cord. The beer, the butter chicken and the Longride red at the hut tasted very well this night and the fire provided a very cozy atmosphere.

The third day I went to the alpha branch again. Same water different weather and totally different fish behavior. It was pretty much blue skies and warm and most likely the weather and not my fishing two days ago might have changed the fish behavior. The first 3-4 km I did hardly ever see a fish. Nothing. All were hiding somewhere in the faster sections. I had no urge to blind cast. It took very long to catch the first fish, just after some kind of afternoon nap. I got one other from a pool further up, well in the gorge where several good sized fish where feeding on the emerger mentioned above just below the surface. I took only one because I was too greedy and to inpatient. It was already around 6pm and this feeding fancy did not again recover due to my disturbance to that specific pool. Poor fish I interrupted their snack. And again a long two hour walk out to the hut. 

Back at the hut I was not sure if the lack of energy but I had the impression there was some dim light in the hut. It was not only the impression there where two trampers and one project related man. (Sorry I cannot provide more information as everything else would lead right away to the conclusion about which river I am writing. This is also valid for part of the title of this post) The night was horrible. Due to the cooking and the three people that were sleeping, smelling and snoring in the hut and the peer group pressure to dim the light around 3 hours before my usual sleeping time I did not find sleep till well in the next day. And the man showed up as announced at 6am to have breakfast … I should have better pitched my tent for that night alone. But this idea just now came to my mind.

The fourth and last day was assigned to the gamma branch of the river. I was surprised to find a decent sized river and not just a tiny creek as it looked down at its junction to the main river. A good half day with four or five fish up to around 6lbs. Unfortunately the three fish spotted in typical NZ locations and hides could not be fouled, might be due to my spoiled and careless fishing. 

I ended this last day well before 3pm to be the hut early enough to do the final packing, give the hut a sweep and have a last bucket-bush-shower before the chopper approached. It came just minutes after the defined time with a surprise! Ines and Tobias where sitting right to the pilot! They did not want to miss this opportunity of half an hour scenic flight over native forests and untouched mountains. 

 

This trip got 8 of 10 points – it was close to as good as it could get. And the two points missing where more or less caused by my style of careless leisure fishing.

What Ines did with Tobias in the meantime, what we did with the bonus day in Karamea and some fine dining at the roads end … to be continued.

PS:

Please have a look on Save Fiordland about the crazy idea to link Qt with Milford sound right through one of the largest pristine untouched landscapes of New Zealand: http://www.savefiordland.org.nz/ 

There click on get involved and sing up the two petitions against the tunnel and against the mono rail. Both ideas are as stupid as to build an elevator to the top of Montblanc.