Then we headed down the river to feed the eels raw mince kebabs…
Our salmon fishing was short-lived as the kids were kind of past it by then. Given that the lake had only been stocked with littlies a week before, I don’t think we missed out on too much and the smoked salmon we purchased from the shop was pretty good anyhow!
Time for us to head further south, and after a few stops to meet some rellies, remove a rock from between 2 rear tyres and to pick up wheels for the boat, we arrived at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. This is a stunning place - a glacial lake surrounded by mountains with plentiful birdlife. We spent a few days there and had fun fishing on the lake, walking through the forest and doing everything possible to avoid the sandflies!
The ducks seemed peaceful enough but were aggresive once we started feeding them. Jack had the right idea...
And the easter bunny found us too!
On our way to the next lake, we stopped at Kawatiri Junction for a short walk starting from an old railway station. The highlights were an old bridge (“old Knapford bridge”), a tunnel to nowhere and a hidden cave – of course Jack was very excited about it all! Lucy was more taken by the little robin that followed us partway and the yellow flowers (that she has taken to collecting).
The next lake was Lake Rotoroa. Again a beautiful setting but here the sandflies were even worse. The weather has cooled down a bit though so clothing took care of any bites. Once again we spent the time walking and boating/fishing – yeah it is a pretty good life! Oh I should probably mention here that no fish were caught – the locals told Mike that fishing was “hard” at the moment but I am not sure how “fishing’ and “hard” go together!
The sandflies become too much to bear so we headed off to Westport, via a night in Murchison. Poor Lucy has caught a tummy bug and has been very subdued over the last 3 days so we have kept things pretty quiet lately.
Buller Swingbridge
Cape Foulwind
Timeout takes on a different meaning...
