By Peter McMullan with Photography by Nick Didlick
 As spring gives way to summer in the Northern Hemisphere so the seasons are reversed south of the Equator and in particular in New Zealand where my wife, Daphne, and I had the good fortune to spend the month of February and an all-too-short first week of March. That late summer, early autumn expedition remains a lifetime fly fishing highlight for so many reasons.
The massive browns of Lake Taupo’s Waitahanui River, an easy morning’s drive from Auckland, and their super wary counterparts in the South Island’s Mararoa River, not too far from Te Anau, have already featured in our March and April issues. Other well regarded waters were less rewarding for one good reason or another.
That goes with the territory and the overseas angler should be prepared for days when the fish fail to co-operate. Or more likely the fisherman’s skills are found wanting. Not that this is any way detracts from the overall quality of the experience.
This was enhanced beyond description for us by the universally warm welcome extended to visitors, by the range of lake and river opportunities so freely available to the overseas fly fisherman, along with the excellence of the many home-cooked meals and the very favorable exchange rate on our Canadian dollars.
Like so many fly fishermen, I had waited a very long time for this trip to become a reality and had taken considerable pleasure from the advance planning. From the outset we decided to go the bed and breakfast route, to make reservations well in advance of departure, so we knew exactly where we would be at any given moment. Admittedly this meant we were working to a fixed schedule, with minimal flexibility, but against that we never had to stop and worry where we would end up for the night.
In most cases we booked through New Zealand Farm Holidays (www.nzaccom.co.nz) and were delighted with the high quality of the service provided with email contacts frequently answered within hours by the owners.
Bed and breakfast in New Zealand can become dinner, bed and breakfast by arrangement with the host families and these evening meals remain a cherished highlight, one where strangers quickly became friends. Our stays were usually of either two or three nights’ duration, which gave us time to get to know our hosts and to see something of the local scenery, as well as time to explore the fishing.
Taupo provided a perfect example of great hospitality and newfound friends. John Read, now in his early 70s, was a truly superb New Zealand test cricketer and national team captain in his day and continues to serve the game as a respected official on a worldwide basis. He and his wife Norli also find time to welcome guests to their home just across the road from the lake. From there it took me less than 10 minutes to drive to the mouth of the Waitahanui River - talk about convenience, with dinner each evening an occasion to savour.
At first light on my first morning at the river mouth I ran into Graham Moeller. He runs his own bed and breakfast home and, as an accomplished fly fisherman, delights in taking visiting anglers to the best local locations. He is also a fine cook as we found on being invited to lunch next day on freshly smoked Taupo trout washed down with a bottle or two of New Zealand white wine.
There are, of course, many other places in the world where one can find outstanding trout fishing. Some of the South American countries are prime examples, but can any of them match New Zealand when it comes to value for money, ease of access to the water, light to negligible traffic on all roads, other than those close to the major centres, pleasant climate and an English-speaking population?
Of course, we North Americans continue to enjoy some great fishing, often on our very doorsteps, but that’s a different story altogether and, at least for us, hardly qualifies as an overseas experience. New Zealand is at the bottom of the world but Canadians and Americans are not all that far away from their North or South Island destination in this jet travel age. For the European traveler it’s a far more daunting journey, albeit one well worth the effort regardless of the greater distances involved.
What lies ahead for the fly fisherman visiting New Zealand for the first time? The following notes may prove helpful for those fortunate enough to be preparing for that long-awaited trip to the land of the long white cloud.
A Fly Fisherman’s South Island Diary:
Lake Onslow
Spent three days on the Clydevale farm of Trish and Alan May. The Clutha, New Zealand’s largest river and home to some very big trout, including sea-run browns. The river borders their 500-acre property where upwards of 2,000 deer, along with sheep and cattle, are being readied for market. The venison is destined for Europe while the velvet from the stags’ antlers goes to Korea for use in countless medicinal remedies.
As to the fishing, how can I ever forget the day spent on Lake Onslow with Alan and his 86-year-old father Jack, surely one of New Zealand’s oldest active fly fishermen and a man whose stories of the past are a sheer delight.
Onslow, at 2,000 feet and reached only after a 90-minute drive over a long, uphill gravel road that was high in the clouds at the start of the day, offers memorable fishing to a very strong stock of brown trout. Our best to bank-cast nymphs and dry flies went better than three lbs with father and son engaged in a first-time double header. There is a view that this lake is actually overstocked. Perhaps it was in the recent past, but every fish we saw, and all were released but for two for the table, were in prime condition, beautifully marked with small heads and robust bodies. A boat is virtually an essential for this big water with its extensive shoreline, one bounded on all sides by rolling, tussock-covered hills with not a tree in sight.
 Matura River
One of the South Island’s most famous destinations, the Matura remains for me a complete enigma. The trout are there in numbers to be sure, and the fly life is abundant, but this particular fisherman made precisely nothing of them. This despite a strong afternoon rise in streamy water and lots of spent duns, floating and largely ignored in the back eddies. Dry fly, wet fly and nymph - all were spurned and the fish were still moving, presumably to nymphs or emergers, as we took our leave. The only consolation was that Alan May, knowledgeable and experienced in these matters, was himself limited to a couple of fish after some very concentrated effort.
Waiau River
Flowing out of Lake Te Anau, and within easy reach of the town of the same name, the Waiau is a considerable river in terms of size and flow. Clear as gin, like all the New Zealand waters I encountered, it fished brilliantly to the nymph at dusk, when there were plenty of sedges in evidence, and again for an hour or so on either side of first light. Wading (felt soles) was comfortable if challenging with good-sized rainbows showing at dusk and dawn and fighting powerfully, at times well onto the backing, in the swift current. One visiting fly fisherman I encountered had just seen his wife off on a five-day mountain hike to Milford Sound on the West Coast and was settling into his comfortable motor home just yards from the river. "I’m not sure how I’ll manage without her," he remarked without conviction.
Lake Wakatipu
New Zealand’s third largest lake presents yet another vast expanse of quite magnificent, crystal-clear water, ringed by mountains, some still snow-capped, with Queenstown as its hub. King and Fran Allen have built their own dream farm, Bridesdale Charolais, above the Kawaru River, a few miles downstream from the lake. Thanks to them, my wife Daphne and I had an opportunity to travel by boat almost the full 80 km length of Wakatipu and to fish twice at the mouth of the remote Von River. What an experience that was. On the first occasion, mirror calm and in bright mid-day sunshine, a three lbs brown trout took the very first cast almost at my feet to the great surprise of all concerned. We released and lost rainbows of a similar size and, when an on-shore wind built up the waves, we were able to watch trout come across in clear view as the flies swung where the current swept over the drop-off and into the lake. For King Allen it was the picture-perfect introduction to the charms of fly fishing. He, for one, will be back at the same spot sooner than later. I can only envy him the opportunity.
Last word
Five weeks spent in New Zealand were totally memorable in every sense. Our bed and breakfast hosts and other friends along the way, among them Lee and Noelene Smith, in Orewa, north of Auckland, Murray and Zelma Wills and Graeme Moeller, in Taupo, Keith, Anne and Rowan Quinn, in Wellington and Keith and Barbara Syme, in Frankton, near Queenstown, were kindness personified. We dined like royalty, supped our share and more of excellent red and white wines, reveled in the largely deserted roads, marveled at the ever-changing scenery as it unfolded over more than 2,000 km of driving and, above all, cherished the countless fishing opportunities. It would take much, much longer to sample even a fraction of the sport so readily accessible to all for an annual adult licence fee of NZ$68 (weekly $28, 24-hour $13.50). Then there are the countless wilderness opportunities available to those using such high-end guided resources as four-wheel vehicles and helicopters.
You have never been to New Zealand? Then start planning now. It’s too good to miss and for so many reasons.
 The contacts:
Lyn and Lex Lawrence, Rose’n’Reel Farmstay, Te Anau, rosenreel@xtra.co.nz
Trish and Alan May, Argyll Farmstay, Clydevale, argyllfm@ihug.co.nz
Fran and King Allen, Bridesdale Farmstay, bridesdale@xtra.co.nz
Graham Moeller, Lake Taupo fishing host, Taupo, gmoeller@xtra.co.nz
John and Norli Read, 57 Mahuta Road, 5 Mile Bay, Taupo. Tel 07 377 0859
From the bookshelf
There are a number of books on fishing in New Zealand. The regional guides, among them Trout Fishing in Southland New Zealand, compiled and updated by Fish and Game New Zealand, are excellent. I also made frequent reference to:
Trout at Taupo, by O.S.Hintz (Max Reinhardt, London and Melbourne, 1964)
Fisherman’s Paradise, by the same author and publisher (1974)
Trout Fishing, A Guide to New Zealand’s South Island, by Tony Busch (David Bateman, Auckland, 1994, updated 1997, 1999)
Brown Trout Heaven, Fly-fishing New Zealand’s South Island, by Zane Mirfin, Graeme Marshall, Jana Bowler and Rob Bowler (Shoal Bay Press Ltd., Christchurch, 2000).
New Zealand Trout Flies Traditional and Modern, by Keith Draper (Reed Books, Auckland 1997)
Fish and Game New Zealand, published by New Zealand Fishing News, Auckland, an excellent, well established, full colour magazine that covers the country’s fly fishing scene in great detail.
http://www.flylife.com.au – This is the website of the Australian quarterly magazine FlyLife Journal, a really excellent source of information on fresh and salt water fly fishing in Australia and New Zealand.
For those wanting to explore additional and more general B and B opportunities, I suggest the very comprehensive 2001 edition of Uli and Brian Newman’s Bed and Breakfast in New Zealand, (TRAVELwise Ltd, Dunedin, 1998) and at www.travelwise.co.nz
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