SWMBO presenting a TRM lucky hat to David & Jeanette Bear from Nevada City.

David is a fly fishing fanatic – according to his card.  He is a keen member of the Gold Country Fly Fishers in Northern California.

The tenuous connection is that he fishes in Grass Valley where the local river is the Yuba RIver.  The Yuba is a tributary of the Feather River which then flows into the Sacramento River which ends up in San Francisco Harbour where Taupo’s Rainbow trout originated from…

So he immediately felt at home on the Tongariro and as he managed to land a Rainbow on his first visit he qualified for his TRM hat.

David left a lasting impression with his card:  “Your generosity and advice has turned my visit to the Taupo – Turangi area into an experience I will never forget.  I was faced with the prospect of sight-seeing only and now I can say that I fished the great Tongariro river.  Thank you so much!  Look out for a copy of the ‘Gold Country Flyfishers” newsletter next month.   And Jeanette wrote:  “Thank you for your warm hospitality.  I was able to rest, knit, and re-coup before continuing on our wonderful adventure in your most beautiful country.”

What wonderful tourists.

Like many other tourists, they were fascinated with TRM’s pumice fence constructed of ‘floating rocks’.  See behind SWMBO in the photo above.  A few days ago I took another overseas guest up river to show him all the trout.  Instead he asked why there were so many potatoes floating down the river…

On right – we hope you can decipher the faded numbers – is a photo of TRM temperature at 4.30 pm yesterday – still over 30 c.

This was at reception facing south and in the shade.  It was the same on Sunday afternoon – exceeding 30 c.

Turangi’s more sheltered micro climate makes a complete nonsense of the TV weather forecasts for the central plateau region.  Tourist should disregard Taupo temperatures if you are planning to visit Turangi.