Morgan and I are patiently waiting for our flight in Auckland heading on to Singapore. It is hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for 3 months and married for even longer. We had an amazing time in New Zealand, and already know the spots where we would come back and visit one day. We covered the South Island extensively and fished over 35 bodies of water during our time here. We drove over 7000km in our little Subaru, and ate roughly 28 pounds of cheese. (We would buy these huge 1KG blocks of cheese and eat one of them a week. Multiply that by 13 weeks and that is 28 pounds). I personally believe that New Zealand has the best fisheries in the world for sight fishing.  The fish are big, wary, and aggressive fighters, and the amount of water you can fish is extraordinary. The big fish caught and missed, the beautiful scenery we encountered, and the wonderful places we saw will be in our memories forever. I know we will not miss the sandflies, rain, and crazy weather, but in the end, it was part of the experience. I know we will come back one day, and I know that New Zealand will still be as pristine and serene.

We spent our last few weeks in New Zealand sightseeing and fishing a few more rivers. We left Invercargill, and drove up to fish the Mataura River and Otapiri stream a few days around Gore. We then ventured over to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula where we were able to watch the Super Bowl and do some hiking along the coast. It was an awesome city and we could have spent more than two days there. After Dunedin, we drove all the way to Omarama in Central Otago and fished the Ahuriri River for 3 days. We caught a ton of fish on this river, and was one of my favorite rivers from my last trip. Morgan and I then made a haul up to Mt. Cook for a day and Lake Tekapo for another day. We were able to view the mountains and glaciers in full sunlight, and spent our days hiking and tramping around. We camped out along the Tasman River with Mount Cook in the background. Waking up to that view was great the next morning. Morgan was not up early to take sunrise photos as I had suggested.  We saw the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo, and then made a long haul back up the East Coast to finish our trip. We really wanted to make it back to the west coast, but they had rain again and we did not want to spend our last week in those conditions. We ended up fishing the Hurunui River north of Christchurch for 3 full days, and we caught the most fish of our trip. The fish were taking dries with ease and we landed around 30 fish in 3 days, which is a lot for New Zealand. The sunny, hot weather was a bonus. We met a really cool American couple at the campsite who have been sailing around the world for 6 years! They had two small children, and it was very interesting hearing their stories about where all they had been and are going. Good thing we cannot sail, or we may never come home. The last part of our trip was spent in Christchurch where we mailed 50 pounds of fishing and camping gear home, and toured the city again. We were able to stay with our friend Marie at her home, and it was a great relief to sit down, relax, and watch some TV. After finally stopping, we felt like we could sleep for days.

So on to the next part of the trip…. The plan is to fly into Singapore and spend 3 days there. After that, we are taking a bus to the Malaysian town of Melaka where we will spend another two days, and then work our way north to Kuala Lumpur. Morgan has Asia planned out week by week, but that is where we will start. We are down to one backpack each (David’s weighs 22lbs and Morgan’s weighs 25lbs thanks to books), and cannot wait for our hotel room in Singapore which as a Jacuzzi! Please continue to follow our blog and we will post more often now that we have better access to internet. See everyone in May!

Cheers,

Morgan and David