On Thursday TRM posted on facebook some photos of two anglers at Judges Pool. They were two nice young American tourists fishing the Tongariro for the last two weeks. You can see how much they were enjoying this special unspoilt natural environment doing what they love – fly fishing… Their enthusiasm was infectious.
The post and images follow:
Brian and Sam from Wyoming are on a trout fishing safari through NZ.
Isn’t it great to see young tourists selecting NZ just for our trout fishing. After the Tongariro River they are fishing the Whakapapa and Mangawhero and any other river near you that has trout. Today they had both caught Rainbows in Judges Pool.
One of the responses to the fb asked “Who’s Brian”. TRM replied as follows:
“Who’s Brian” you ask? I am not sure whether you are genuinely interested or being cynical?
The Brians of this world are extremely important to Turangi and NZ.
They represent our biggest industry – tourism – in the best possible way.
They had the whole world to choose from and after careful website analysis of all the competition, they deliberately selected NZ and particularly the Tongariro River to invest their considerable time and $$$ dollars for their OE. They stay longer, spend more and enjoy the best of what NZ has to offer, then they are our best salesmen to tell the rest of the American fishing community.
These are the niche category that tourism should be aiming at.
Instead they are ignored by Tourism NZ. The last time DOC (Department of Conservation are managers of the Taupo fishery) and Taupo Council promoted trout fishing on the Tongariro River was last century – over 25 years ago. OK?
So TRM replied: Thanks Mark. They were having a ball. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Wish them well from us.
WARNING – TONGARIRO RIVER LEVEL INCREASE?
PS WARNING: Today Genesis have warned the Tongariro river level will rise from about 9 am to a target of 30 m3/sec. for six hours. They call it a “Recreational Flow Release”. It should not make too much difference as the river has been flowing at over 30 cumecs for the last couple of weeks – the seven day flow chart below is as at Friday 10 am. So anglers have asked – why do they even bother? The higher flows have already flushed out their dams.