Planning a trip to New Zealand
- This topic has 19 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Jan 16, 2009 at 10:47 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi All!
My wife and I are planning a trip to New Zealand at the end of March and first part of April. We will be visiting the South Island only on this trip as we only have about 12 days to spend there. We are hoping to make this a do it yourself type trip and would like to do as much fly fishing, hiking, and see the culture there as possible. The only thing that is an absolute must for me while I am there is to fish at least one day with Simon Chu! 🙂 Simon has already given us some ideas on places to go and see.
Any recommendations for the rest of you who have ever been to New Zealand or maybe already live there?
Joel
Hey Joel,
I’ve not been to the SI yet, but some good resources for research are:
http://www.fishandgame.org.nz/ or http://www.nzfishing.com/PS. Bring a rainjacket 😉 ;D
Oh and I’m sure Simon has already mentioned to leave the felt soled boots at home and bring the aqua stealth boots.
Joel, we did that exact trip a couple years ago, give me a ring (i’ll pm you the number) and i’ll fill you in on the skinny.
Best advise I can give is “don’t go” – the rest of your fishing life will be ruined…….. ;D ;D 😀 😎 ::)
I always head south from Christchurch, if you go north you can spend too much time driving – its a surprisingly big small place, the roads wind a lot through the mountains and travelling always seems to take more time than you’d planned for. I also don’t bother about the backcountry fishing as I don’t have a need to chase a few big fish, I prefer lots of good fish. You can burn up days in the back country for very few shots, especially that late in the year when many of the fish have been fished over many times and have seen it all.
Late in the season is “fine time” especially down south where Simon lives and fishes. Water levels are low, hatches of small mayflies can be huge, (size 14-18). Bring lots of small dries, emergers, and nymphs. The big rivers should have slowed their flow by then, these usually have some incredible rainbow fishing, bigger flies for these and heavy nymphs. The Waiau river immediately comes to mind.
If it was a really hard core fishing trip I would carry rods from 4-7 weight and lines from floaters to fast sinkers – if you’re into that kind of thing you can get some amazing fish swinging big wets in the big rivers, real line burners. Queenstown is a very touristy place but has some great fishing nearby.
There’s a lot of Kiwis get on the site http://www.sexyloops.com
Morsie
Thanks for all the tips guys! Morsie the only way I won’t go is if it gets to be to much $$$$$$$. It has been a dream of mine to go to New Zealand for a very long time. Everybody I have ever talked to says it is one of the most friendly countries in the world and the scenery will make you never want to leave.
Eric I will touch base with you later on today.
Joel
Simon Chu shoould be your “hookup”
and I believe Mike McKeown does a yearly trip there as well ( I think he posted pics from a trip). Sign into Mike’s site (http://www.theflyfisher.co.za) and post this same question. He is closer and could get you some closer to local advice. His forum is much like this one and they will give some great advice from a little closer to that part of the world.
Joel the exchange rate is so much in your favor at the moment its insane. The most expensive part of the trip will be the airfare so if at all possible stay longer, the 2 weeks will go way too quickly. They have great camping grounds there with little heated huts that have a couple of beds and not much else – there’s a communal kitchen and of course a bathroom block. You can “do” NZ very cheaply with a small hire car and staying in these camping grounds. I usually rent from Tony at Overland (He’s a fly fisherman and a great guy – http://www.overland.co.nz ).
Morsie
Joel,
My folks just spent the better part of a month in NZ. They absolutely loved the place. My dads not much of an angler but he said the rivers were unbelievable.
They brought me back a copy of a book they found while traveling.
Into the Wider World by Brian Turner. I am almost done with it. Do yourself a favor. Buy a copy of it and read it before you go. Turner is sort of an earthy, crusty 50something fly fisherman and conservationist. He is an incredible writer and tells some amazing stories from the South Island. He gives alot of good info on the rivers and what to expect. It also gives you a really good feel for the “character of the people”.I am sure Simon and others have heard of him.
Joel the exchange rate is so much in your favor at the moment its insane. The most expensive part of the trip will be the airfare so if at all possible stay longer, the 2 weeks will go way too quickly.
Morsie
Morsie I really wish I could stay longer than 2 weeks but we are pushing it a little bit with the 2 weeks as it is. My wife is a school teacher and we are planning this trip around her spring break and her personal days. Plus April is the start of the guide season for me as it is the start of the Skwala hatch. So you can see we don’t have a lot of flexibility in staying longer. Maybe next year…..
Thanks for the info Tim! I will see if I can hunt down that book.
Joel
Joel….whatever you do….don’t go near the glaciers:
Hi Joel
Seems like ages since I’ve posted
Fishing season here has been really great and to be honest this is the first weekend I’ve been home in months.
(Still managed to fish yesterday and today thoughps
Check the AirNZ site today as I see they have the US on sale at around 850USD return from your East CoastGreat to see you back Posting Simon,… wondered what you were up to… should’ve known it was fishing 😀
The advice in this thread is all extremely sound.
Look forward to seeing you at the Clave Simon.
You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
Best advise I can give is “don’t go” – the rest of your fishing life will be ruined…….. ;D ;D 😀 😎 ::)
Morsie
Great advice from all…my fishing life is definately ruined….see my previous posts.
I will be there in Early March( see you then Si, I’ll call soon) so I may be able to send you a report.
One piece of advice not already offered……If you do hook up with Simon……..don’t let him drive……….you’ll never get further than the first bridge 😉Best advise I can give is “don’t go” – the rest of your fishing life will be ruined…….. ;D ;D 😀 😎 ::)
Morsie
One piece of advice not already offered……If you do hook up with Simon……..don’t let him drive……….you’ll never get further than the first bridge 😉
Judging by the fish I have seen Simon with this first bridge statagy must be working! 🙂
Simon thanks for the heads up on the sale. We are biting the bullet and buying the tickets this week. I figure than we are all set and the rest of the pieces of the puzzle will all fall into place.
Great advice everyone! Keep it coming!
Joel
The airline tickets have been purchased!!! There is no heading back now!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Things are starting to fall into place very nicely for this trip and I thank all of you who have offered up all the great advice. This will certainly be the adventure of a life time for me! The craziest thing about booking the tickets down is seeing that you arrive two days later than you left but it only takes 23hrs 35mins!!!
On the upside you’ll be “ahead of your time” the entire time you are here…. and they give you back a day when you go back…. theoretically, with enough travel, you could live forever… perhaps I have discovered the immortality that has defeated so many 😀
Also, next time, plan a little time in the north, I can tell by your posts you are someone I could enjoy showing some of my favorite spots too.
You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
On the upside you’ll be “ahead of your time” the entire time you are here…. and they give you back a day when you go back…. theoretically, with enough travel, you could live forever… perhaps I have discovered the immortality that has defeated so many 😀
Also, next time, plan a little time in the north, I can tell by your posts you are someone I could enjoy showing some of my favorite spots too.
Clark you can count on it! I actually have a fairly good connection to the North Island. One of my clients is the architect who designed Cape Kidnappers golf course. He is a great guy and I slowly turning him into a fisherman. With a little luck I might be able to talk him into a business/fishing trip… ::)
Joel
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.