New Zealand Tasman Stuff 18Dec22-21Dec22

Day 6 Travel Day ~ ANZ South To Nelson

We dropped off our Rav4 and boarded our ANZ flight @ the Kerikeri airport bound for Nelson in the north of the South Island. Santa carries a surf board here and we fly twin turboprops. The flights to Nelson took us through Auckland again but just for a layover. Descending to Nelson  the whole north area was clear (for a change from heavy cloud cover during recent travel). We were dubious on arrival near our destination motel, the Harborside Lodge, as the area was seaport laden with industrial stuff (good if we wanted bearings or pumps). It was ultimately a great place overlooking the marina but needed 25 min walks or Uber trips to get to town center. NP, past the industry, past the rugby stadium, past the city park, and into town. The first night we sought out a local brewer and settled for Sprig & Field for fish & chips and a draft beer. Cool but beer was just OK.

If you pack a straw hat in tight luggage for too long you get crumple and you need to iron the brim ~ gotta look good and seal in the sweat for a big fish day!

Day 7 Big Fish Day On The Baton

OMG... I dreamed of the 6# browns on the Motueka once reading of fly fishing in NZ, and I hired a guide to attempt that targeting. I never really thought I'd get there. Unfortunately the Motueka was chocolate milk from some upstream deluge but our guide Blair Daniels got us to the Baton, an unaffected tributary of the Motueka. The fish were smaller there ~ just 25" 5+#ers ;). We were alone on the water and while there were fewer fish and it was smaller water, Blair (and I at times) spied the pigs and we went target shooting. The casts were whacky though as we had 15' of leader and tippet then 6' more to the 1st dropper! ~ this made the shot much floppier than I was used to having ~ it was supposedly needed to avoid spooking the wily browns, from leader or line. Wow... I learned some stuff and ultimately I got the hang of it. Caddis were the ticket and we used Blair's custom ties but a poxyback mayfly foolded the 1st 25" brown. I was stationed below the fish of course and took only 2 shots with any given bug rig (NZ, as CO, allows 3 bugs ~ we had dry, dropper, dropper)... sometimes he allowed only one cast, if it was solid ~ then Blair asked for the line and he'd change at least both the droppers. We did this for 30 min on the first pig ~ 5 bug changes. Meticulous, technical and cool AF. Unfortunately Kala mostly got to watch vs fish. Thank you m'lady for the generosity. I landed two great 25" Scottish browns (there are no German browns here) and saw precious few other fish. I was surprised these large fish even fed on normal #18 flies; in NAmerica I've seen the predatory browns this size require more meat ~ environs count. I was dang excited for the 6 min fights on the Rodfather Stripper and Rodfather True Five... biggest browns I've landed. I did have a 3rd on, likely larger, who broke me off on a sweet move into a rock formation... I wasn't quick enough to thwart the escape.

We clamored down from the stream in Blair's Mitsubishi mid-SUV back to Nelson. Kala & I learned of a restaurant called Urban and we walked in there after a big fish day. Urban was easily one of the best eateries to which we've ever been... the fresh caught ceviche was killer (they put super-light carrot chips on top of fresh fish with onions, chili, cilantro & lime juice); the chili seared pork hocks were something never tasted & so evil and delicious; roasted cauliflower with misso butter and sesame was great; even the hazy IPA from the 'hood was perfectly dank and chewy. Yeah, our seating was imperfect at the chef's table, as it was at a wall, but we muddled through with extraordinary flavors.

Afterword we headed to The Free House for a night cap brew. Funky as heck spot at which we chose a decent beer (which we chose from among 3 hazies)... even the trip over was cool with fish street art. Blair is a home brewer and wine-knowledgeable and we discussed beer ~ I knew the S Island hops varieties of note: Nelson Sauvign, Motueka, etc. as had "tasted" them from ORB visits and meeting with the brewmaster ~ it worked well between us and he shared these spots and more. Unfortunately the top brewers in the north here were closed as we passed (Hop Federation & Townshend) but no matter, we'll have other chances.

We Ubered back to the Harborside off a killer day on the river, restaurant, and taphouse.

Day 8 Able Tasman Natl Park Track

We headed out, not too early, to the Abel Tasman National Park on the very north side of the S Island. We were detoured by Google Maps onto a very shitty, super-windy road taking us through Kaiteriteri (sure it's a beauty of a seaside town ~ but out of the way on a whacky road). We arrived safe and grabbed a water taxi with Skipper Sarah up the coast of Abel Tasman to Anchorage. We were the last booking and somewhat infamous as she had to return to shore to pick us up. Most of Abel Tasman is wild and not accessible by car (all the coast is).. it surely reminded us of the NaPali coast in Hawaii. We saw the (fairly disguised) seals of NZ on an island along the way. After recovering our sandy feet from the wet landing, we donned our hiking gear and headed back toward the AT trailhead some 10 miles and 1Kft away. We "tramped the track" in Kiwi ~ hiked the trail. It was completely awesome hitting remote unmanned beaches and jungles & forests the entire way. My new Solomon X Ultra 04 trail runners worked perfectly for these mostly smooth and well maintained trails.

Once back in Nelson we hit a good Vietnamese place called Green Bamboo - good pho and tasty bun (no pic - weird). On the way back to the Harborside we sidetracked to Red 16, a cool bar, for a nightcap... it was hoppin' and no one else there was even 1/2 our age. They were celebrating their 3rd anniversary a we're in a pic adorning the website of the party.

Day 9 Lake Nelson Natl Park Area

We decided to head inland and hit another cool Natl Pk there for our last day in Nelson. We drove some decent and some less decent roads 1.5hrs up to St Arnaud and the Lk Nelson NP. It became plenty windy above 1500m elevation (nearby mtns, including the Rainbow ski resort, are ~2200m). Lake Nelson had visible monster brown trout and is the source of the (formerly) famous Buller River. I accessed the Buller via the Angler's Walkway but couldn't cast really. Dense riverside cover and/or steep canyon walls ~ walkway was all it was, not an "angler's dream." All I did was scare some browns in the lake with my streamers. There were also huge fresh water eels in the lake as there are in many NZ waterways, along with black swans. I carried the new Rodfather Cobalt Cutbow around the area for fun. Here's Lake Rotiti, the Buller, area hikes and more...

We had an early reservation at the Boat Shed in Nelson so we didn't linger long at the NP after our hikes. The Boat Shed was good, especially the NZ lamb dish; it was right on the harbor and we walked home past the substantial deep water port of Nelson. It is not even in the top five in New Zealand though.

We didn't ski, but we saw Rainbow; we didn't fish, but we saw some big ones; we didn't go boating, but we saw plenty.