Apparently – according to you-know-who, we are not allowed to show South Island holiday pics about the McKenzie Country-Mt. Cook region without the classic tourist shot of Mt. Cook.  Pity about the leaning lake.  She apologises…

I know you have been dying to see all my trekking holiday snaps so here is just a tiny selection – most of which hardly need any explanation.

On right is a photo of Dee Taylor from Hamilton admiring the unusual contemporary interior decor of her room in the “hotel” in Christchurch.

They blamed the earthquake (?) which happened over five years ago.

Just in case you wish to book there it is the Equestrian Hotel in Hornby.

It made TRM look quite luxurious.  We needed to toughen up before the trek..

The reason I managed to get ‘leave’ approval from TRM laundry was to attend Stage 11 of the Great New Zealand Trek from Cape Reinga to Bluff, but I managed to sneak off to check out the fishing just for you…

The trek was through farms and stations from Springfield to near Fairlie.  Above photo of the trek should be enough to show you the nature of biking trail terrain…  About that point the trek had covered 2000 km.  A long way to travel cross country on a bike…  Onwards to Bluff…

But on the first day I got lost and ended up checking out the fishing spots over the Porters Pass.  What really scared me was their maximum size regulations on the Fish & Game sign – 40 cm – which coincidentally matched the minimum size for the Tongariro River.

So where would you rather catch trout?……..   I agree.

This is Brett from Ballarat landing his trophy trout from Lake Pearson.

It took him all of two minutes.

Then below, at the other end of the scale, is Tony Burrell from Christchurch with his hog caught below the salmon farm at Twizel.

The last time I was there was before the salmon farms were developed so it was all new to me.  Most were bait fishing.  Heavy gear, heavier lures, let them sink, then wait.  And wait.  And wait.

Compared to the challenges of river fishing it can only be described as meat hunting.  Not for me…

But that is enough about the Great New Zealand Trek….

We also had to inspect the baby seal nursery for SWMBO but it was too early in the season.  So we added the waterfall just to prove we had been there.

Another interesting fishy pic on the way home south of Kaikoura was a shoal or school (?) of dolphins having a party.

There were hundreds of them on the surface about two to three hundred yards out, leaping and dancing and doing cartwheels just for us.

Absolutely  gob-smacking live entertainment which should be banned as they created traffic chaos on SH1 with cars stopping anywhere to view the spectacle.

What a wonderful unforgettable sight.

So I hope you enjoyed the Great New Zealand Trek pics.  Only three more years to Bluff…

CORRESPONDENCE:

Soon after posting the above Andrew corrected us as follows:

Great report Ross, but I feel that you should state the real reason for the size limit of 40 cm’s on Broken River (and a number of our high country rivers) is due to it being a slot limit – maximum take size…
 
Otherwise all of the tourists that camp out on the river to target the trophy mousers would knock them on the head for a feed!
 
Andrew W

 

Thanks Andrew.