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Sean Brodie and I spent the
last week of March fishing in New Zealand, courtesy of "Britz
Campervans" and Air New Zealand. Our task was to discover
and promote "rugged outdoor adventure for males between
30 and 60 years of age."
 No
itinerary was arranged for us, except for the flights and the
supply of a Britz Elite Campervan for the duration of our stay.
What we did, where we went, and what arrangements we made was
left entirely to us.
We landed at Christchurch in the South Island and found the Britz
depot virtually alongside the airport. Our destination was Havelock
at the junction of Kenepuru and Pelorus Sounds where we had arranged
to meet with Chris Hobbs (Hobzee), a local charter boat operator
whom we agreed to charter at advertised rates.
Sean Brodie
with a snapper around 5 kg from the rocks in Pelorus Sound.
With five hours on the water
ahead of us, our plan was to do a spot of fishing anywhere Hobzee
chose to take us, then to reconnoitre the areas accessible by
road with a view to fishing from the rocks and beaches around
the sounds. Mind you, those beaches and rock shelves turned out
to be pretty rugged: But wasn't that the idea?
The day was hot and sunny as Hobzee headed his six metre aluminium
boat 'Tamure" up Pelorus Sound for about fifteen or twenty
minutes, and dropped anchor in 30 metres of water about halfway
between the steeply sloping sides of the sound. The tide was
running out at almost two knots, enough to hold us against the
light breeze blowing up the sound from the opposite direction.
 Hoping
to catch some fresh bait, I dropped a "Sabiki" rig
down to the bottom on a light rod and was rewarded with a yellowtail
scad right away, then another, followed by a couple of multiple
captures which resulted in a pretty lively fish box.
Sean wasted no time at all in taking a fillet from a freshly
killed scad and putting on for bait. I resolved to do likewise,
but was not encouraged by Hobzee who gave us a lecture on the
relative oil content of his pilchards and that of the freshly
caught scad we were now cutting up for bait.
Sean
Brodie releases a snapper from the rocks in Pelorus Sound.
Never-the-less, it was a fillet
of scad which howled off, and Sean had the fish. A snapper of
about four kilograms, alongside in short order to be photographed
and then released unharmed to swim again.
We had only been there half an hour and we had already caught
a nice snapper and lost another. That's not something you can
do very often in Port Phillip or Corio Bays, but as Hobzee explained,
snapper are not commercially harvested in the Sounds, and, with
a bag limit of three snapper per angler per day, a sustainable
fishery is assured into the foreseeable future.
We only hooked one more snapper that day. That was after we moved
to one of the numerous green mussel leases in Pelorus Sound,
and it was certainly bigger than the one we had already caught
and released. It took another of Sean's freshly caught baits,
and eventually, managed to cut the line off on one of the mussel
ropes: Nothing could be done about that.
 One
of the local telephone numbers I'd noted of was that of Ken Dooley,
operator of the water taxi "Pelorus Belle." an eight
metre diesel powered "cat." Ken turned out to be a
likeable, easy going ex-navy guy who agreed to take us to Sheep
Pen Bay in Pelorus sound were we could stay the night and fish
from the rocks around Te Puraka Point.
Now this part of New Zealand was in the grip of the worst drought
in living memory. The sun had beaten down mercilessly each day
from a clear sky with no sign of rain, we didn't even bother
to bring raincoats, just a "space blanket," sleeping
bags, and an awning which Ken loaned us to cover our food from
the "wekas," while we were fishing.
Hobzee with
a snapper he caught over the mussel leases in Pelorus Sound.
The weka is a native fowl,
about the size of small to medium chook, with stout legs and
a powerful beak. The weka has a taste for anything edible and
will fearlessly march into your camp, straight up to any plastic
bag or food container, rip it open and march of with anything
it can carry. The march became a run when one took off with an
iced "rough-cake" wrapped in cellophane, with me in
pursuit: Would it drop it? No way!
 Sean
caught, and released, a nice snapper of about 5 kg from Te Puraka
Point and we lost other fish. This was because getting them back
over a rocky ledge, which extended some 20 metres out from where
we were fishing, was almost impossible, but as evening approached
so did the rain and high winds.
To say we had an uncomfortable night in Sheep Pen Bay would be
an understatement. The tide came so far up the beach, the only
area left for us to retreat was covered in driftwood, and I do
mean covered for a depth of perhaps 30 cm all the way along the
beach. In addition to that the rain was falling heavier and heavier:
So we climbed into our sleeping bags and wrapped ourselves in
Ken's awning while the rain pelted down.
Geoff
Wilson with a nice kahawai (Australian salmon) taken from one
of the many black pebble beaches near Kaikora in New Zealand.
I suppose the most you could
say for our overnight stay in Sheep Pen Bay was that we broke
the New Zealand drought: The rain was still pouring down when
Ken arrived to pick us up at mid day and it didn't stop until
we were back in Havelock.
On the way back to Christchurch, the scenery was magic, with
the ocean on one side of us and the mountains on the other. And
it was a live ocean with pods of small dolphins, I believe Hectors
dolphin, working a few hundred metres offshore all the way down
to Kaikoura. There were birds working in patches as well: Yes!
We were going fishing again!
 Eventually
we found a beach to our liking where the surf rattled the weathered
black pebbles on the beach back and forth with every breaking
wave. They were hard to stand on, and I literally had the rug
pulled from underneath me as I reached for the big kahawai (similar
to our Australian salmon) which Sean brought in: It was a real
beauty of at least 3 kg, possibly more.
One of several
semi trailers overturned in the tornado we experienced on the
way back to Christchurch.
From that time on, we just
pulled them up the beach on the wave and held them while the
wave receded leaving them high and dry. They seemed to suffer
little harm from their encounter and swam away after being released
from the hook. However, it soon became obvious there was more
to think about than catching kahawai.
 Unbeknown
to us, a tornado had moved in from the west coast, over-turning
vehicles and ripping houses part. We in its path, the only saving
grace was that we in the lee of the mountains and we had a solidly
built campervan.
We survived a night of winds as high as 160 kilometres per hour
(almost 90 knots) and actually slept for some hours when the
wind eventually dropped back to around 60 kilometres per hour
(still over 30 knots) during the early hours of the morning.
We were extremely lucky. Others were less fortunate:
Our
Britz Elite campervan, held its own during the onslaught.
The first casualty we noticed
on the return journey, apart from the fallen trees and warped
road signs, was a big, double semi trailer, which had been blown
over onto its side. One of four as it turned out, including one
carrying a load of cattle. A caravan was so utterly demolished,
and its contents strewn so far afield, it was only recognisable
from the wheels and chassis.
Yes, we certainly found the going rugged at times in the "Land
of the Long White Cloud," but it won't stop us going back;
not at all.
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Fact
Box
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Havelock:
Water Taxi "Pelorus Belle"
Ken and Dianne Dooley
Ph: 0011 643 574 2151
Fishing
Charter:
"Tamure"
Chris Hobbs
Ph: 0011 643 574 2911
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Our Britz
Elite Campervan:
- 6.8m * 1.97m,
walk through access
- Sleeps 2
- 2.9 litre
Turbo Diesel
- Manual transmission,
power steering
- Shower, Toilet
- Pressurised
hot and cold water
Microwave, Fridge, Gas Stove, Sink, cooking equipment
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