Another Month Flies By

Wow, what a month! The longer evenings have meant that after work there is plenty of time for a bit of tennis and the touch rugby season has started. After puffing through the first match, thankfully there were plenty of rolling subs, my fitness is slowly improving. Our weekends have also been action packed. First up was a visit from our Christchurch friends Lou and Rog, making the brave journey from the big smoke to little old Ashvegus. A BBQ was followed with Amy rediscovering her love of a Church Road desert wine that she had previously described as liquid honey! To clear the head on Sunday we all headed up to Lake Coleridge for a bit of a leg stretch which turned into a pretty relentless climb up Peak Hill. The views at the top weren't bad at all and after that exertion we felt justified in stopping at the Terrace Downs golf resort for a flat white and super large bowl of potato wedges.

Another week past and with a poor forecast we ended up deciding on a short jaunt up Bealey Spur in Arthurs Pass national park. Not setting off until Saturday lunchtime the weather got better and better and by the time we had had a brew at the hut and climbed the final hour to the top of the ridge the views over Mt Rolleston and Avalanche Peak were pretty special. We had arrived at an empty hut, hut being a generous term considering the palaces we have previously found in the middle of nowhere. Instead this was a very old musterers hut roughly cobbled together from bits of tin around a rather inefficient open fire. By the time we had filled our eyes with the view and turned to head back we could see a whisp of smoke on the horizon and once we got back the tiny hut was not only full, there was an Australian couple who had to pitch their tent next door. Although well into spring, that night the temperature dropped enough that there was a liberal coating of frost on the ground come morning though not enough to deter us from repeating out walk up the spur.

It was then time for Amy to meet up with her parents and so she headed Noth to Blenheim the following Thursday evening, it being a public holiday on the Friday. I took the opportunity to go fishing and had an invitation to join Rob and Sheree at the Tekapo river up in the high country. This river is fairly renown at having 250 fish/km though unfortunately has come down with a severe case of the invasive foreign algae Didymo. This was forst found in NZ a few years ago, presumably having been brought in by a visiting tourist, and has quickly taken hold in a number of important rivers. At present it does not appear to have significantly affected the fish or insect life but it is still early days. The mats that form however are slippy as hell and also rather effectively gum up any nymphs that you try and bounce along the river bed to intice the resident trout population. Still, the weather turned out to be superb, the top secret camping spot could not be bettered and a number of fish were caught by all 3 of us. I had my first take on a dry fly, a parachute adams, and also on a self tied nymph, a bead head pheasant tail! I was also left with the challenge of providing dinner for the brand new smoker Rob brought along and thankfully a well conditioned 4lb rainbow meant that I managed to deliver.

After such a success and eager to make the most of Amy being away for another weekend, I took myself off south for another weekend of fishing a week later. The weather was a little worse in that it rained non stop on Saturday and was grey and blustery on Sunday. Arriving just before dark on Friday night I was more than a little pleased to find a significant rise in progress. By the time I had my kit together I could just about see to get to the water and after about 15 minutes landed a lovely 5lber in the pitch black, very exciting! The following day I saw plenty of big fish, caught a few, scared a lot more and had a great time despite the weather. Sunday was slower with only 1 landed and another couple broke off but the location was superb and another day well spent.