Hi to my army of followers !!! Two weeks now and it seems I`ve lived here all my life , its been an enormous adventure and numbing on the senses so many sights and sounds to take in .
I have tried unsuccessfully to update the blog at my last stop in Reefton however it crashed and I had to move on , anyway I`d been camping on the Grey River close to the confluence with the Robinson River , after meeting the farm manager who kindly allowed me access , after a beer or two !! I spent two days here weather not too good rain and bad visibility and tough on my leg , bad experience when got lost in the bush !! however I relievedly found my way out .
Second day much better weather still the odd shower . I`d decided to fish the Robinson as my leg was sore from my bush wanderings , and encouragingly spotted fish , however they obviously took offence to me ogling them and pissed off , this happened repeatedly and a consequence of seeing them too late as they saw me !! pleased to be spotting them in bad light though ,can only improve , I will have too its a whole new ball game but the rewards are unbelievable , so after spooking most of the fish the only one I didn`t turned out to be a fish shaped piece of wood :)
I headed back tired bruised and beaten , back at the truck I brewed up and pondered on some really nice fish , made a hot brew of tea on the stove as English men do when under fire ,I took the decision to tramp down the Robinson to the confluence where it meets the Grey , it meant I had to cross It to get the best position to fish up to where they meet , a tricky crossing I scam bled to safety and strode to my assault position I began my creeping up the bank knowing this water would hold fish it was a classic lie , but worried I would spook them ! call it luck or doggedness I spied a fish feeding and it continued to feed a good sign , my first cast fell short my second drifted perfectly that resulted in a 20 min battle with a fine fish it went ballistic and I could feel its anger through my rod hand it all ended well and after a few hurried pics I released the bristling beauty back to the flow Awesome !!!!!!!!!!!:)
I went back to the farmstead and shared a whisky with Perry May and we chatted over looking the valley where I`d caught my fish and chatted , I then went and set up camp and decided to depart for somewhere new first thing , I said farewell to my black robin who shared camp with me and after an hour I rolled into Reefton an old Goldmining town , coffee and few calls and txts home as found a signal , and decided to Camp on Larry`s Creek weather bad rain and cold and sandfly HQ , I am still itching the scars ,I had a tough day and got soaked and sore , still managed to spot fish but these where actually telepathic !! So I ended up very cold and wet .
After a wet night I woke to find the river high so set off into Reefton for a coffee , I then got a call from Deano offering me his Dads Batch ( NZ for camping hut ) Which was at Harihari fuher south down the coast and also would I like to spend four days with him fishing on Te Anau in Fiordland and maybe fish some Rivers on the other side , which was really kind of him .
So I headed south crossing river after river all running high and coloured till I reached Harihari and found the beach hut with a range which I Lit and soon had hot water and a shower luxury , in the morning I checked a few rivers local one being La fontaine however all high , found Berry`s Creek a spring fed river and so was fishable , it was here I encountered a massive shock at er negotiating a tangle of electric fencing similar to Tom cruise in mission impossible !! I was wading under one when I touched it with my back !!and nearly bit my tongue off shit this wasn`t a soft buzz you get in the UK this was adrenaline charged NZ voltage , so shaken and smouldering I staggered back to the truck as the rain continued to poor down . At the hut I prepared to depart for the long haul in the morning to Te anau .
What a trip Jeremy Clarkson eat my dust ! Stunning rainforest glaciers waterfalls , Haast gorge , Wanaka , Great lakes (simalar to the lake district But on steroids ) Queenstown ( Towers of Mordor ) the remarkables and after a stop at Mossburn I am now in Te Anau awaiting Deano and the boat , in the library with aload of backpackers using free wi-fi access .
It was an amazing drive yesterday and you could spend a month just doing it justice .
I will be away on the boat for four days I think so on our return I will visit here again .
Best regards mark .
