Hanmer Springs

We spent three nights in Hanmer Springs on our way north.  It was a nice little hamlet known for its hot springs.  Team Morton needed a respite in the healing waters before continuing our journey.  We also got in a little mountain biking and fly fishing and knocked out a bit of homework.  Margaret had a positive impact on the New Zealand economy while in town.

Some photos:

Lucas, Walter, and me in our “swimming costumes” as they like to call them down here.  The gasometer seemed to be running higher than normal while we were in town…

 A panoramic view of the surrounding valley from a hill on the outskirts of Hanmer Springs…

Walter brandishing a fly rod on the Clarence River.  He and I spent an afternoon on the river and seemingly had all of New Zealand to ourselves.  This section of river ran through the largest ranch in all of New Zealand, Molesworth Station.  No trout to hand on this day, but both Walter and I had strikes….

Home Schoolin'

Here is a quick pop quiz for you.  If you are 28 days into a 61 day trip and you have done 1.25 math packets out of six, how far behind are you?  The qualitative answer is “pretty far behind”.

Before we ever left Portland,  Margaret had a stressful dream in which it was time to fly home from Australia and she realized that neither Lucas nor Walter had done any homework and that they needed to do it all on the flight home.

So we are neither all caught up nor quite in the dire straits of Margaret’s dream.

Margaret and I have attempted various instructional and motivational techniques.  We have appealed to reason.  We have deployed profanity.  The most successful approach has been the offer of a piece of candy for tangible progress.  We are now conducting important research on the relative impact of gummy bears versus different flavors of jelly beans on educational performance.

Moeraki

Our ongoing quest for the wild sighting the penguin took us to the small town of Moeraki.  Moeraki is a sleepy little coastal village on the eastern coast of New Zealand.  It is south of Christchurch and north of Dunedin.  The town itself reminded me of a smaller Manzanita, Oregon.  Oddly, no real estate was purchased during our 24 hour stay in Moeraki.  The surrounding country reminded me of Bandon which lead to an argument with Margaret and the boys as to whether they had been to Bandon.  I said yes and they said that it must have been my other family.

Moeraki seems to be known for two things:  the Moeraki boulders and yellow-eyed penguins. 

I have never seen anything quite like the boulders.  I’ll let you read up on said boulders on Wikipedia if you are interested as opposed to me expertising on the topic.

The yellow-eyed penguins were successfully checked off the list as well.  Apparently, they are the rarest and most endangered penguins in the world.  Once again, back to Wikipedia for those you looking for extra credit.  They picked a nice place to live on the point near the lighthouse.  It was a beautiful area shared with a big colony of fur seals.

The most spherical of the Moeraki boulders now slightly oblong under the weight of the Morton boys…

 More boulder shots.  This would be a good place for Ellis Cowan to do some parkour….

 Yellow-eyed penguins in their natural territory.  It is apparently molting season...

The invasive species of brown-eyed and blue-eyed tourists….

Fly Fishing Ineptitude

I have not been catching many fish and I have not caught any really big ones.  It is not easy down here.  I did not really expect it to be easy, but I did expect to be doing better than I have. New Zealand has a reputation as an experts’ destination.  So it is fair to conclude that I am not an expert at least for this type of fishing.  I have caught a grand total of about six trout.  I am not going to calculate my per fish cost!

Here is the list of my fishing spots:

Lake Rotorua (my only fishing on the North Island) – first ever night time fly fishing outing for me and first ever New Zealand trout.    I was graciously invited to fish with my co-worker Barbara Dusicka’s brother-in-law, Carl, while we stayed with Barbara’s family in Tauranga for a few days.  We fished from dusk until midnight.  It was a cool experience.

Mararoa River – a couple hour outing on a windy afternoon for Walter and me.

Clinton River – a beautiful river along the Milford Track.  We saw some beautiful, big rainbow trout in the Clinton.  I fished for them a little bit, but not too seriously.

Waiau River – massive, but very clear river flowing out of Lake Te Anau.  I thought I had a good chance in an afternoon and early evening.  I saw several big fish and a few risers, but no takers.

Oreti River – a brief afternoon outing for the whole family for some casting practice and a little fishing.  No fish, but we did lose a flip flop, which we retrieved the next day.  So, instead of catch and release, this was an instance of release and then catch.

Matauro River – This is a very famous river purportedly with lots of brown trout.  I caught one and saw some other big ones.  I really enjoyed my late day fishing here.  I would love to return to that river some day.

Ahiriri River (twice) – I caught some smallish rainbows on this river.  I saw a couple of huge trout who clearly saw me as well. 

Some of the contributing factors in my less than impressive haul thus far:

·         Not knowing where you are going.  This will hold you back no what country you are from or what country you are fishing in.   I bought a book on trout fishing on the South Island and that has helped me identify some of the more reputable rivers.  However, once I get to said reputable river, I feel like I am going to either obvious or unproven places.  Like parts of the US (but thankfully not most of the US), most of the rivers run through private land.  Here, there are lots of "stations" which are huge (20,000 acre huge) sheep and cattle ranches.  It seems that many of these stations allow fishing access, but usually at just certain locations.  Those locations are where you tend to start and they tend to be fished hard leading to sparse and wary trout.

·         Inexperience at sight fishing.  New Zealand has a reputation for having relatively low populations of trout, but lots of big ones.  It also has a lot of gin clear water.  With super clear water and a few big fish, the idea is to see the fish first and then cast to it as opposed to blindly chucking it out there.  I, on the other hand, am a proud member of the “chucking it out there” school which I do in water with more fish and less clarity.  I have spotted quite a few fish, but I suspect that they spot me a little earlier than I spot them.

·         Purportedly, tough late season conditions in a low water year.  I met a couple of serious fly fishermen from Scotland while fishing on the Matauro.  They had been coming to New Zealand for a decade and this was the toughest fishing that they had experienced.

·         Wind at times and rain at times that lead to less than stellar casting or visibility.

·         Minimal aquatic bug life and lack of dry fly hatches.  I think that is the norm for most New Zealand rivers.  The thing that I can't figure out is how these fish get so big with seemingly so  little to eat.

·         Mixing family time with fishing time.  For fishing success, you kind of have to be hardcore about it.  This trip has not been that hardcore, although Margaret and the boys have been very supportive of me getting some fishing in.

·         I hate to admit it, but I think I am losing some of the much needed “fire in the belly”.  It pains me to write that sentence, but there is some truth to it.

 

No photos.  I would be catching even less trout if I were taking photos!

Lost and Lost and Found (by Margaret)

I knew that traveling with my family for such a long time would have its ups and downs.  I will say that things have gone better than expected.  One part that I anticipated being hard is, and that part is keeping everything organized.  After traveling with the Dieter/Koerner family  to Alaska many years ago I promised myself that less is more.  Well when you head out for 2 months with 4 people and want to backpack, camp and fish it is hard to bring less.  We rented a minivan for the extra space and have made good use of it.  We have a pretty good packing system but strangely enough people (Lucas and Walter) have a hard time putting things back.  Well, I guess we all have a hard time putting things back.  Every few days the van and bags need a good clean out and reorganization.  Even with that the van has taken on an interesting smell that cannot be readily identified. 

Lost and not found:

·         One camp pillow

·         One backpack cover

·         Two pair of flipflops (local kiwi term is “jandals”).  We have hope that one of these pairs may still be lurking in the deep recesses of the van.

·         One pair of sunglasses

·         Margaret’s prescription readers (mysteriously dropped into Milford Sound courtesy of Walter)

Lost and Found:

·         One leatherman tool, (lost and found on multiple occasions)

·         One head lamp (found deep in the recesses of our gear)

·         Lucas’ expensive down coat (a Hail Mary find several days after loss at a Te Anau campground)

·         ½ of a second set of Jandals (found upon a return trip to the Oreti River)

I’m sure the list will be expanded daily.

We were listening to a podcast the other day that was an interview of the author of “All Joy and No Fun”, a book about modern parenting.  The author contended that parents were least happy when their kids were teenagers.  One of the forms of frustration or tension during this period is that there is a tendency for a parent to associate negative behaviors of their child with the example set by one’s spouse.  I would like to point out that I am a well-organized person, so who do we have to blame for our current predicament? I'm just saying...

Doubtful Sound

Sorry for the time lapse since our last posting.  We have been having some technical difficulties, but hopefully, we are back on track now.

We checked off one more iconic Fiordland outing with a trip to Doubtful Sound.  Doubtful Sound was named several centuries back by none other than Captain James Cook.  You will have to check Wikipedia for an exact date on that.  Cook could have readily sailed into the sound, but was doubtful that he could have subsequently sailed out against the prevailing winds with his type of square sailed ship.  Consequently, he never entered the sound.  Suffice to say that the Morton family intrepidly ventured where Captain Cook dared not enter.

I was dubious about the trip.  It involved little more than forking over your credit card and then sitting back comfortably for the balance of the day while taking in the scenery.  No backpack, no sandflies, no human suffering! Where is the fun in that?

The trip starts from the town of Manapouri where one gets on a first boat across Lake Manapouri.  Leg 2 of the journey involves taking a “luxury cruiser” over Wilmot Pass and down to Doubtful Sound.  Do not make the mistake of confusing luxury cruiser with a mere bus.  Once in Doubtful Sound, you board a second larger and fancier ship for Leg 3, a 60 km roundtrip journey out through the sound to the Tasman Sea.  Legs 4 and 5 are return bus luxury cruiser trip and Manapouri lake crossings.

We added an unforeseen bonus segment due to a scheduling error.  We thought our reservation was for Thursday, but they had us down for the next day.  We improvised and signed up for an afternoon/evening cruise later that same day as plan B.  That turned out to be a good move on several fronts.  First of all it gave us a chance for a short mid-morning hike on a segment of the Kepler Track (another of New Zealand’s Great Walks), although we did not have time to incorporate any human misery on the Track (no heavy packs, no sandflies, no exhaustion).  Second, we went from  a fully booked trip to one with just a handful of sightseers.  It made for a more peaceful journey.

Doubtful Sound was a good trip.  We saw some dramatic vistas, learned some local history and lore, and saw bottlenose dolphins and fur seals.  We were denied in our quest for a sighting of the elusive little blue penguins  - maybe next time.  Walter liked standing in the bow, leaning into the wind – Titanic-style.  Of course, he wanted to do it backwards which we put the kibosh on.

Here are some shots from the day.

Lucas and Walter from near Wilmot Pass with Doubtful Sound in the background.  Get those boys some caffeinated soft drinks stat!

Your standard fiords with their associated dramatic land and seascapes…

Walter is never one to pass up complimentary tea….

 

 

 

 

Large, blubbery mammals napping in the sun – no we are not talking about Rob….

 

 

Bottlenose dolphins putting on a show in the wake of the boat…..

 

 

Lucas replicating the bottlenose dolphins on the” kangaroo jumper” back at the campground….

 

One slight flaw with New Zealand

We had heard about sandflies before we got here.  They are insidious little bastards (pardon my French).  We first encountered them on the Milford Track as we shed our packs at the Clinton Hut.  They seem to favor wet locales like Fiordland on clear calm days.  They are big enough to see and easy enough to kill, but there is no shortage of them.  Walter asked the ranger at the Dumpling Hut if this was an average sandfly year.  He said every year seems about the same - give or take a few billion sandflies.

I would rate them as comparable to the Alaskan "no see um" and above your standard mosquito on the annoyance spectrum.  They seem to relish a little 100% DEET as an accompanying sauce to human flesh.  In the early part of the trip, Margaret and Walter were more delectable to them than Lucas and me.  That has changed.  My flesh has been confirmed as equally tasty.