While on the North Island of New Zealand in Feb. of 1989, I spotted a river that looked promising to fish. I spent some time there and it turned out to be an interesting part of my trip to New Zealand. I stayed at a motor camp near the town of Murupara. The motor camp host (Bert) gave me some fishing advice. I drew a map in my outdoor journal, based upon where he told me to go. He informed me there was a canal not too far away that had good fishing. I drove down the road he told me about; before getting to the canal, I saw a person in military camo clothing standing along the gravel road holding a gun. At first I thought he was a duck hunter holding a shotgun, who might be lost. But then I realized he was holding a rifle. I rolled down my window to talk to him, and he requested that I show him my "transportation papers"? I did not know what he meant, so I showed him my passport. He told me that I probably shouldn't be in that area. He said I could probably continue, but there are others who might ask me for the aforementioned papers. After getting my passport back, I did a U-turn and I was shocked to be looking down the barrel of a tank! I read an article in the paper a day or two later that said there was a joint New Zealand and Australian military game going on that was simulating a Government coup.
I did manage to get some fishing in that day. Some kayakers informed me they saw a fisherman catch a large trout along a stretch of river, which was encouraging to hear. When I got back to the motor camp that night, I told Bert what happened that day, and he could hardly believe it.
That evening, while cooking dinner at the motor camp, I got acquainted with a fisherman named Tony from Korori, NZ. He invited me to do some fishing with him the next day, which I did. Later on my trip, he invited me to have dinner with his family when I was in Wellington. Near the end of my trip, he and his wife surprised me, when we were at the same motor camp in Queenstown.
While on the North Island, I accidentally broke the fly rod that I took with me to NZ. I did not have a backup fly rod with me. Tony let me borrow one of his fly rods for a couple of days during the trip. I went to a fishing store while in Napier, and I paid $95 for a new fly rod. I used this gray colored fly rod for the rest of my stay in NZ. I brought the fly rod back to Washington State, and caught many steelhead with it over the years. I considered it to be my "lucky NZ fly rod".
Note 1: The "New Zealand" web page can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->NewZealand from menu bar at top.
Note 2: The [NZ] "North Island" photo album can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->NewZealand->North Island of New Zealand from menu bar at top.
