New Zealand South Island Fishing / Camping Road Trip - WARNING...picture massive!

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C_Claycomb

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Oct 6, 2003
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New Zealand South Island:- Two week fishing/camping road trip.

DSC03020 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Visiting New Zealand was something I had dreamed of doing for many years, however it seemed such a long way off, literally and figuratively, that I stalled and never really put effort into planning such a trip. I told myself that I didn’t want to do the trip alone, that I wanted someone to travel with, and no such person ever materialised. This last year though, some friends said they would like to see New Zealand too, and suddenly the prospect of a trip seemed a lot closer and more real. After a bit of planning on my part, my friends realised they had insufficient time or funds and so pulled out. I nearly shelved the idea again at that point, but am glad that I did not, instead choosing to go ahead alone.

Travelling with friends has many advantages, sharing costs, sharing driving and cooking, having people to talk to and share the experience, and maybe most of all, not having to be the sole inspiration for activities every day. I realised though that travelling without companions still had one big advantage; no need to consider whether what you want to do suits others. Even though I hadn’t fly fished for over 15 years (closer to 20!) there was no way I was going to visit New Zealand without wetting a line, and with only myself to worry about there would be no one to complain if I felt like wetting a line in every ditch and puddle I passed!

The lack of planning that went into this trip ensured that it had to happen in the final quarter of the year, and my friends’ input before pulling out aimed me at November. The weather can be changeable at that time of year, most of the people I met told me that I should have visited in May when there are more sunny days, but on the other hand its close to the start of the fishing season, and the fish are not nearly so wary. Being out of practice for 15 years, I reckoned I wanted all the advantage I could get!

I couldn’t spare more than two weeks for the tour, which is far too little to do New Zealand justice, so I limited what I tried to see. I didn’t want to be driving all day, every day, and wanted to leave plenty to see on any future trip that I might make.

I flew out on the evening of Friday 6th November, 11 hours to Hong Kong, 5 hour lay-over, then another 11 hours to Auckland, a 1.5 hour transfer (which was about 45mins too short for comfort) and an hour and a bit domestic flight to Christchurch, arriving middle of Sunday the 8th!

NZ Routemap2 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Days 1-3
Monday morning morning, still far from sure what time zone my body thought that it was in, I met up with fishing guide Chris Bell of http://www.adventureflyfishingnz.com, left my rental car at his house, and headed off to see if we could find some un-educated trout.

First stop was up on the Broken River, just off the road up towards Arthurs Pass. It wasn’t a great day for photos, kind of overcast. None of my pictures of Castle Hill as we passed are worth showing.
DSC02900 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
It was up here that I got my first look at the infamous New Zealand sand fly. Not the sort of place a visitor would necessarily think would be buggy, but it is. The only thing that keeps them away is when the wind is really blowing.

Someone with no sense of etiquette jumped in upstream of us just as we were setting up and proceeded to scare off all the fish ahead of us, so we didn’t stay long. We stopped at a couple of places along the way towards the angling club “hut” we were to stay in at Lake Clearwater. The Rakaia River its gorge bridge was quite something. Water is blue as a result of glacial flour, fine ground rock, which allows greater scattering of light. The water looks blue for the same reason the sky does. It really looks like someone has dyed it!

DSC02915 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

We arrived at the hut in the dark, so it wasn’t until morning that I could see the view. It’s a popular spot and there is practically a whole village of holiday baches and caravans. Not hard to see why though.

DSC02919 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Just up the gravel road we tried to tempt something out of Lake Heron. I got broken off, no other takes, it was hard fishing in very strong winds. Mind you, not catching wholly wild fish in such surroundings beats hauling in stock fish all day in some murky gravel pit :D
DSC02925 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC02933 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Lake Heron is just around the corner from Mt. Sunday, where they built the Edoras set for Lord of the Rings. This was the only Lord of the Rings / Hobbit filming location that I particularly wanted to see. I did see others, but this was the only one I went out of my way for.

DSC02980 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC02969 by Last Scratch, on Flickr


That was the warmest day of the whole trip, up to around 23degC.

From there, we headed down to a rather less spectacular area near Geraldine to try our luck in the Orari and Opihi. More hard fishing, and rather wet and colder weather.

IMG_0335 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The denser trees around the river made me think we would be eaten alive by sandfly, but didn’t see any at all. Did see a lot of interesting things growing on trees. Not really sure if these were lichen or air plants!

IMG_0332 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Nice brown trout from the Opihi
IMG_0344 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

All the fish I caught were returned with care. Rather hard for someone who likes his ponassed trout, but although the fish grow large, there are not many of them and catch-and-release is encouraged. There are also a lot of restrictions regarding camp fires, and trying to cook even a small trout on a camping gas burner would be absurd.

After finishing my three days with Chris Bell, he let me stay at his house, which was really going above and beyond!




Day 4
Didn’t make an early start, far from it actually. I spent half the day running errands around Christchurch, picking up food, maps, and some fishing gear. I finally got on the road around 2pm, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that I didn’t make it as far as I had hoped to before it was late and time to find somewhere to camp again.


The day had started in Christchurch with cold squally showers and there was cloud and rain moving up from the south, but once over the first ridge of mountains, the weather changed and brightened up. I followed the same scenic route that I had taken with Chris, so went back passed the Rakia River gorge, this time managing to take a picture of the area

DSC03008 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Lake Tekapo in the evening light
DSC03032 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Weather from the east following me over the mountains.

DSC03027 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

New Zealand doesn’t do scenery by halves. Just a few miles down the road, another similarly stunning lake vista. Lake Pukaki and Mt Cook in the background

DSC03037 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03046 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

I had hoped to get as far as the Ahuriri river crossing, passed Twizel, but it was getting too late so I took the easy option of camping in the Twizel Holiday Park. The clear air promised a cold night.


Day 5

Dang cold. Needed both my Jack-R-Better down quilt, AND my DIY under quilt, used one on top of the other in the tent. Got up fairly early to go try catching one of the big trout that live in the Pukaki hydro canal. Car thermometer said it was 4degC. I did see a trout but didn’t catch anything, no one was catching, so don’t believe all the videos on Youtube! Not really the side of New Zealand that everyone thinks of, but a canal with fast flowing, glacial melt turquoise water, containing trout of 20+lbs was too much of a novelty to pass by! Another poor morning for photos, this was the best I could get. Still, no question that I wasn’t stood next to a UK canal ;)

DSC03048 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Not far south, just before Omarama, State Highway 8 crosses the Ahuriri River and there is a DOC campsite that had looked promising from maps and reviews. Looked a lot less good in person. Glad I chose to stay at Twizel.

IMG_0368 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The Ahuriri River was quite something; braided over a shingle and stone bed, fast, clear and blue with wide expanses of lupines growing on the neighbouring flats. It was here that I saw a pair of the endangered black stilt or Kaki. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is probably the rarest creature I am ever likely to see in the wild.

IMG_0372 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

This stretch of river is said to have a good population of trout, but clearly the trout had not read this and were elsewhere on the day I was fishing. I did find one brown trout with a reckless streak (returned him too), not a big fish, but a hard fighter and very silvery.

Following the road southwest towards Queenstown I went through the Lindis Pass, which had some great views.
DSC03067 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
Its only after you have topped the pass that you realise how high you were. Twizel is about 456m, the pass 930m and from there it is 77km all downhill to Cromwell way at the south end of Lake Dustan at just 210m.
 
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C_Claycomb

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Day 6

I camped at a place called Bannockburn and took a drive up the Nevis Road, which I had heard was the highest maintained public road in New Zealand, sounded fun. It was pretty steep, all dirt and nothing to stop you rolling off the edge. :D
The views were worth it, but it was DANG cold up there!! I don’t know what the actual temperature was, but the wind had me digging out windproof over-trousers, two jackets and gloves.

There is a very picturesque sign at the top of the ridge:
NEVIS ROAD
DUFFERS SADDLE
Reaches 1300m Elevation
Highest public road in NZ
Affected by adverse weather​

I can’t help but think the last bit is akin to a sign in a similar spot stating “Warning! You are on a mountain!” Duh ;)
DSC03080 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

DSC03125 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

My faithful steed
DSC03086 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
All the plants are pretty short up on these high ridges. Anyone want to have a guess at how tall these bushes are?
DSC03094 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Okay, that was a little misleading of me! They aren’t bushes, they are lichen, and they are about 30mm tall, which makes them giants compared to most rock growing lichens that I have found.
DSC03098 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

As fun as the tops were, I didn’t linger too long. Too cold, and I had some distance to travel yet.

From Cromwell, the road to Queenstown follwos the Kawarau river, site of the first permanent bungee jumping site in NZ. No, I wasn't even slightly tempted to give it a try!

DSC03149 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
In this valley I saw a strange sight, a whole forest of dead trees. When I pulled up at the over-look spot I found information boards that explained that these were “wildings”, unwanted non-native trees that threatened to take over the landscape from the native brush and tussock. A combination of felling and aerial spraying was being used to control their spread.
DSC03157 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

A few days later I met a guy who told me about some walkers who were caught by blown spray while 2km downwind of a similar control area. Nasty chemicals that you don’t want on your skin.

Same day, just a few mountains away, Lake Wakatipu in an angry mood at Queenstown....
DSC03173 by Last Scratch, on Flickr



On the way up the lake I had a look at the 10-Mile Delta campsite, which wile sheltered wasn’t really all that picturesque (apart from the backdrop) ;).
DSC03181 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The trouble with driving as a visitor in NZ is that you keep rounding corners and finding imperative reasons to stop and take pictures!
DSC03189 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

At far north end of the lake, calm at the Kinloch camp site. Opposite Glenorchy, where the Dart River enters Lake Wakatipu. Do you think there might have been a few displaced Scots naming places?

DSC03201 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Day 7

At 4am I was awakened by the wretched wind swinging around. Gusts of up to 39kmph, according to the weather news. The lovely calm, sheltered camp site was just the opposite with the change in wind direction. Rain, wind and snow on the higher elevations. So much for sunny spring time!

DSC03211 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03214 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Left the tent up and went inland a little to try fishing Lake Silvan, which is surrounded by thick native bush and black beech forest. No wind. Met several pairs of very friendly native robins.

DSC03221 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03229 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
Wearing the very height of fashion! Shorts and poly-pro leggings. Fast drying, and sand fly defeating! Not too many flies in the forest, except for the area around where the path first reached the lake, where most of the warm blooded visitors stopped and stared around ;) The fish continued to exhibit a depressing lack of interest in my efforts.
DSC03242 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

There’s another location for both Hobbit and LOTR at a place called Paradise, not far from where I was camping, so I went had a look at that area too. Not a lot to see from the road, but the frequent tour bus traffic has generated some fearsome road corrugations. Either drive at 5kph, or at 60kph. Faster and you might slide of the road and anything in between will all but shake your car to bits!
DSC03259 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The fish in Diamond Lake, just off the Paradise road, were similarly disinterested by the time I got there, although a couple of local chaps had had some luck.
DSC03283 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

View from camp. On the East side of the mountains, this was about as good a sunset as I got.
IMG_0388 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

DSC03296 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
 
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C_Claycomb

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Day 8

Next morning was a bit chilly!
DSC03307 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03313 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

I was in Kinloch to meet up with local guide Gordy Watson http://www.trout-stalkers.co.nz/. I chose the site thinking it was near Glenorchy, which seemed to be where he was from. It was only later that I learned that while he was local born and bred, he now lived beyond the far side of Queenstown.

The plan up to that morning was to hike up a river, fishing, camp over night, hike/fish a bit more, then turn around and march downstream, not fishing. Gordy had asked me if I was interested in a helicopter pick up, but I balked at the price. On the morning he picked me up he said he had been talking to the pilot he worked with on other trips, and we could get a pick up on the pilot's way back from doing something else, at a somewhat reduced rate, and did I want to do it? No hurry, but an answer was needed before we went out of cell phone coverage at the trail head, 15 minutes, no pressure.

Having started cold, the day soon warmed up and under Gordy's direction I somehow managed to hook and land this beauty.

IMG_0406 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
Gordy joked that having caught a nice fish so early, he could relax and take it easy from there on! He was only joking! We caught a number of very feisty rainbows throughout the rest of the day, none were all that big, but man did they pull hard. I read about fish "tail walking" but had never actually seen it until that day.

DSC03365 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The trout had finished the spawn, but the males still had the pronounced kypes on their lower jaws, and very prominent teeth. The fish seemed to be less particular than those I had encountered earlier in the trip, Gordy used bigger flies than Chris, and one of the more successful was some monstrous thing with rubber legs that looked like nothing on earth. Wasn't the craziest thing we threw though.

DSC03338.jpg

While skirting an unfishable section Gordy insisted that we take a little detour-scramble which I wasn't sure about, but he was right, it was WORTH it for the view even though climbing up through the trees with a 9-foot rod was interesting ;)

DSC03376.jpg


This is where we camped, surrounded by beech forest.

DSC03391 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The beech were all in flower, which promises a huge mast crop in the autumn, and a corresponding explosion of mice, which will in turn mean the trout put on pounds. The beech were flowering like this all over the south. I had heard it was a mouse year in 2014, but Gordy said that was mostly further north.

Beech leaves by Last Scratch, on Flickr

In this idyllic looking spot, the sandflies were rather bad, almost worse than I saw anywhere else. Interestingly, they seemed to like Gordy more than me! He did say that in Fjordland there could be so many they sound like rain on the tent fly, we were a good way short of that.
DSC03395 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Fortunately, they don't fly at night, so we had a bit of a respite while we ate dinner and watched the stars. Gordy was looking for satellites when we saw the ISS go over. Kinda hard to miss, brighter and faster than anything else in the sky. The stars were very bright, but you had to wait a long while for them to show, and the Milky Way didn't show as it did in Namibia in June.

Gordy had been saying we would try night fishing with a mouse fly. For those of you who know about fly fishing, you will understand that throwing a deer hair mouse on a #6 weight, in the dark, is almost funny.
Worked though!


DSC03407 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

DSC03414 - Copy by Last Scratch, on Flickr

We were both tired, so having landed this monster we unanimously called it quits, it was gone 11pm on a long day.




Day 9

Next day we cached our camping kit and carried on going light.

I should say at this point, that any success I was having was more down to Gordy's direction than any skill on my part! He was generally encouraging, but only after being critical and pushing me to do better. My lack of practice still showed, even though we used shorter leaders than I did with Chris. I managed some simply spectacular tangles! The wind was almost always blowing hard downstream. There was one point at which I recognised I wasn't going to manage the cast and asked Gordy to try. :D

IMG_0417 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

I think I would have been happy for him to have fished more than he did, but both Gordy and Chris insisted that they were out there to help me catch fish, not catch them themselves.

Given the results, I cannot really fault that.

DSC03429 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
This could be the biggest fish I have ever caught, it is certainly the best. It’s not big enough to be considered a trophy for New Zealand, but it is for me!

DSC03433 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
It was at this point of the day that Gordy remarked that in such surroundings, “fishing” isn’t just about casting and catching fish, just being in the place is part of the experience.
IMG_0423 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03482 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
All too soon we had gone as far as we would or could go and it was time to turn around and head back down stream. But we wouldn't be doing it on foot. :D




Back at camp, the wind still blowing!

DSC03506 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Good stars when there isn't cloud cover, but there was so much wind that it was a huge challenge to get the camera to sit still!
 
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C_Claycomb

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Day 10

Although I tried fishing in a few other places from here on, that was the last success I had with NZs fish. Guides are well worth it!

Next up, back down Wakatipu in great looking weather, but actually rather cold. T-shirt in the car, pull over and wind breaker outside it.

DSC03513 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The Remarkables
DSC03524 by Last Scratch, on Flickr


The road from Queenstown to Wanaka has some fun bends, just visible at left of picture.
DSC03533 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Lake Hawea was even more of a spectacular blue than Wakatipu
DSC03556_zpsrf9dr5tx.jpg


Heading over the Haast pass to the west coast.
DSC03556 by Last Scratch, on Flickr]

Mouth of the Haast River
DSC03580 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

It was a long drive but the weather forecast for the following days showed heavy rain moving north and I wanted to cover some distance in the fine weather.

I got to Fox Glacier at about 6:45pm. I had never seen a glacier, but hadn’t ever wanted to do as some friends had done and actually walk on one, so a walk up the valley floor to an overlook point was fine with me.
DSC03664 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

DSC03614 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

The leading edge of the ice was pretty grubby but its retreating and the melt is exposing the sediment.
DSC03624 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

I made it up to Lake Mapourika to camp for the night, but it was a very long day and passed dark by the time I was set up.
This was on the 18th. On the 21st a pilot and his six tourist passengers died when their helicopter crashed in poor weather on the glacier.


Day 11

It rained in the night and after the long drive I wasn’t in a hurry. A pity since the bush around Mapourika is THICK, there wasn’t a lot to explore without going serious bush busting. No trails or paths around the lake.
IMG_0470 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

IMG_0471 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Not really a lot of photos from the day, it was kind of bright, but overcast, so the light wasn’t good for pictures for much of the day. I was heading up to meet some old family friends in Hokitika and having agreed a rough time to arrive, my time was not really my own.

The high point for the day was stopping in at The Bushmans Centre at Pukekura. Sadly I had spent too much time walking down to the mouth of the Wanganui River, so arrived just as they were shutting at 5:00pm.
http://www.pukekura.co.nz/population/index.htm
http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/books/peter-salter/pete-the-bushman-9781775536826.aspx
Peter and Justine Salter are real characters and for anyone from this site their Centre should be on your list to visit.

The landscape of the Westcoast is very different from the eastern side of the mountains. Lots more rain for one thing. The ground is very stony, someone described it as being one long strip of river shingle with a skin of soil!
DSC03681 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
 
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C_Claycomb

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Day 12

Here comes the rain! Fortunately I was staying in a spare room of our friends’ house in Kokatahi, outside Hokitika. I know, staying in a house is cheating when you are meant to be camping, but they had the space, and I couldn’t have passed without visiting ;)

From there I did a day trip to the Hokitika Gorge in the pouring rain
DSC03695 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

IMG_0484 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Round the back roads passed the scenic Lake Kaniere (pronounced canary).
IMG_0499 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
IMG_0504 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Dorothy Falls
IMG_0530 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Up to the Punakaiki pancake rocks which are strangely eroded sandstone formations on the sea.
DSC03725 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03751 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

I am told that this area of the West Coast can be spectacular, but with the rain and low cloud, the best I could get was “moody”. Lol.

DSC03809 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

Day 13

I am told that the time to visit the West Coast is in the New Zealand winter. Seems strange, but they say that’s when they get most sun, that the weather comes more from the east, so dumps its rain on the other side of the mountains. In the summer, when the weather comes from the west, the West Coast gets wet! I was quite glad to drive back over Arthur’s Pass into the drier, and sunnier weather of the East.


DSC03866 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSC03875 by Last Scratch, on Flickr





Day 14+


My last day touring the South Island was not the last day of my trip, since I went on to spend a day on the North Island with an emigrated friend from university, and then went and spent three days in Hong Kong with another friend. Guess that’s probably the best closing picture.

DSC03995-Pano by Last Scratch, on Flickr
 
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Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
Dream Trip, for a fly fisherman. Mecca for trout.

I think those trout originally come loch leven, as do the ones in the Dales Rivers, but there no scientific reason, why they grow so much bigger than the uk ones.

I'd love to tie up some cicadas, and get over there with a 6 weight rod.

I'll have a good read through the whole thing later. Nice one.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Outstanding trip and report! Great pix! Thanks for sharing. Any idea what the saltwater fishing is like?
 

C_Claycomb

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Oct 6, 2003
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Only based on what I have read online. Saltwater fishing is meant to be good, but whether it is better than what you have on the US east coast or Gulf I don't know.
 

crosslandkelly

A somewhat settled
Jun 9, 2009
26,265
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North West London
Brilliant report and fantastic pics. Thanks for sharing.
Read the whole report and was reminded of my helicopter trip up the Landsborough river, for three days of white water rafting nearly thirty years ago.
 

Sparky750

Tenderfoot
Dec 30, 2015
51
1
Merseyside
Spectacular trip thanks so much for sharing it although you have just started the "we should emigrate to NZ" debate all over again which has been running for the past 6 years in our house one day I'll win :p
 

Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
Wow, thats on my bucket list. Those Trout are magnificent. Wonder how they'd respond to a different method, like Czech/polish short line nymphing, or french nymphing? I know they've had some pretty bad earthquakes there. We have family friends on the north island.
It must be great to be able to see the trout, and cast to them. Thanks for posting such wonderful photos.
 
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C_Claycomb

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New Zealand Notes

Bit of a brain dump coming up. Somewhat disorganised thoughts and lessons learned from my trip. Hope they help someone else heading in the same direction.


Packing:
I packed too much stuff! A lot too much. Luggage was more than maxed out. I wont incriminate myself too much, but I exceeded the combined allowance of 20kg checked and 7kg carry and it was a constant worry and irritation while travelling. I never want to do that again.

Stuff I took that I didn’t need:

  • Folding saw, - never used for anything
  • Sheath knife, - used once to cut up some sausage, easily could have done without it
  • Second cooking pot, - took a 1.1litre which I used for everything, and a 900ml that was never used. Based on previous car trips where having two pots was much nicer than one. Wish I had only taken the one.
  • Softy coat, - never stayed cold enough where I was to need it.
  • Too many socks - I only needed four pairs plus neoprenes for wet wading, but I had five or six plus liners. I had thought I might wet wade and need fresh sets more often than normal. Duh!
  • Hammock. Never used
  • Tarp- never needed it. Not a lot of tarp options, and when with guides, you don't stop enough to bother with making shelter!
  • Binoculars, - I had a nice pair of 8x24s which I don't think I ever had reason to take from my pack. I am not a bird watcher and simply didn't sit around glassing the scenery.
  • Gloves, - I had sun gloves which were great, finger-less wool ones that got used once, Macwet with fingers that were never used, and didn't bother to take the gardening gloves I usually use a lot, and didn't miss them at all.
  • Power pack to charge phone. I had a car charger and was never away from the car long enough to need the additional battery pack.
  • I also had more fishing tackle than I used, particularly with the guides.


Stuff that really worked well:


  • Nylon trousers- Didn't need to zip off, but poly-cotton would have been no substitute when wet-wading
  • Poly-pro base leggings- Didn't own any before getting ready for this trip, didn't want to buy them, but extensive reading said polyester just wasn't as good.
  • Aquapure Traveller bottle + bottle carrier for easy access while walking
  • Lundhag Syncro Mids- used as wading boots, poor things had a hard time, but they held up better than any other boot that I have would have done.
  • Buff with built in insect repellent- Kept the sandflies off my neck and was not too hot.
  • Autan repellent- a lot nicer than DEET, kept flies off my head
  • Rio In-Touch Gold floating line- Made me look a far better caster than I am.
  • Vistana OveRx glasses- Not cheap, but much cheaper than prescription sun glasses and cut side glare. Used for fishing and driving. A must for both.
  • Alpkit Koro stove- Fitted inside even the 900ml pot along with a bottle and foil wind shield. It was always windy, so having a low, stable stove that could be screened was great.
  • DIY hammock underquilt- On two nights I needed this in addition to my JRB Sierra Sniveler quilt. November nights can get cold even in NZ.


Hammocks:
There are very few places that I saw that can be hammock camped. I like hammocks and I really like my UKHammocks WoodsmanX, but it never came out of its sack in NZ. I could have used it in the beech forest along the Caples river, and probably around Sylvan Campsite had I stayed there, but I didn’t see any other places where a hammock would have been as good, let alone better than, a tent. Lack of suitable trees is the issue. Maybe other areas would be different, but this was my experience. The eastern side of the mountains was often too dry for there to be many trees and when there were some around camping areas, they were either too huge, too small, too dense or too far apart…the usual hammock challenges with designated camping areas. The western side would appear to have more options, but the forest is REALLY dense, and a lot of that seemed to be tree-ferns, which everyone agreed did not have root systems that would support a hammock safely. If I had been hiking the Greenstone Track, a hammock might have been a nice alternative to using the huts, but it would still be hard to justify it if you had a tent for use elsewhere.


Using a tipi
My main concern was the lack of floor and whether the notorious sand flies would get in. Well, I might have had one or two follow me in, but otherwise the factory made mesh doors kept them out and none figured out how to crawl under the pegged down edge. YMMV, but it didn't seem to be an issue. In contrast, they did get under the fly sheet of the MSR tent I used up the Caples river, so 2-3 inches gap will let them in. Despite their name, sand flies do not roost on the ground and hatch from running water, unlike Scottish midges which come out of the wet ground, so the floorless tipi did not trap a captive swarm when it was set up.

Size-wise the 6-man Kifaru was way bigger than I needed to the point it was almost absurd. The tent is on loan, and was meant to house three of us. When the others dropped out I had a choice of the Kifaru (3.2kg+ 0.89 nest) or a 2-man Vaude (2.9kg). The prospect of maybe 12 nights in the little Vaude was not appealing.

When we had strong wind the nest saved my sleeping gear getting "rained" on by condensation shaken loose from the walls.

I needed 16 pegs just to get the basic shape pegged out. More needed for the nest and extra guy out points. The ground was often hard or stony and getting that many pegs in just to achieve a stable structure was a pain, as was the weight of all the pegs.



Cutting tools:
Knife and saw were a waste of time. There are meant to be fire controls in NZ and they seem serious about preventing bush fires. Neither guide was keen about seeing any trees or wood cut for fun, or even when there was a purpose, like for a wading staff. When I was researching gear to take, I read that even wood burning hobo stoves and meths burners might be an issue, so making a camp fire is probably not a good idea in most places. Not something that you are likely to get a chance to do often enough for it to be worth taking tools.

If you aren't making fire or shelter from the bush, the last remaining reasons are for food prep, camp chores and whittling. I was able to do all my food prep and chores with a folder, and I didn't travel all the way to NZ to look at my lap while whittling sticks when there are views of mountains to be gazed upon ;)


Roads and driving.
Most of the web sites I found talked about the dangers of the NZ roads. I did see one bad crash of a Discovery and caravan, but that was all, and I found the roads to be really rather good. Maybe the people writing all those reviews of the roads are American or Canadian, who find themselves having to cope with “narrow” roads, corners, and driving on the left all together. For those from the UK, there are some stretches of road that are very wiggly with hairpin bends the like of which we don’t see too often at home, but there are far more stretches of road that are wide open, die straight, and empty. Width is comparable to our standard A, B and C roads and was wider almost everywhere than I regularly encounter in the Chilterns, Wales, and Lake District. Drivers are usually far more contentious about not holding up others and make use of the passing lanes by pulling over and letting those behind go past. The locals though have very little patience left with visitors, so if you so much as see another car coming, and you pull out in front, even with 100m space, be sure to get moving quick, or expect to catch some road rage. Happened twice to me, and I cannot remember it ever happening in the UK.

Water supplies.
I was told everywhere that the water was clean and that the locals drank direct from Wakatipu and the rivers running into it. I filtered all mine using my old Aquapure traveller, so can’t say whether the water was safe or not. I reckon that the thing to watch for is the places that use rain water collected from their roof, some places stated that this could be contaminated by birds and was not to be drunk, others didn’t bother and locals drank it without a thought. As a visitor, I didn’t want to risk even a couple of days’ off with a stomach bug. I drank the tap water in Christchurch without any problem, was told it was ground water, filtered everything else.

Security and safety.
I thought NZ was a safe place, and it may be, or not…according to a German I met who had been travelling there for eight months, North and South. He said South was safer, but that robberies from tourists camped in isolated locations on the North Island were fairly common. He had had people attempt to gain access to his vehicle at night while he was in it, including through deception, knowing he was in it. I had no problems, but the places I stayed were not isolated.

Re-supply.
Food is not as cheap as it is in the UK, but supermarkets in all the major towns will have everything a tripper could want in terms of food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, spare batteries (not sure about 123As) and the like. I stayed in a motel first and last night and left all my un-used stuff with them when I departed, they said they had a box of re-cycled supplies that they offered to people setting off in camper vans. I didn't know this and packed according to my experiences as part of a group travelling in Sweden, Norway and Canada, where to some extent, if you wanted it, you needed to bring it from home. Felt pretty stupid when I saw stuff I had given luggage allowance to sitting on NZ store shelves.

Fuel costs.
When I was there they were somewhere between comparable and cheaper than the UK. At the time, UK was £1.13 per litre ($2.42), while in Christchurch it was $1.92, in Greymouth $1.94 Hokitika $1.96 and Franz Josef $2.34. Auckland was $1.84

Navigation.
There is an excellent map shop in Christchurch. http://www.mapworld.co.nz/ Make time to go there, they have more than appears on the web site. The other source for maps is http://www.stanfords.co.uk/ in London, but be aware, the road atlases cost £24 in the UK, and $29 in NZ, making it worth while buying them once you are there, rather than paying double and then have them use luggage allowance on the way out.

I did toy around with my northern hemisphere compass, but it wasn’t reliable. I didn’t do anything that required a compass for navigation, but if you do, then look at buying a Southern Hemisphere adjusted one out there. Map World has them, and they are much more reasonable than buying one here.

After my locally purchased road maps, the best bit of navigational stuff I had was my smartphone loaded with View Ranger and City Maps 2 Go. Both of these allow you to load maps onto the device for use off-line, and are FAR easier to handle than messing with Google Maps off-line. View Ranger has 1:50,000 topos that show fence boundaries for all of NZ and you can get both regions and single tiles. Excellent tool. City Maps is good for marking locations of shops or camp sites. The built in index is a bit rubbish, but the maps are good. No turn-by-turn navigation on either, but honestly, in New Zealand, you don’t need it. Full satnav would have been good for me in in Auckland when I was running late for returning my rental car at 9:30pm and got lost, and maybe in Chirstchurch for about 10 minutes, but not worth paying extra for either on a phone or with a rental car. A passenger/navigator would have totally solved my brief problems. The other app worth having is the Rankers NZ Campsite app which can be downloaded for use without data coverage. Shows all the campsites, has reviews and ratings. https://www.rankers.co.nz/

Coms
As I got off the plane in Auckland there was someone from Virgin Mobile holding a sign offering SIM cards for tourists. Something like $30 for a 4-week active card with a given amount of minutes and data on it. Didn't use anything like all of the allowance travelling by myself. Was able to check weather and send messages from a lot of places. There are some pretty good maps showing coverage in NZ. If you have line of sight to a town, chances are you will be able to get data. The west coast was the best example of this as you drop in and out of service as you go along.


Fishing.
I had heard that I needed to practice casting, so I took three hours of tuition followed by probably a dozen evening sessions on the green outside my house, much to my neighbours’ amusement. I tried to learn roll casts and single handed spey casts along with aerial mends and other slack line presentations methods. I did spend time on accuracy and casting methods for heavy flies on long leaders, but not enough (not sure if there is such a thing as enough!) In the end, I didn’t use rolls or Speys, the mends were something I could really have done with, but there is a limit to what you can learn without real moving water. I didn’t practice enough with actual heavy flies casting into strong winds. Hard to do when the wind doesn’t oblige, but that was pretty much all I did on my guided days; single and double tungsten bead nymphs, as droppers or with indicators, on leaders between 14 and 20 feet long. They were a challenge on 14 feet, and on 20 feet I spent more time in tangles than I did fishing. My line handling was pretty bad, at least I thought so. My guides were both encouraging, but my lack of practice showed.

Both guides said they had enough tackle that I could have come with nothing at all and it would not have been a problem. That many clients were fitting in a day fishing with other family activities and couldn't justify packing a lot of their own tackle. Guide-loan gear was all rather high end. Both would have had me using a Sage One if I had not brought my own rod.

All fishing was with floating lines. I packed a couple of sinkers, but would have been better not to bother. If you are taking flies...size 14-10, black tungsten bead hare's ear/pheasant tail type things tied sparse and 14-10 parachute Adams, black gnat and goddard caddis...that was was was on my line most of the time! I took a lot of flies that didn't get used. All my old UK still water flies stayed in the box and only the newest ties, put together after I started reading what is used in NZ, were used.

Gear disinfection (anti invasive algae measures).
Its not a problem to find soap in supermarkets that you can spray on gear, but it is a challenge to find or carry means to soak things like boots. Don’t do as I did and use a prized water bladder to apply strong disinfectant, I don’t think my Dromlite will ever be free of the taste of Detol!

Bio-security at point of entry.
Transferring through Auckland I was very nearly late for my plane. 1.5 hours was not enough time to run 10 minutes late on landing, get through immigration, have my gear inspected by Bio-security, drop my bag and walk the 10-15 minutes to the domestic terminal. I managed, but it was all but at a run and arrived just in time to join the end of the line boarding my onwards flight! Despite my nest ground sheet being new, my tent having no floor and my boots having been scrubbed to out-of-box cleanliness, all were unpacked, taken away and the boots sprayed by staff.


Hope some of that ramble is useful for someone else's planning! Happy Travels!!:cool:
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Fantastic notes, thanks for including them. Those fuel prices sound dire. Was that gasoline or diesel?
 

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