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.