NZ Trip -- Day 3

After a restless night sleeping in the van in gale force winds, we woke up to a grey, windy, rainy day. Dad wanted to go to the hot springs at Rotorua, so we packed up and headed out.

On the way we stopped at the 'Outdoorsman', a small looking fishing store. But each room openned onto another, and another, and another. This place had fishing, skiing, climbing, camping, etc. etc. There was a good selection for each range. A marveleous place! The sales staff were helpful too, selling us fishing licences, suggesting flies, and giving us locations to try. In particular they suggested lake Tarawera, and gave us detailed directions as to where to fish and how.

We headed into Rotorua and found the hot springs. We soaked for a while. Dad wanted to soak longer, but I was anxious to fish -- we were well into day 3 of 9 and I still hadn't even wetted a line.

Leaving the hot springs we went to another fishing store -- they again suggested Tarawera. We shopped for a bit and got souveniers, and then had lunch at McDonalds.

The clouds lifted and the sun came out, so I convinced Dad to drive up to Tarawera and have a look.

We drove down and there were a couple of people fishing from the shore. I decided to have a fish and got rigged up. Dad hadnt bought his licence yet, so he watched, but finally decided to go and phone in and get a licence. While he was arranging this a guy on the shore got a nice size rainbow -- though it was beatten up from spawning. I was watching his approach -- cast out, let the line sink, and retreive incredibly slowly. I emulated his technique, and got a couple of hits, but no hookup. After moving around a while I found a tiny creek running in to the lake, and tried casting into the current. I had no luck, but moving away from the creek I noticed a swirl right where the creek enterred. Another couple of casts and I was in on a white egg sucking leech. My first NZ trout!

A local came to help me net the fish. Turned out he was a guide and casting instructor. He pointed out some other spots, and also indicated that we were a month late for the best Rotorua fishing, but spot on for the best Taupo fishing!