Fly Fishing Trip

Ian Ruthven (our guide for the day) picked us up at our hotel just before 7:00am Sunday morning, with all the supplies and raft in tow. We drove west from Taupo about one hour to the Mohaka River where we launched the raft and began our day of trout fishing. Basically the purpose of the raft is to get us downstream to good fishing spots that are not accessible by foot. We would load up in the raft and travel a bit, then beach it and fish for a while from the river banks. Once we were done with one spot, we would jump back in the raft and continue on. Overall we covered about 8 kilometers of river. Dave caught and released a 3.5

pound brown trout after many aimed casts right over the fish. Once he finally took the fly, it was a great fight to the end. Jill caught and released a small 2 pound brown trout and hooked a nice size rainbow trout, but failed to land the rainbow. We had such an awesome day on the river; breakfast, lunch, rafting, fishing, sunshine, and a great guide. It was a beautiful sunny day that brought both of our first brown trouts. We can't wait until our next opportunity to fly fish.

Travel

Thursday morning we made our way to Taupo to meet up with our fly fishing guide. We had our first lesson and acquired quite a bit of info and skills. The weather wasn't the best, but we enjoyed ourselves anyways. Even though we were wearing waders, our feet and toes were frozen by the end of the day. After our lesson, we kept heading west to Hawke's Bay. We stayed two nights on the west coast in a great little hotel. On Friday we went into Napier to go to TrainWorld. We had a great time checking out the model trains and letting our inner child out.

Then we drove out to Cape Kidnappers to golf. What a beautiful course... it was right on the tip of the Cape jetting out into the Pacific Ocean. It was an extremely hard course but well worth the amount of balls Dave lost. There were drop-offs and cliffs all over the place. On Saturday we headed back to Lake Taupo. We stopped along the way at Linden Winery for a tasting and Esk Valley Olives to sample olives and extra virgin olive oil. Then we stopped at the Mohaka River so Dave could try a little fly fishing. Because of technical difficulties he was unable to catch anything, but we did have a nice picnic lunch on the river bank. Then we continued on the road to get to our hotel.

Hamilton Zoo

Wednesday Oct 26th we drove south about 4 hours, past Auckland, just outside Hamilton. We are on our way to Hastings and Taupo to do some fly fishing. We weren't sure how long it would take up to get down that far in the North Island so we planned for a pit stop. Once we made it, we checked into our hotel which is on a mountain top, and then went to Hamilton Zoo. The zoo was relatively small, but very nice. There weren't many people at all so it was very quiet. We enjoyed walking around and being very close to the animals with not much barrier at all. Then it was back to the hotel to get some rest before we get back on the road in the morning.

Catching Snapper

Friday we went rock fishing (fishing from the land, that is made of rocks), but didn't catch anything. We had a nice peaceful time though. Saturday we went to the "IT" festival here in town. It was a wine and food festival with several live bands playing throughout the day. We had some great food and enjoyed the sunshine.

On Sunday, Jason took us out on his boat to catch snapper. Jill skunked the boys big time with not only the most fish, but also the biggest fish. Jill caught a barracuda and 2 snappers. Jason and Dave each caught one snapper. It was a nice calm day out on the water. We had a great time, but it was a little cloudy. We are ready for some hot summer days on the boat. Sunday night we joined our landlords and some of their friends to cookout and watch the Rugby World Cup final. New Zealand vs. France. The New Zealand All Blacks won!

One Month In New Zealand!!!!

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Whangarei Falls

Wednesday Oct 19th we drove south to Whangarei, which is about one hour. We hiked to Whangarei falls from A.H. Reed Park. The walk was along the river thru a couple cow pastures, over a suspension bridge, and through the forest. It was a gorgeous spot with a nice wooden bridge right over the river in front of the falls. We had lunch there and then hiked back. After the park, we went into the town and found a bowling alley. We bowled a few games and then did some shopping in a nearby shopping area. We went to a huge sporting goods store, a huge camping/outdoor store, and a huge housewares store. It was nice to have a "normal" shopping experience. Lots of aisles, loads of selection, sales, and products we recognized! Where we live there are only small stores; you don't realize the strange comforts of home that you miss. Now, if we could just find a Publix... (Just Kidding). It was a great day. Thursday we are off to the golf course!

Laying Low

The last several days we have kinda been laying low. We have golfed a couple times on two different courses. One day at the KeriKeri Golf Club and another at the Waitangi Golf Club. On Saturday our friend Jason came over and we hung out and played dice and card games all day out on the deck in the sun. It was a nice relaxing day. On Sunday we tried to go to the orchid and bromeliad show in KeriKeri, however we found out once driving over there it was only Friday and Saturday. But then we thought... well it's Sunday, while we are in KeriKeri we should go to the farmers market (which we know is held on Sundays), however it was 1:00 and the farmers market apparently is held from 8:00-12:00. A Day Late and a Dollar Short! (As Dave would say). We still managed to have a good time though, we stopped in Paihia and walked around for a bit, then headed home.

Waipoua Forest

On Thursday Oct 13th, we headed about an hour and a half west to the Waipou Forest to see some living Kauri trees. A couple blog posts ago we explained about ancient kauri wood, so we really wanted to see living kauri. On our way to the forest we stopped at an information center, got a local map, and set out to find some trees. We did stop at a lookout point by the Tasman Sea on our way to the trails to get some photos of the ocean. Once we got to the Kauri walks, we went on several different trails and saw lots of huge trees. The tree with the biggest girth we saw, known as Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest), was 53 feet 10 inches around. The tallest known as Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), was 169 feet tall and 2000 years old. We also saw a group of four huge Kauri trees known as the Four Sisters. They grew really close together at the base, but have completely separate trunks. It was a bit chilly and wet, but we really enjoyed the forest.

Fishing

Dave set out early Sunday morning on a fishing trip with his friend Jason. While the weather was forecasted to be a bit lousy, it turned out to be a great calm day on the water. They were out from 6:00am to about 2:00pm. The catch of the day included 4 pacific yellowtail a.k.a. New Zealand Kingfish (picture below), 20 rose fish, about 40 golden snapper, a couple sharks, and a few others. Most were thrown back but a few were kept for dinner!

The picture above is the fish on Sunday, Below is the fish the following few days...

Ancient Kauri

Kauri trees are among the oldest and biggest trees growing in the world. We have gone into several woodworking shops while here in New Zealand and seen some pretty amazing wood products made from ancient kauri. Ancient Kauri is 45,000-50,000 years old. It fell all those years ago into the swamp land and has been preserved in the wetlands for thousands of years. Excavation of the logs is a difficult and time consuming process. Once the logs are excavated, they are milled into awesome products.

A huge staircase was made into a trunk that was found and is now a centerpiece for the Kauri Kingdom store in the far north.The 1087 year old tree, weighed 140 tons when extracted from the ground, and is the largest piece ever found. A 50 ton section was cut from the tree to make the staircase. It took 300 hours to chainsaw the staircase out of the 50 ton piece that was cut from the log and 200 more hours to be finished. Kauri trees do still grow in New Zealand but are protected by very strict laws.

There are some really pretty bowls, cutting boards, picture frames, tables, and many other awesome products made out of this ancient wood. We saw a huge couch that was 50,000 dollars. It was awesome, but that's a little pricey! But who knows how much more of this wood is left to be milled.

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2 Day Get-A-Way

On Friday morning we packed a bag, jumped in the car, and headed north. We drove up the east coast to the Karikari Peninsula to play golf at the Carington Resort. Well, Dave played golf, Jill just played around. It was a great day for golf, sunshine and a cool breeze. There were only a couple other groups on the course because it is still a little before season starts, so we really enjoyed our time. After golfing, we drove to Kaitaia, found a hotel, and settled in. We ate dinner and walked around a bit in town. It was a great stay except the sirens that went off at 2:00 A.M. This crazy loud siren blares across town for about 45 seconds waking us up. Then 10 minutes later the siren goes off again. Jill being the worrier can't get back to sleep over worry that something is wrong. Tornado? Tsunami? Earthquake? What does it mean? So Jill googles it while Dave sleeps. Apparently it is their fire station alarm. They have a volunteer station, so the alarm sounds and the local volunteers know to head to the station. We found out the next morning, a gas station was on fire. We really think they should come up with a more modern way of doing things, but hey I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Saturday morning we went on a quad bike adventure. If you have ever seen the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations show where he goes to New Zealand, there is a segment with the exact guy that was our guide. It was a two hour guided tour on 4-wheelers. We went thru quite an array of terrain. Forests, muddy tracks, sand dunes, and beaches. We both have riden plenty of four-wheelers in our past, and we both agree that this was by far the most awesome four-wheeling ever! We had a blast. Our guide was really awesome and we were the only ones on the tour, so everything was tailored to us.

It was pretty crazy the slope of some of the huge dunes we were going down. Kinda scary at times. Adrenaline is good for the soul. Dave got a little crazy with donuts and horseplay. He actually tore the muffler off of his quad on accident going over the rocky terrain on the ride back. Those quads take a beating for sure. Fortunately for us, we didn't flip our 4x4's like Anthony Bourdain did. What a great experience! We are for sure doing that again!

Sunshine

Tuesday Oct 4th brought sunshine! We went on a two and a half hour hike nearby just to get some exercise. Then we drove to the KeriKeri Basin Recreation Reserve and hiked to Wharepuke Falls. The weather was fantastic. It does get a bit windy here, which can be chilly, but when the sun is out it really makes a difference. On Wednesday evening Dave went fishing and caught a snapper and several bronze whaler sharks with Jason.

Rainy Days

It rained here from Friday thru Monday, which was a bummer. 4 days of rainy weather is no good. We did get moved into our apartment in the small community of Opua in the Bay of Islands. We are unpacked and all settled. We are excited to have a place to call home and to have our suitcases out of sight! This picture is the view from our deck that stretches across the whole apartment.

On Monday we did venture down to Whangarei in the rain. We couldn't hike but we did go to Claphams Clock Museum and The Quarry Arts Centre - Northland Craft Trust, which is a site where local artists and craftspeople have their studios and workshops. We watched as a local woodworker made a cigar box guitar and saw some local men taking a woodworking class. We did also manage to find a small waterfall on the site in the rain.