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NEW ZEALAND HONEYMOON TRIP REPORT
OCTOBER HONEYMOON
LORELLA
& TREVOR PRICHETT
Kawaha Point - a great starting point for the trip.
The lodge was beautiful, Brian and Margaret and the
rest of the crew were lovely (Andre has a great
sense of humor!), and the food may have been the
best we had in NZ. In hindsight I wished we had
fished a day in that area as we only fished one
river on the South Island that had rainbows, and
according to most reports I got the fish aren’t as
fickle as the S. Island browns tend to be. Not an
issue for me, but as a beginner Lorella preferred
the easier fishing.
Maruia River Lodge - I can’t say enough good things
about Steve and Penny. They gave us an upgrade off
the bat and took fabulous care of us. The food was
quite good though not at the same level as Kawaha
Point, but that’s irrelevant when you consider the
fabulous hospitality. On our first full day we
ended up fishing with a guide named Ron. Ron is a
real character and a phenomenal guide with perhaps
the best eyes of anyone we fished with - the day was
extremely overcast and Ron was picking out fish from
50 yards. I was sorry we didn’t meet Paul but we
didn’t miss a beat with Ron. We fished two rivers
with Ron because he wanted to show us some variety.
The first was a small stream that feeds the Maruia
and I can’t remember the name but if you take a
right out the Lodge it’s about a 30 minute drive.
In that stream I caught two big browns in very
skinny water – a pretty impressive introduction to
NZ fishing. We then went and fished the Maruia just
upstream of the lodge, where Ron has some private
access. I caught a couple of nice fish on drys, one
of which took me for a half kilometer jog through
some rapids, and then we concentrated on getting
Lorella a fish. Ron did a great job with Lori on
her first day of flyfishing and eventually she did
get one. He also died my lines for me and gave us
great pointers on where we could fish on our own.
For the next three days at Maruia we hiked, white
water kayaked and fished on our own. With Ron’s
advice I was able to catch fish consistently on some
really neat water on the Maruia and Buller, and as
you know I managed to nail Steve’s pet fish. He’ll
be waiting for you in February!
Braelea – A very cute little farmstay with a three
legged deer in the house! I’m serious! This area
is all about fishing and Kevin and Jason did a great
job. The weather had been poor so the only game in
town was a river near Fairlie that Kevin and Jason
had different private access points to – we didn’t
pay for access though. Sorry I can’t remember the
name of this one either. Kevin was a very patient
teacher with Lorella and he put me onto a lot of
fish on nymphs and drys, including some darn big
fish. The next day with Jason it was the same
story. Jason is a very able and enthusiastic guide
and I recommend him highly for serious anglers. I
never saw him stop looking for fish the entire day!
Brentleigh Homestead – Mary and Brian couldn’t have
done a better job of taking care of us! The
sleeping quarters are quite nice, completely
modernized, and are private from the main
farmhouse. Meals were taken in the main house with
Mary and Brian, and Mary is a fabulous cook. This
place is a real working farm spanning over ten
thousand acres and the grand tour in Brian’s truck
was a bonus. We fished one day with Selwyn Shanks
and caught a good number of fish in the Mataura.
They weren’t huge (1-5lbs) but the numbers were
impressive and it was refreshing for Lorella to be
able to catch fish with some consistency. I
probably caught 15 fish and Lori got 3. We didn’t
explore the fishing on the Brentleigh farm property,
but apparently it’s pretty good. We also spent a
day hiking near Gore while in town.
Lakeside Motel, Te Anau - The Lakeside Motel is
just what you’d expect from the name, and it served
us well. Dean is another top notch guide and I
really enjoyed fishing with him. The first day we
fished the Eglington in some pretty foul weather,
but managed to net about ten browns in the 3 to 6
pound range. Lorella took the second day off
fishing and Dean and I fished the river that runs
right by Te Anau. Again, the weather was miserable,
but we managed to catch around 15 fish with a nice
mixture of browns and rainbows.
Blanket Bay - No need to comment on the level of
accommodation here! The first day we experienced
torrential downpours, so I headed to mouth of the
stream that runs by the lodge, and to my surprise
caught about ten nice fish in just an hour – a
mixture of rainbows, browns and salmon. The fish
were aggressive and ate any little streamer or
muddler I threw at them – didn’t even need to use
the sinking line. On day two things cleared up and
I was quite pleased to discover fish feeding on the
surface at sunrise. After trying a few flys and
sizing down my leader I got them to eat a #18 adams.
I know, I wasn’t supposed to be fishing at Blanket
Bay but I couldn’t resist! We also made full use
the spa at Blanket Bay and went on a beautiful hike
on day 2.
Overall Don, the trip was truly unbelievable. The
fishing was probably not peak – had to do a fair
amount of nymph fishing and a lot of rivers were
muddy or too windy - but the early season has its
advantages as the fish are hungry and probably not
as gun shy as they are later in the season. We
covered and astounding swath of country and were
treated by phenomenal hospitality everywhere we
went.
TRIP REPORT
Fly Fishing Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
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