Here are a few pictures from a recent trip to NZ (North Island) – mostly not a fishing holiday but managed to squeeze some fishing in ‘at appropriate times’. I was particularly impressed with the people who were without doubt the most welcoming and relaxed bunch I’ve come across abroad.

This is the Ngongotaha Stream which flows into Lake Rotorua – barely 4 or 5 yards wide it held some very large rainbows which had run in from the lake. These fish looked inordinately large for the stream and I estimated the ones below to be in the range of 4 – 8lbs. I only managed to hook one (smaller) fish on this stream, the amount of woody debris and bankside vegetation made fishing challenging. Apologies for the poor quality in the first two pics.



Here are some fish active on the redds in the same stream:



Next stop was Turangi where the Tongaririo passes through. Staying relatively close at a small Ski centre called National Park, I thought it would be rude not to visit this grand river, even if it probably isn’t first choice of the discerning kiwi!



After the obligatory look over the road bridge which revealed good numbers of rainbows up to about 9 or 10lb, I popped down for a few casts on the right bank of the Bridge Pool, emulating one local (below) who quickly had 3 fish on a fairly powerful looking nymph set up with an indicator. Fishing tungsten nymphs on a 10’ 7 weight is not my usual weaponry for trout and I failed to keep a hold of 3 fish hooked at distance.



I decided to head upstream to the Judges Pool, a formidable pool even in the low water. Here is the tail of Judges



Keeping the same setup going (a size 10 home tied grayling bug with tungsten head with an unweighted size 14 pheasant tail a foot below it), I managed to keep a hold of this fella, who twice jumped out of the hopelessly small net I had brought along - I reckoned he was about 4-5lbs.



Other than some wet wading in the surf up at Waipu Cove in Northland where I managed to, rather surreally, catch about 15 small bass-like fish on a DI3 with some ‘traditional’ Orkney wets, that was it.

We did do the Tongariro crossing, a 10 mile hike over Mount Tongariro and alongside Mount Ruapehu, and we were fortunate to have a stunning, cloudless day for the journey.

Mount Ruapehu:





Volcanic vent just over the other side of Mount Tongariro:



Plateau:



The lond descent, Lake Taupo in the distance and Lake Rotoaira in the foreground:



Here is a pukeko, a common bird but with loads of charm, I thought:



Itching to get back now, to resume where I left off in North Island and try for those big browns on South Island.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.
Bob

__________________
"If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is" - Wordsworth (Quilled on his day off)

I didn't realise that you'd tackled the Tongariro Crossing. You had a nice day for it judging by the pics. One of the classic day hikes (or tramps as the Kiwis would have it).

__________________
resist much, obey little

Walt Whitman

Yeah, the crossing was 'sweet as'. A stunning day that was, unforgettable scenery. We were extremely fortunate with the weather, sunshine and mid twenties pretty much for the whole time away. A nice little thing about NZ is that just about everybody we spoke to knew quite a lot about the weather and what it means - unlike over here where in general terms people talk about the weather when they have nothing else to say. A small point but very interesting.

Nice shots mate. Those "bass like" fish would have been Kahawai also known as Australian salmon. Great fighters fro their size. Did they look a bit like this.



You did well to pull a fish out of the Big T.

Regards
Mat

__________________
http://www.flyodyssey.co.uk/
http://flyodysseynewsletters.blogspot.com/

Great post and pics Dunbar.....

Stop it right now Dunbar!!! I've seen enough ok?