12-03-01
Packing and planning… Tomorrow night is take off time for Spiggs 2012 Expedition New Zealand. Stockholm-Copenhagen-Bangkok-Christchurch is the route and we expect to land in N.Z. Sunday afternoon, local time.
12-03-02
On our way. Copenhagen… one out of twentyfour flight hours done..
12-03-05
We arrived in Christchurch yesterday afternoon, after 35 hours of traveling. After a pizza in town we stumbled into bed and have been sleeping like logs for ten hours. Today is a clear and fresh morning and in a couple of hours we will pick up the campervan that will be our home for the next 21 days, the adventure begins!
12-03-07
Two days with out GSM coverage.. After picking up the Campervan we crossed the Southern Alps and have been camping at Lake Brunner, a lake full of brown trout! However they are not easy to catch and many hours of stalking and presenting different flies has only resulted in one lost trout!
12-03-08
After a night close to a roaring Tasman Sea at a beautiful spot north of Greymouth we have decided to head south, along the West Coast. Probably we will stay at Waitangitaona River, were the big trouts are..
12-03-09
After spending too much time in Greymouth and driving south for a couple of hours we stopped at a absolutely lovely place at the river bed of Waitangitaona river. It was late in the afternoon so I grabbed a spinning rod, put on a Lil Spigg and hurried to the river. An hour later two beautiful trouts, in fantastic condition, were landed! The smallest was kept for dinner, it weighed mabye two pounds and the bigger one mabye the double.The river is a paradise for a trout fisherman and the surroundings unbelivable!
12-03-14
Finally connected again! We have been on the south West Coast with no connection to GSM or internet. The fishing has been a bit slow the last days mainly because of a heavy rainfall that lasted 24 h and made creeks and rivers flooded and impossible to fish. At the place we were, when the rain started, the annual rain fall is about 200 inches.. But over the alps, on the east side, there are dry areas with very little rain annually. When we came over the alps, via Haast pass, the rain stopped just as we found a great camping spot, at Lake Wanaka. I lost a couple of nice rainbows and caught a brownie that lasted for two dinners and one lunch.
Here are som pics from the last days. Klick on the pictures.
12-03-17
Back in town… We have spent the last days at a very special lake at high level in every possible type of weather! The lake was full of hard negotiated brown trouts but finally a top shape five pound brownie accepted a fly from my fly rod. That was one of the most beautiful trouts I have ever caught and it was very delicious as well.
Pics.
12-03-20
In the little town Geraldine at a nice campground, a shower is ok after three days in the woods. One night at Lake Benmore with just a little fly fishing with a skinny trout and a couple of small rainbows as result. After that we drove to Tekapo Canal that are man made and where wild trout benefits from the extra food source that comes from big salmon farms. Trouts grow to world record size.. I spent most of twenty four hours by the canal trying to fool one and the same brown trout that weighed at least ten pounds, probably more. Another, huge, brownie took a long look att the Spigg but refused it and went back to the deep blue. I saw it clearly in the clear water and it was absolutely a twenty pound fish, or more! The canals in the area produces regularly 20-30pound trouts with records about 35-40.
Some new pictures are added to the gallery above.
12-03-23
Rangitata valley was beautiful but fishing vise the river was a little of a dissapointment; no sign of fish at all even though I fished quite a long stretch.
We took of and stopped yesterday afternoon at a lovely little river not too far south Christchurch in farming landscape. An hour of fishing gave three hits from brownies and the last one was a great one; a buck trout weighing probably around 10 pounds! A great fish, best so far for this NZ visit. All trouts took a Lil Spigg, color 12. Some new pics added to the gallery above.
12-03-28
Hurunui River
26th of March was our last day in New Zealand and the last days we had no internet conection. We stayed at, and fished, the Hurunui river but had nothing but a couple of small trouts. The wind was extremely strong and made fishing complicated.
For our last night in N.Z. we found a lovely little campground at Gore Bay. There were no opportunites for sea fishing but that was quite ok. We strolled along the beach and found some very nice paua shells.
Paua shells
Very early, yesterday morning, we arrived in Bangkok. The old taxi driver, who took us to our hotel, proved how to make the most out of an old wreck of a car and how to use all the motorway lanes in a very creative way.
Some more pics added to the gallery above.