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| The beauty that is Lake Wanaka |
So this post is a little out of sync chronologically but we wanted to talk about our adventures in between housesits all in one fell swoop.
During the first week of January we headed into a Department of Conservation campground at the southern end of Molesworth Station.
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| Our view from Acheron campground |
We were delighted to be joined by Clare's niece Lucy and her daughter Willow. The girls had recently taken part in a Bush Survival course to learn about wild NZ food ... one of our favourite passions! And we were eager to learn from each others' experiences.
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| Enjoying some delicious camp meals together |
We had booked a hunting block which was easily accessible from a short walk from camp and we got up early a couple of mornings to head out looking for some Chamois. Fortunately for the local Chamois we are fairweather hunters .... we often refer to our hunts as 'taking the gun for a walk' and that is exactly what happened. We saw one Chamois on a ridge across the river from us. We sat and watched it for quite some time, discussing whether we could be bothered to slog up the ridge and try for it. Before we decided not to!
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| There it is |
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| Right in the middle of that circle It looked further in real life ;-) |
Not seeing another animal didn't bother us at all. We were so taken with the scenery that we just enjoyed the our walks.
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| Golden Spaniard ... James went to lean on it. Big mistake! They are really sharp. |
We thought these guys were poaching on our block until we realised they were actually spraying wildling pines. It was fun to watch even though it somewhat ruined our hunt that day.
Fortunately we were not counting on our hunting exploits to feed us well back at camp. James caught two of the most beautiful brown trout we have ever seen and they tasted amazing. We even had plenty to share with the woman who was looking after the camp for the summer.
Willow wanted to get involved too .... of course! She as been learning to fish and caught and ate her first fish just before Christmas. She didn't mind at all that it was a Spotty.
Eventually it came time to move on. We had thoroughly enjoyed our time with the girls.
One of the South Island activities that we had pencilled into our calendar was fishing for salmon in the canals around Twizel.
We set up camp the first two nights on the edge of lake Poaka which was very pretty, just so that we could get the lay of the land. This was unlike any fishing we have ever done before and we knew it would take a while to figure it out.
We sat and watched many trout swim by us but were proving quite difficult to catch. But never fear, James won't be outsmarted by anyone!
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| Gotcha! This wee chap got released back to his idyllic home after being tempted on a small dry fly. |
The nights were so beautiful. There is nothing quite like camping evenings.
Next we checked into a small cabin at the camping ground as it was time to start taking this salmon fishing thing a little more seriously. To do so, we knew we would have to put in some hours at each end of each day as the middle of the days were far too hot to be out and about.
The salmon are predominantly escapees from the salmon farms dotted around the canals. They are wild salmon originating from the salmon farms and they hang around the farms as they know them to be a good source of food. They can also grow to quite a size. There are plenty of trout in the canals too. In fact the largest trout caught to date, worldwide, was caught in one of these canals .... weighing in at 42pounds 1ounce.
Our strategy was to fish the same spot every evening and into dark, sometimes after midnight. So we chose a quiet fish farm which we had to walk to. This is where we caught our biggest fish of the trip but also where we lost "the big one"!
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| A typical fish farm |
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| Lovely fat salmon |
In the mornings we ventured out trying different spots and different fishing methods. We had some luck spinning for salmon off the spillway of the hydro station outfall as well. We were surprised how interested they were in a standard kahawai spinner.
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| Ummm, yeah nah, too small |
We caught some lovely trout too and ate extremely well for the week, also catching plenty to share with family and friends during our upcoming journey.
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| Yummy brown trout |
Even when the fish are not playing ball, we are happy to just sit back and enjoy the scenery around us.
Although we saw plenty of big fish being caught we didn't quite manage to land the big one ourselves so we left with a feeling of unfinished business. They don't get to be big by being stupid so we feel like we have not quite figured out how to outsmart them yet. We are already planning our next trip.
To be continued at a (much) later time ......
Tally of fish caught on flies, spinners, prawns and anchovies:
3 Rainbow Trout
4 Brown Trout
7 Salmon
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