Well we are still alive after 3 weeks here in New Zealand. Our expectations of posting a blog once a week have not come to a reality. Internet is just not as readily available as we had hoped since we’re mostly staying on the rivers, so we will try to cram as much as we can into this post. The funny, odd, and crazy moments we have had are countless. Being in such close spaces with each other for so long is special in its own way…. Depends on the day and weather.  What you can do in New Zealand is very dependent on the weather. They have days where you can experience all 4 seasons. It can be raining in one range and sunny in the next. You just have to take the good with the bad and get your weather report when you wake up in the mornings.  We have had an amazing time thus far, and will post most of our pictures to Facebook, so please look for those. David forgot the charging cord to the small camera, soooo it is dead along with most of the fishing pictures we have taken. We will post those once we can find a cord. We don’t take the large camera out on the rivers because there are occasional falls. Morgan would be highly upset if that got wet or crushed.

After leaving Christchurch we went and fished the Hurunui for 2 days up in a gorge near Lake Sumner. We forgot the net in the car after hiking in and decided to wing it. First fish of the trip was a nice 4-5 pound brown (“that I spotted” says Morgan) that snapped off while trying to land him. Rookie mistake leaving the net… It was a great time fishing up that way.  Then went to Kaikora to do seal watching, coastal walks, etc. We ended up around Blenheim and Renwick where all the New Zealand wine is grown. We spent a whole day doing wine tours and visited 5 vineyards and cellar doors. We fished a couple of spring creeks around town the next afternoon and then headed north to fish the Pelorous and Rai rivers. We hit a bad patch of weather for a few days, and it rained very hard making the fishing almost impossible.  After that we went to the Nelson area to dodge the rain and regroup.  When that finally settled we ventured over to Kaiteriteri beaches to lay around in the waters and brown sugar sand. It was about 80 and sunny for those couple of days, and we decided to hike the Abel Tasman coastal track that is up the northern part of the south island. We had great weather and only had a  couple of down moments on the hike because we did a 2-3 day track in 1.5 days and Morgan couldn’t feel her toes anymore.  From there we went up to the Takaka area where we did some sightseeing due to 3 more days of rain. We saw Waikeporopupu Springs which is said to have the clearest water in the world. We finally have some more good weather and have made it to Murchison, fishing some rivers such as the Wangapeka and Motueka along the way. We got a cabin for tonight and have spent the day doing laundry, tent surgery, and grocery shopping. We try to stay somewhere besides the tent or car at least once a week, but that doesn’t always happen. The Subaru is great though, and makes for a lovely first home. It is actually quite comfortable and we find ourselves sleeping 12 hour nights with ease because we are so exhausted. We usually end up camping along the river somewhere, and dinner typically includes some sort of potato and fish, if we decide to keep one.  David also cut his finger with the fillet knife on about the 4^th day as well…. He has learned to slow down since then.

We miss all of our family and friends, especially last week at Thanksgiving, but we hope everyone is doing well.  Though internet is scarce for us, David can receive texts on his phone at no charge through a package we set up.  We’re far away but we still want to know what is going on back home!  Be looking for more pictures and hopefully we can Skype with people at Christmas time.  (Everyone here is wearing bathing suits and on summer holiday for Christmas.  It just isn’t the same….)

Cheers,

David and Morgan