Twizel

We were sad to leave Tekapo but Bruce was full of anticipation of catching a salmon in the Ohau Canals. We left after letting the dogs have their usual run around in the dog park and headed for Twizel.

The drive to Twizel was only a couple of hours, and we had to cross the Ohau A canal to get there. We stopped to take a photo and a car load of young men were just packing up their gear. They had just finished up fishing and told us they had caught a few good trout that morning, so that only encouraged Bruce’s excitement. The canal water is the beautiful aqua blue green colour.

The first port of call was the township of Twizel, where Bruce had to purchase the lures etc. that he needed, but lunch came first. The last South Island trip we had it seemed to be a contest of where Bruce could buy the best scone (Clyde won that time). This trip seems to be about where Bruce can get the best cream donut. So far Twizel has this prize.

However, having spent the required dollars on the “must have” lures, as well as in depth descriptions by the shop owner of how to set up the rigs, we headed out to the Ohau B canal (NZMCA Park over property) ready for Bruce to start fishing at 3pm, as per his license.

He decided on the best spot and was disappointed when the first few casts he did were without a result. Nevertheless, he continued until tea time. Lets just say it was just as well I had purchased some chicken schnitzel to cook for dinner.

Not only did Bruce have to contend with the lack of fish jumping on his line, he has to protect his back end from the local swan. This swan is not at all shy of people (or dogs) and it appears friendly but as soon as it gets within reach of you it goes in for the bite. Fortunately it only got access to one of my shoes, but Bruce was very wary of bending over to load the boot!

After dinner, Bruce had a few more casts, again without success, but he had high hopes for a pre-dawn fish the next morning. The salmon farm across the canal looks quite mundane during the day, but at night it is all lit up and looks quite pretty with the lights and the reflections on the water.

However, that night weatherman Dan had dire warnings about incoming weather, low snow levels, high winds and rain for the weekend, and not long after we went to bed the wind and rain began. The van was rocking around, although it did not feel unsafe at any time, but not a lot of sleep was had as we tossed around our options. We finally did get to sleep when the weather calmed down a bit, but we slept through the pre-dawn hours and no more fishing was done! So much for a 3 day license!

We eventually decided to head for Wanaka as originally planned for a couple of days time, as the winds had calmed down (even though the rain continued on and off). Our initial concerns about heading to Wanaka were the winds through the Lindis Pass, but as the winds had settled we no longer had those concerns. We didn’t want to stay by the canals as we wanted to stay somewhere with power if there was going to be a 2-3 day spell with little solar energy coming in to the van. So, decision made, we headed out that morning towards Wanaka.