Back in Red Deer Its -17C Here

The trip home was long, real long but relatively uneventful. Karen and I are home. Our friends Jay and Lynn brought us back to Red Deer from the airport in Calgary. Flights were on time. Lots of security in Los Angeles but that is typical of the USA. The kids were all home to greet us and Tiki and Pinball came to the airport. Tiki jumped out of the van to see Karen. We love our hounds and it was great to see them.

Looks like there is some sustained rain in New Zealand right now. The South Island can use the moisture. Hopefully it will not slow down anyone still fly fishing there.

Now to skiing and getting ready for Christmas.

Our Wicked Van

It did not look like much but we drove it everywhere a vehicle could go that was not a 4 by 4. No breakdowns at all and no need to add oil! We think we probably put about 7000 kilometres on Wicked! Amazing!

The Wicked Van had some messages - one above for the thieves in this world.

In small print at the bottom it says - " Any day above ground is a great day!" What a good message.

Nothing like a John Lennon quote and pose to look at every day - I liked it!

Apparantly we had the help of Saint Pio on the road. The van was not great as far as the kitchen area went but it was good to sleep in and it was off the ground. It had a lot of storage. It allowed us to do some evening fishing and to spend more time in some beautiful places where there was no one around. We loved that!

There is a Wicked camaradarie as we drove around with any Wicked van that went by waving and flashing lights at us. We enjoyed that and we never lost our ride in a parking lot! Wicked was a great little deal!

Its HOT in Christchurch and We're Packing for Home

The Korkers are quite beat up.

A three hour run up the coast and we are now about 2 km from the Christchurch airport. We dropped off our beloved WICKED van, did some Christmas shopping and took a city bus to our motel. It's about 28C here in Christchurch and humid.

Tomorrow our long journey home starts with a flight to Auckland, then to Los Angeles and finally to Calgary. It's going to be a long day.

We have had an excellent three months Down Under. It's time to ski, see family and friends and play with our hounds. I hope that our "break in time" for winter and skiing is short.

Driving on the right side of the road will take some concentration. We are looking forward to Christmas, skiing in Canmore and Red Deer. I hope that we can get ready for the Birkebeiner in 7 weeks. Gulp.

See you soon!

Thanks for Keeping Up with Bob and Karen until our next trip.

Fleur's Restaurant in Moeraki

After finally driving back to the lighthouse to see some cute penguins, Bob and I headed into Moeraki to find Fleur's Place. Friends recommended it and sure enough, it was a great little place. The last time we were in Moeraki, both the lighthouse viewing area and the restaurant were closed.

This is the sign outside the place advertising the catch of the day. The outside of the building looked like a little dump but the parking lot was full - a great sign!

The clouds were really ominous today as we drove - definitely a view into what winter could be like on the South Island. In fact as I am writing this, it is very misty rain and grey outside. The humidity must be 100% . We can't really see across the street right now.

Lunch as it should be every day! A bowl of tasty seafood chowder - catch of the day off the fishing boats in the harbour, homemade bread and a glass of white wine. What more could anyone ask for? I kno, that would be the fabulous husband who takes all the photos!

Yellow Eyed Penguins at the Moeraki Lighthouse

Karen and I decided to stop at the Moeraki Lighthouse Area. It is a sanctuary for the protected yellow eyed penguins. The last time we were there it was closed as several hunters were culling ferets from the area so they would not kill penguins. Today the area was open. On the way down to the viewing area, Karen and I meet two penguins right on the trail. We were quite lucky.

On the Way to Oamaru

It drizzled all the way to the lighthouse in Moeraki. On the long drive we stopped to take some pictures.

We stopped in for a short visit and to buy a hat. I think Stu runs a brisk on line business to boot!

I can relate to this restaurant.

This is for you Shannon!

Our Last Fly Fishing Day Was Amazing

Today was our final day on the water and again Karen and I were blessed with perfect weather for most of the day and willing trout. The browns were easy to find today. We learned to constantly to check all backwaters. Today several browns were found in the slack water. Dry fly fishing today was exceptional. On one particular long flat we sighted 6 nice browns. We were able to entice several of them. We almost stepped on the best fish of the day. Luckily he was dozing. Karen and I carefully stepped back. I delivered the dry. No response. I slowly pulled the fly back. Remember there is no current. I recast, again nothing. Was this a fish not willing to play? I jigged the fly and suddenly the brown came to life. He circled the backwater once. I recast to his right and he slowly and I mean slowly came over and sipped down my dry fly. That was cool. Karen had her best day on the water too. She caught several nice fish today. She even had a brown and a rainbow on at the same time.

Sadly a weather front rolled in later and put an end to our day. Karen was startled twice today. Once by a hearding dog and its owner looking for several cows and once by a large eel right at her feet. We helped the farmer find his cows because we saw them during our journey today. What a neat last day on the water.

We took the fishing gear apart and sadly packed it away although we absolutely loved our last day on the water.

The weather front moving in will make our long drive a bit easier to take. Off to Oamaru tomorrow. Will we see penguins?

Believe it or not Karen had a brown and a rainbow on at the same time with her two nymph system. She lost the brown and netted the rainbow.

We almost stepped on this big brown.

Take a look at the slack water this brown trout was sitting in.

Thankfully this brown woke up and played. The local cattle farmer came over to watch the commotion. The farmer's 4 herding dogs loved the action too.

Karen had to cast on the upstream side of a big root even though the brown was downstream. It did not make any difference today.

A Magical Day

Hi Everybody!

Today was an amazing day for so many reasons. Karen and I decided to visit our favorite lupen covered river We are down to probably one day of fly fishing before we make our way to Christchurch to begin our long journey home. Yesterday we got to experience a 'norwester. The head wind made casting tough. Today we woke up to a clear cloudless day and we decided to have one more kick at the river. Flashback to two days ago when we had an intense storm that left several rivers quite muddy. Well, today the rivers were emerald green and we had wind at our backs for most of the day. The "fresh" made the fishing close to outstanding. All the fish seemed to be interested in our flies. We sight fished and we both caught some beautiful fish. The big drama for the day started in a big bouldery run. I spied what I thought was a rainbow feeding midstream behind a submerged rock. Finally I got a good cast in and a very large brown took my dropper. The battle was on and this fish did not want to see the inside of the net. The battle was fantastic. Karen was able to net the trophy sized brown after some "drama". We were both excited.
The day showed us a high blue sky all day. The birds were singing. The sun and the water were warm. The wind was a nonfactor. We saw no other people. We caught loads of fish and the river was in perfect condition. We have but one more fly fishing day. Karen and I were tired as we walked a roadway back to our van but we both agreed that today was the kind of day you just don't want to come to a close. We both loved all the situations that we were presented with. We changed our set up 3 dozen times (just a guess). It seemed that all our experiences/lessons prepared us for an amazing day of fly fishing today.

Days like today do not come along very often.

The river we were fishing last night.

Lupens have almost gone to seed.






A friend I found in a quiet back water.

A beauty - look at that yap!

Sight fishing can be a real challange.

Got him!!!!

Rain, Rainbows and a Pesky Brown Trout

Hi Everybody!

Karen and I are set up in southern New Zealand. We tried to escape the torrential rain around Greymouth. Well we were hit last night with a very intense storm that almost ruined our plans for today. We did have to escape rising muddy water and relocate upstream. We did find some nice rainbows and browns. I even emptied the fly box trying to get a 25 inch brown to take. About 10 fly changes and I got the pesky brown. It was feeding hard and totally oblivious to my attempts to catch him. The drama continued for almost an hour and finally a size 18 brassie got the job done. It was all about persistance. We even meet our first "wild" hedge hog on the way back.

What 10 hours of Rain Can do New Zealand Style

Karen and I fished the Moonlight River on Friday. The photo below was taken in the late afternoon. Take a look at this image that was taken the next day. A very dramatic change. Amazingly enough, this river will take only a few days to return to fishing shape.

Torrential Rain in Greymouth Abandon Ship!

Well the best laid plans sometimes have to be modified. It's our last week before we come home. Until two days ago we had not experienced rainfall New Zealand style. It poured hard on us. The moisture was badly needed. The 200 mm of rain caused the rivers to turn off color in the Greymouth region and rise dramatically. The rivers will probably be back in shape by mid week so Karen and I decided to head south. We got to Athol and fished a very well known river, the Matura river. Again the evening rise was very good to us but we were over run by fly fishers during the day. We visited "World Famous" (at least that is what the sign says), Stew's Fly Shop. There are a few rivers we want to visit before we head home. The last week is going to fly by!

The Evening Rise at a Spring Creek

Well we did sleep in and shop in Hokitika this morning. Later in the day, Karen and I decided to revisit a spring creek that has treated us well. Today was no different. We arrived in the afternoon and had the opportunity to sight fish all afternoon. We have learned to treat each opportunity to catch a brown trout separately. That thinking has helped our success rate at catching New Zealand browns.Today Karen and I had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening on Lafontaine Stream.

Fly Fishing on the Coast

Today was a looooong day. We wanted to set up on the west coast for our final 10 days. We decided to explore a river on the West Coast called the Moeraki River. Karen and I hiked down a dried up creek that had some bush bashing near our river. Once we set up our rods, we spied a nice 4 pound brown busily feeding. I cast my fly over the brown and he quickly hit my dry fly. One cast, one nice trout. That was a nice way to forget the 350 km drive. The very next pool had just about the same story. Karen then was working her way up a braid in today's river and caught a long brown trout that needed to gain some weight. We saw few fish today but the water was a beautiful emerald green and the weather was picture perfect. We did get reaquainted with those pesky sand flies. They are nasty creatures.

After fishing we high tailed it back to Hokitika. We phoned ahead to secure our spot at a Holiday Park we have used before. The manager left a note on our cabin about the crazy Canadian fly fishers. We were tired as we ate our supper at 11 p.m.

Tomorrow, we sleep in. There is nasty weather on the way. Darn!

Up the East Coast and Inland

Hi Everybody!

We finally left Te Anau and headed up the east coast by way of Gore. We had a plan but it did not totally work out. We drove Highway 1 north through Dunedin, hoping to see penguins near Moeraki. We stopped at a cute little coffee shop on the way called the Mayfly Cafe. Here they had markers to all kinds on important places in the world. As you can see, we were half way between the South Pole and the Equator. We then went to Gore where there is a statue of a large brown trout. The town of Gore claims to be the world capital of brown trout fishing.We carried on from there. We stopped first at a viewing site called Shag Point. We saw seals and shags ( a bird much like a cormorant) but no penguins to be found. The view was very wild as the wind was howling and the temperature was barely double digit. It was chilly. We carried on to see the Moeraki Boulders. That was quite interesting. The boulders were formed like oysters and are part of an ancient sea bed. Then the ocean floor became part of a heaved surface that formed a cliff beach. Erosion has worked away at the soil to let the boulders drop to the beach. They were fascinating to look at. They have some cracks and crevices from erosion and some have split. The rock is fascinating to examine. We then ventured out of a lighthouse to see if we could spot penguins here. We got there via a twisty road with beautiful views of sheep grazing within sight of the ocean. Once we arrived, we discovered that the viewing area was closed for shooting. Sure enough, we could see a man walking across the field carrying his shotgun. We suspect the shooting is to get rid of pests like ferrets and stoats that will kill the baby penguins. We finally gave up the quest for penguin spotting, stopped for groceries and headed to a town inland named Kurow. We hope to find some brown trout around here that are hungry. Maybe a quick drive back to the east coast one evening will allow us to see penguins.

As we drove today Bon Jovi was chroning out, Its My Life, Its Now or Never." Karen and I smiled because its NOW!