This past October, my friend Ben told me his buddies were going to fish New Zealand for 3 months this winter. Since he knew I had a similar plan, he suggested I try to coordinate a trip with the guys, and I sent off a cordial Facebook message to one of them.
Fast forward 2 months, and I step off the ship from the North Island in the South Island port of Picton. Shortly thereafter, Josh Gallivan and Sky Denton pulled up in their green van, introduced themselves, and we drove to the town of Murchison to plan some fishing trips together, having only met that afternoon. Josh is a fly fishing guide over in Jackson (see www.joshgallivan.com ), and Sky manages an adventure shop in Hawaii.
The next morning, following a stop for some granola bars, chocolate, and canned tuna, we headed into the back country for a 4 night trip in the bush. We chose a river (it won't be named here... or ever), and proceeded to zig-zag our way up the roadless, trail-less valley.
On the way in; endless river crossings
Buffs up to keep the sandflies out
For years now, I've been reading about the sight fishing opportunities that New Zealand has to offer, and this trip didn't disappoint. This style of fishing is a lot more akin to hunting, as the 3 of us would slowly work our way up the banks in an effort to spot fish and cast dries or dry/dropper rigs to feeding fish. As we are a group of 3, we take turns on fish, no matter who spotted them. Whether the caster catches (or more often, loses) the fish or not, the next fish is the next person's, and so on. This ensures that people don't get into tiffs over the biggest or easiest fish.
Though I've only had 4 days on the river here, this trip didn't disappoint.
Josh's best fish of the trip
The boys feeding the catadromous eels in the pool below our camp. Turns out they love leftover macaroni and tuna.
Eels chowing down. These things are born in the mid-Pacific, migrate up New Zealand's rivers and live there scavenging for 30+ years, then migrate back out to the ocean to spawn and die. Pretty cool.
Cool little church on the Buller River
Stay tuned for more, as we are currently planning something that involves helicopters and some of the most remote locations on New Zealand's South Island.
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