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I was slightly reluctant to post a TR back in May, as the Great Hong
Kong Fly Shipment generated so much turbulence here. But in light of the Last Seven Days, I think its time to post some on-topic stuff, and give feedback to all y'all about how the trip went, and the impact of your generosity. For those of you who are struggling with memory loss, I took 18 relatively well-off kids from my school on a week long flyfishing trip in New Zealand as one component of a school-wide outing week. My intention was to let them see a slice of life that they could preserve when they grew up and became CEOs, owners and managers of potentially environmental-impacting businesses. In summary...the plan worked. :-) We flew from HK on the Friday after classes, and it was obvious that the kids were going to be terriffic. There was not one single late arriver at the airport, and they all had the proper gear, carefully and properly packed. Some of these kids had never even worn a raincoat or carried a backpack, but as I showed them a good way to secure the straps and loose ends for airflight, they were entirely into it and excited. The flight was long...14 hours, and when we arrived in Auckland, we were met by Nick, the outfitter who was providing our land services. He is not a fly fishermen, but was an enthusiastic outdoorsman, and his enthusiasm was contagious. The kids took to his bubbly ways instantly, and we loaded up the van and trailer, and headed to some river cottages for the first few nights. The next morning, I broke the kids into three groups. There were three training stations, and they rotated through them over the course of the day. One station was run by Nick, and they learned river safety; how to swim rapids, how to catch a throw line, how to set up safety when running a rapid. I ran the second station on how to paddle a canoe. We paddled down the tiny stream out to Lake Rotorua, worked on eddy turns, high and low braces, river signals, how to load a canoe, etc. The third station was run by a local fishing guide, and taught the kids how to cast. In groups of three, he had them casting dummy flies across a grass field, keeping tight loops, giving nice deliveries, snapping their backcasts up and their front casts nicely. By the end of day 1, the kids were all proficient paddlers, had usuable casts, and had a touch of river sense. The next day, we drove down to the Mohaka river. The weather had turned sour, and by the time we arrived, it was pretty much dumping. However, their enthusiasm had not dampened at all, and the two local fishing guides we met were anxious to provide the next level of training...how to read water and how to target fish. The most amazing thing happened on the drive down to the Mohaka. The scenery started getting more and more familiar, and amazingly enough, the location where the guides took the kids turned out to be precisely the same stretch of water that Roger and I 'discovered' a year earlier when we were poking around on our own! On an island with thousands of miles of fishable water, we ended up returning to the same half-mile of river that I had fished before! The kids rigged up (the first time in 'battle conditions', and hiked through the rain and mud to the river. We split them into two groups, one above a rocky rapid, and one below, and the guides gave a brief intro to looking for structu eddys, pools, current, etc; and where to target trout. At one point, the guide mindlessly tossed out his fly in order to demonstrate how to mend, and a 5 pound trout slammed it. The kids could not be contained after that...they wanted to FISH, and they wanted to do it NOW! So we spread them out about 30 feet apart, and let them get going. Within minutes, one girl hooked and landed the first fish of the trip...an 8" NZ brookie. Soon thereafter, kids started hauling them in....all about the same size, but no one cared. They were loving life. By the end of the afternoon, about half the kids had caught fish and were so excited they did not even notice the pouring rain and soaking ground. A few hours later, we headed downstream to base camp. Nick had chosen a wide open and private field in the lower stretch, and had set up a giant tarp and kitchen area. The kids had to set up their own tents (Nick provided them) under a stand of trees nearby. None of the kids had set up tents before, so there was a lot of instruction going on, but in short order, they had all created cozy, dry spaces to sleep in. The camaraderie and enthusiasm was contaigous, and before long they were all in the kitchen area, cutting up veggies, gathering firewood, and pitching in however they could. The next day, Plan A was to pack up the camp, move upstream, load the canoes and start a 4 day canoe trip. But the weather continued to be miserable, intermittent downpours and constant drizzle, so instead we spent the day fishing the river by camp. No one minded not having to break camp, and the kids were all spread out over the waterway, casting proficiently and many were catching fish again. They really took to it. At one point, I gathered a few more enthusiastic kids, and we waded across the river and worked our way upstream to fish virgin water. One kid pulled out a 15" brookie right above a rapid, and moments later they were all in there, casting to every ripple and wave they saw. By the end of day 2, it was apparent that the weather was not going to lighten up, and their spirits were not going to darken, so we decided to switch permanently to plan B...keep the base camp all week and do day trips, either short canoe trips, or drive to different fishing venues. We decided on day 3 to head back to Rotorua, visit a fly shop (most of the kids had developed enough skills by then to determine that there were different pieces of equipment (hats, fly boxes, etc) and different flies that they wanted), and then to a local hot spring to warm up. As it was actually partly sunny in Rotorua, we hired a guide to take them up the Waitaganui, a river that Roger and I had fished the previous year, and show them some giant fish holding in the deep pools. They were as hard to catch this year as they were the previous, and everyone had the experience of being skunked while staring right at abundant fish. The next day, we did a short canoe trip downriver, and decided not to carry the gear in case of dumps. Good thing, as several of the kids turned over on sneaky eddy lines, but the river was very tame and no one was ever in any danger. There was one bouldery rapid of significance, and we scouted it and gave the kids the option of lining it or running it. Most volunteered to run it, and their shouts of joy convinced the others to run it instead of lining. In the end, only one boat dumped, and the kids spent much of the rest of the trip talking about how exciting it was. When we got to take out, our shuttle driver had a 24" trout he had caught while waiting for us, and the kids got their first glimpse of what a larger NZ trout looked like. They could not wait to get back to their camps to string up, and they fished until dark. The next day was our last day on the lower stretch of the river, and the kids voted to return to the place where the shuttle driver caught his fish. They fished all morning, catching a few 12 inchers, but nothing significant. Then we moved camp (the sun finally had broken through) back to the upstream section where we had recieved training earlier, and made our last nights camp. The sun was beaming, and the kids all were able to slide into their favorite activity. Some of them hiked upstream, returning with enthusiastic tales of how beautiful the river valley was. Others lounged in hammocks, reading books and listening to the sounds of the birds around them, others fished the river near camp, catching fish on dries and vegetating with nature. That night, we talked about the trip, and the overwhelming message was that it was absolutely stupendous. They all expressed how they had never realized that spending an entire week outdoors was so relaxing and recharging...they had been afraid of such things as getting too dirty, where to go to the bathroom, being wet and uncomfortable all day, and being harassed by animals. They realized in retrospect that none of these things were realistic fears, and that the wonderment of hearing the birds at dawn, seeing stars at night, feeling resilient when spending several days in raingear and not being uncomfortable, and the knowledge that 'there's fish in them there rivers' was the reality. As we packed up to return to HK, I could see from the care with which they packed their fishing gear that they had taken complete ownership of it, and were excited for the next time they would be able to wet a line. Mission accomplished. --riverman |
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Belated TR: the kids trip to NZ | riverman | Fly Fishing | 1 | August 10th, 2008 10:41 PM |
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Belated Trip Report (long) | [email protected] | Fly Fishing | 4 | June 27th, 2006 06:55 PM |
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