Wanaka, New Zealand

Today I went fly fishing & Kim went to a Lavender Farm & the A & P (Agriculture & Produce) show in Wanaka. It was a beautiful day here. High around 22 & sunny all day. I hired a guide today to teach me how to fly fish & hopefully hook into a big brown or rainbow trout. The good news is that I didn’t drown! Actually I had a great day. We walked 12 kms along the Makarora River, about a half hour outside of Wanaka. I have fly fished before, but my guide, Paul Wright, was a good teacher as I managed to hook into 6 trout. Two of them broke my line, & the other four managed to escape from the tiny barbless hooks. The first fish I hooked, I got too excited and set the hook too hard, breaking the thin tippet. It was about a 4 pound brown. Later in the afternoon I battled a 5 or 6 pound rainbow for 5 mins or so before it dragged the line across a sharp rock. I got to see some other trout in the ultra clear water, too, including a couple of huge browns over 10 pounds. I was happy that my clumsy casting improved enough to be able to entice all of these trout. It’s all “catch & release” fishing here. I was clearly better at the releasing part! It would’ve been nice to get to photograph the rainbow I had on. During the fight, it jumped clear out of the water. So, at least we got a really good look at it! Kim enjoyed visiting the Lavender farm, which was quite a bit bigger than the other one we went to in Hobart. The A & P show packed the village of Wanaka. Lots of agricultural, art, food displays, along with animal & fruit & vegetable judging made up the show. Lots of farmers, locals & tourists crowd into Wanaka for this once a year show.Read more