Fishin'

Our friend Steve is a huge fan of fly fishing. We’ve never tried it before, but NZ is a great place for fishing, so Steve offered to teach Jeremy on Sunday. We hit the road after breakfast in search of the perfect fishing spot.

We planned to fish along the Retaruke River , but had to gain a local farmer’s permission to do so. We didn’t have much luck with that. We either couldn’t find a farmer, or ran into unfriendly people who didn’t want to share their part of the river with strangers. Finally we came across a farmer who owned 1600 acres around the river. He said he didn’t know much about fishing, but directed us to a spot that he knows is popular for fishing.

The spot turned out to be perfect! Deon and I sat in the shade under a bridge. (The sun was scorching on Sunday.) We set up blankets and chatted away while the boys headed upstream. About two hours later some more of our friends arrived with a BBQ and lots of food. They started grilling some burgers and hot dogs and when the “fishermen” returned we enjoyed a delicious feast. The fishing, swimming and fun continued late into the afternoon, until the bugs were biting too much for us to handle. Some fish were spotted, but none were actually caught, unfortunately. The day was nice and relaxing – which was just what we needed after the long hike on Saturday.