Hi Again

Sat morning.
We headed for the garage sale, but did not know that it started at 8:00am so we got there late, the boat and I suspect everything else that was any good had long since left the scene.
Oh well, it was not meant to be…….yet!

Popped back home to make up a picnic and load up the fishing gear. James dissapeard whilst loading up..”whats new” :-))

He then appeared saying that he had been on the internet and found the best fishing spots, we should head out towards Wanaka.

Just pulled out of Cromell onto the main road and started to drive past the orchards. Then we could not belive the beauty of what we saw. I can only assume that the water sprayers had come on overnight and the mist they produced had frozen on the trees.

The photograph here does not do this justice, it was like a magical world of sparkling ice trees. Ok this was man made with the water spray, but with a helping hand from natures frost what results eh!

Notice the ground, this was like shards of glass where the weight of the ice on the trees had broken off the branches and they still lay there like a frozen crystal carpet.

A close up of some frozen blossom

We dragged our selves away from this magical world and headed of towards Wanaka to find this famous fishing place that James had found.

Apparently it was a dirt turning off the main road just before we got to Wanaka. I love “vauge” directions dont you?

About 30 mins later I spotted this small blue sign on a post. Can you see it? Close up it shows two people walking with fishing rods. Ah Ha! this is looking like a clue to fishing heaven!

On the way driving down the track Denise mentions that she has forgotten to put on walking boots and has on normal shoe/boot style footwear. Mmm sounds to me like she is after visiting a shoe shop, but up ahead I spot the answer, its nothing short of the perfect shoe shop, and they are all free!

I cant understand it she rejects all the shoes here and decides to stick with the ones she has.

We climb over a fence to take a look where the river is. We have to walk all the way along to the end of the track that you can see on the right hand side, then turn left onto a path that then comes all the way back to a fishing spot that is literally 50 yards from where we are now standing. The reason for this trek is because the bank is so steep here that it cannot be safely navigated down to the fishing spot below.

Denise sets off with the food. Priorities eh!
James follows and I return to the car to get the seats and another bag. By the time I get back over the fence Denise is a good way down the track. I eventually catch her up as she turns down onto the track that leads back to the fishing spot.

“Where is James” I ask. “Dont know he dissapeared” Just then we see him already at the fishing spot. He had decided to take the 50 yards down the steep bank. This was STEEP and loose shingle soil.

Anyway its a nice spot, but there is only ONE fishing position, no points for who got it!

I decide on a sandwich and a cup of tea with Denise, oh and this photo of an old pump long since died and gone to pump heaven.  This pump that would have lifted the water from the river to the land above.

Enjoyed the sandwiches and then noticed some stuff zipping along with the water and James kept reeling in what looked like tissue paper. This is a BIG river and very fast flowing!

There was tons of this stuff flowing by, then all a sudden James jumps and says “we are off” this is sewage and I am catching toilet paper!

I could believe that huge amounts of this was flowing by just under the surface of the water. I was shocked and it made me angry to think that raw sewage could be dumped into this otherwise crystal clear river.

Or so we “THOUGHT”

Anyway we packed up and James convinced us to take the “short” 50 yard bank trip instead of the safe path. Like a fool I agreed. All I can say is that this turned into a comedy of errors as Denise and I scrambled up this bank. Actually I had to go 3 feet in front and then extend the landing net to then pull Denise up. This keep net action was repeated all the way up. James of course thought this was highly amusing.  Eventually we made it to safe ground. (It would have been quicker and safer to take the path)

Decided as we we so close to Wanaka and as James had lost all our remaining fishing lures on his previous expedition we would visit the fishing shop there to report the sewage and stock up on lures.

Visited the shop and told the owner. “Did it look like big lumps of bog paper mate” …”Yes it did”

“It is not sewer its also known as “rock snot” a freshwater diatom (a type of alga)”

“An American brought it over on some fishing kit and it has infected most of New Zealands water ways, I has ruined whole areas.”

Well I don’t know how he knew it was an American and I decided not to go there to find out.

He went onto explain that when they open the Dam, lumps of it the size of a canoe get flushed down the river.

I bought some anti didymo cleaner for all the kit, but somehow I feel that didymo has won the war already. Best to clean all kit before you go from one lake to another.

Bought some lures and the chap in the shop told us where to head to. Back in the car and off we set.

Mmm this looks more like it, we are told we can drive right down to the lake side.

We can!

All these pics are still of lake Wanaka but around the other side away from the town.

Later on after some serious fishing (without catching any fish) James decided he wanted to be Harry Potter

He made a wish to be in an Ice Forest with his mum.

It worked!

Then as if by magic Denise appeared back at the lake.

Well it turned into a great day, and even included some “river bank scrambling”

We headed back out from the lake towards Cromwell.

Just as we started to settle Harry Potter appeared again.

Well that all for now, tomorrow we head off to Queenstown to drop off Harry Potter ready for his new job starting Monday. I will leave you now with a few last pics I took at the lake.

I “think” these are what I used to call “katkins” when I was a wee toddler.

Ok just one more of the ice trees frozen blossom.

Have a great weekend.

Catch up with you soon