Fishing for the Big One- Ohau Canal

Fishing was the main reason for a stop-over at the Ohau B campsite.  During summer the canal banks are dotted with many day-trippers fishing for salmon and trout. I’ve heard that our piece of real estate- the canal bank opposite the High Country Salmon farm- is bumper to bumper RVs jostling for space during the season. There’s a five night maximum stay which helps elevate the problem of people hogging a spot and parking up for weeks on end.

Now, as winter approaches, there are just a few hardy souls coming and going during the day along with a few movanners at the tail end of their holidays or full-timers like ourselves.

Having never been salmon fishing before, or fished a canal (if you don’t count the UK canals that he once fished as a kid) David had numerous rods and gear to trial- he’s carrying a small Hunting & Fishing store around with us!

David came home with high hopes after a local business owner showed him what he had in his freezer- a very large, extremely grotesque looking brown trout (photo taken with his camera phone). It was caught near the salmon farm last year and put on ice, ready to be mounted. But unfortunately it’s passed it’s "stuff by date" and is now well and truly, well, stuffed. Left abandoned in the freezer- not worthy of anything other perhaps a little bit of glory everytime the freezer door is opened.

As mentioned in the previous post, the wild salmon and trout that live in the canal around the salmon farms can grow to a horrendous size as they feed on the excess food that escapes the farm nets. These fish are usually more wily though, as they live under the nets or near the edges, out of reach of most baited rigs or flies. At this size they’d be no good to eat I would think.

No, I think we’ll settle for a more manageable sized fish from the canal, the ones that just stop by for an occasional snack, it’s just a matter of catching them on their way to the dinner table. And while you’re waiting for them, there’s nothing but to sit in the sunshine and watch the world go by….

…and the neighbours catch a fish.

I spoke to this guy to see if he’d had any luck, he hadn’t but was going to carry on fishing until it got too dark. He was on a motorcycle tour and his friends had continued onto Kurow for the night. Such is the lure of a big one.

And David fished on, tucking himself behind the van to soak up some warmth from the weak sunshine. And even though the canal looks silky smooth, there’s a large amount of water flowing down the canal under that smooth exterior, dragging the lines constantly downstream. There was extra trouble controlling the lines after a particularly cold day in the North Island when the water passed by at a fair rate of knots all day; the power stations must have been operating at full capacity generating all that extra electricity to warm the wimps up north

Another day, another neighbour fishing and not catching anything. If you look carefully there are more fishermen down towards the bridge and over on the far bank. The section between the bridge and the farm is a prime possie, I believe it’s thought that the fish cruise by near the bank, moving between the pens on the other side of the bridge down to the ones across from us. I didn’t see anyone catch one from there though.

Across the canal a carload of day-trippers tried their hand at the same spot two days running, they also had no luck, one of the girls eventually getting totally bored with this fishing malarkey.

You’d think this guy had enough of his own fish without trying to catch ours! He even has one mounted on the top of his car. It looks like he was taking water samples downstream of the farm.

And still my man fished on, morning, noon & evening through frosting mornings, sunny days and chilly evenings. David has decided he’s not a fan of this type of fishing, he prefers to stalk his fish or work the rod not just sit and wait with a prawn on the end….….(you know what’s coming don’t you? Get out the violin)

He got so fed up with fishing one day we went for a drive and found a short walk to the Ben Ohau Wetland; we thought we’d blow the cobwebs away, stretch our legs and find some birds. Looking at the photos it’s hard to believe how cold it is but if you look very carefully at the bottom photo you’ll notice two things that are odd…….the pond is on it’s way to being frozen over and those are decoy ducks and geese! A pointless walk that was. Now, just three weeks later, this area is under at least half a metre of snow and those decoys have their comeuppance.

After the walk we drove on up the Ohau A canal towards Lake Ohau, passing another salmon farm along the way and then, after driving for about 10 or so kilometres and seeing nobody, being surprised by the number of vehicles and fishermen at the dam. This is the inlet to the Ohau canal system, the big dark mountain on the right hand side is Ben Ohau.

We thought the word must have been sent out that there were fish at the dam wall- well it would make sense because they were spawning and this is as far as they can go up the canal. A number of our neighbours were here for the day too.

There were fisherman along the top of the dam and down both sides jockeying for a good position. I think the guy on that big flat rock had it sussed. Once we got talking to a few of them David realised that this was a group who were on a ‘soft bait’ course and he’d met the tutor the day before at our canal. They’d had the theory lesson back at a Twizel hotel and were now putting it into practice. They’d had no luck so far, that was until I saw someone on the bank pulling in a fish. When I mentioned the catch to the guy I was standing by, he told me the fisherman wasn’t part of their group! Maybe the group needed to take lessons from him.

Maybe David needs to take………no, don’t say that Shellie.

While David fished on I went looking for birds to shoot (camera shoot of course). I was headed to Wairepo Arm, the body of water that is south of the salmon farm, it must have been part of the Lake Ruataniwha system before the hydro scheme was built.

That was when I came across Cody who was fishing in close to the farm and calling to his mate for a net. He had a salmon on the line. His fourth fish for the day and his bag limit.

It was then that I looked down to see his other fish; two huge trout and another salmon.

Two very large trout indeed. Caught beside the salmon nets by a very skilled fisherman- not skilled in catching fish(although of course he was) but skilled in his accurate placement of the lure. He had to avoid overhead lines and the guide wires holding the farm to the bank and to the barrels, he was a mean shot, placing the bait right beside the net- too far and it landed inside the net or hung up on the side, too short and it was too shallow or too far away from the big boys swimming around under the net.

I got talking to Cody- he’s a local and spends his free days fishing at the canal. He said this was a usual catch. I also found out that he works for DOC and not only that but he works with the endangered Black Stilts/Kakī and has offered to show us through the aviaries the next time we are passing through. The breeding aviaries are just over the back of the hill behind us at the camp, on the old Ohau River terraces. We’ll certainly be taking him up on that.

And still David fished on…..but he's decided he’s not a fan of salmon fishing.

And we may not have had salmon or trout for dinner but we had a packet of prawns that were going spare...

Fish, Frost & Fine Weather- Twizel

Now, back to catching up on the backlog of blogs, although these particular ones from Twizel seem a bit out of place now that the whole area is covered in knee deep snow from the big snow dump that passed through there last week. Oh how I would have loved to have been parked up here when that went through.

We left Tekapo after five days and while we did a fair bit of exploring there’s still a few road trips we've left until next time.

Our first stop for the day was at the Irishman Creek Station post box on the side of SH8, probably the most photographed post box in all of the South Island. What a great colour choice; the blue and white replicating the big blue sky and snow covered Southern Alps.

It’s funny how things pan out; I hadn’t heard of Irishman Creek until seeing the post box and then the next day, while listening to a programme on the radio, I heard about the historic Irishman Creek Old Car(pre 1932) Rally which is into it’s 61st year, originally held over the dirt tracks of the high country station, now held over the dirt tracks of numerous high country stations in the area. And then a contact mentioned to me that Irishman Creek was once owned by Bill Hamilton (its still in the family) and this was where the famous Hamilton jet was born.

We stopped for lunch at the Mt Cook viewing rest area again, this time with ‘Out There’ on the back and on a bright and sunny day. The last time we were here was after our epic journey up the Pukaki River road- Mt Cook on both visits was hardly visible. Here it’s peeping out just above the ute deck. The sun is too low at this time of the year to get any decent shots. We’re leaving the 55km side road down to Mt Cook for another time, we want to stay down there for a few days and do some of the walks but it’s just too cold to enjoy them at the moment and the camp ground gets very little winter sun.

Our next camping spot is on the side of the Ohau B Canal just south of Twizel where it was a big surprise to find another Ultima fifth-wheeler parked there. That’s us at the back and Helena & Stuart’s van near the gate. Another Ultima couple we now have had the pleasure of meeting on the road.

This small but desirable section of canal has only recently been made available exclusively to NZMCA members courtesy of Meridan Energy.

And the reason it’s desirable? Is the salmon farm just across the canal. There are three large salmon farms located along the Ohau Canal and they are popular places to fish as the wild trout and salmon feed on the excess food that escapes from the farmed salmon nets.

This farm is located beside the main highway, it has a cafe with salmon treats and sells fresh salmon to the many tourists that call in. Visitors can also feed a pen of salmon which are in a net built into the outside deck.

I climbed up the small hill behind the camping area to get a birds eye view over the farm. This is looking south towards Lindis Pass with the Wairepo Arm behind the farm. Perfect habitat for the Australasian Grebe and maybe that close up photo I’m still waiting for.

How are these for solar panels- they belong to the salmon farm- but I’m sure they would look great on top of our van. We’d never need the generator if we had these big boys on board!

From the top of the hill, this is looking down the canal, on it’s way to Lake Benmore. There are three sections to the canal; Ohau A, Ohau B(where we are) and Ohau C, a power station separates each section.

Another shot looking across to the salmon farm with ‘Out There’ parked below. Isn’t it amazing how still the water is? We had perfect weather most days, once the cool morning mist lifted and with not a breath of wind.

Across the bridge were more pens, fairly new structures by the look too.

And just past the new pens, at the inlet to Ohau B is Lake Ruataniwha with a passing fizz boat disturbing the calm water. At the top of the lake is another power station and above that is Ohau A Canal which flows out of Lake Ohau. That’s Ben Ohau on the far left, a mountain that towers above Lake Ohau and the dam at the Ohau A inlet.

A peaceful evening on the canal- instead of the canal boats of the UK and France we have canal caravans.

And two ‘golden hour’ photos as the sun sets-

These are the kind of pets you want when you’re on the road; ones that don’t need feeding, walking or toileting. They won’t annoy the neighbours and you can visit National Parks and stay in DOC camps without worry. Perfect! Clayton pets- ‘the pets you have when you’re not having pets’. I’m not sure how they’d go sitting on your lap though.

These two cute ‘pets’ belong to Paul & Tina from ‘The Max’, that’s their rig below with the ‘dressing room’ on the back. Paul and Tina participate in the quirky sci-fi fantasy Steampunk genre that is inspired by the Victorian era, and after fishing the canals, they’re off to the Steampunk Festival in Oamaru (steampunk capital of NZ) where, amongst other activities, they’ll walk the streets in their steampunk costumes with their ‘pets’ in tow. The ‘dressing room’ houses some very cool clothes that Tina has made and put together, while Paul turns his hand to making these quirky pets. You never know who you’ll meet on the road but there sure are some interesting people.

Life on the road involves a passing parade of vans and people, there’s always something of interest out the window. Along with the mundane chores of a life lived in an small space, there's washing to dry before the weak warmth of the sun disappears, a bag of rubbish to hang off a mirror so the local ‘pets’ can’t reach it. David & I have had many discussions around the logic of the human race- like why, when you have the whole canal bank to park on, do some squeeze themselves into tight gaps between other vans?

At this time of the year the lovely fine days come hand-in-hand with heavy overnight frosts….

and early morning mist over the low lying river plains and canal.

We emptied our water pipes out each evening before retiring and turned the water pump off (which we do each night anyway) so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. Which was just as well as there were a couple of burst pipes & fittings in other vans. Each morning the fridge overflow froze in big drips to the side of the van.

The puddles stayed frozen for most of the day. This was a bit of a novelty for me, Tauranga didn't get too many frosts and very few on the edge of the harbour so I haven’t come across frozen puddles since my childhood- walking to the school bus stop in rural Napier- so of course I had to do what we always raced to do as kids. Stomp on the ice to break it.

We did have one very heavy frost, not long before the snow came (not the latest big fall), it was pea soup outside for most of the morning and the temperature dropped to -8c on our outside gauge. Our diesel heater worked very well, keeping the chill out of the van overnight and us as warm as toast inside although it would have been great to have had the 2nd one back and installed to give us that extra quick boost (we were still waiting for it’s return).

It wasn’t only the cows on Gypsy Day passing by, a small flock of sheep were moved from the paddock across the canal from us, the sound of mass bleating and barking dogs alerted me to the fact that they were just about to round the corner. They weren't in a hurry to move along either when the farmer stopped to talk to a fisherman.

Night falls over the canal as the sky turns a beautiful soft pink.

The frost lay on the south facing canal bank all day, every day slowly building up into tiny little icicle patterns.

Still to come-

Fishing, Birds & Snow at Ohau

Winter in Winton

I thought I'd better do a quick blog post to let those that are wondering know, we have safely arrived at the family's home in Winton, and it was ahead of the big snow dump.

We've also managed to tuck 'Out There' up the driveway very nicely which has saved us camping at the local golf course (a NZMCA CAP- costs apply parking site). Mind you, parking at the golf course might not have been too bad, I may have finally managed to have a game of golf, give my clubs a chance to pay their way- they’ve been carted around in the storage box for the last year hardly seeing the light.

It's a tight fit and luckily the family cars are OK parked in the drive and on the road as there’s no way into the carport or the garage for them. There’s barely enough room for people to squeeze past, I may have to shift a shrub or two before too many days are past.

I must say my kitchen view is not the most desirable I’ve had on our travels; the carport fascia passes right through the middle of the window a couple of inches from the glass. But I can see over the top and out to the paddock behind to see if the weather is changing. Although I only have to open the door to know that it’s the middle of winter in the deep south- freezing cold, finger numbing and chilly even when the sun is shining.

It’s been great to see the family again of course, and the kids have grown so much in the year since we last saw them- grown up both in height and maturity. Ollie is now 8 and Ruby 5, nearly 6 going on 10. We surprised them on the day we arrived by going with Mum to collect them from school. The look on their faces when they spotted us was priceless. And yesterday the school had their weekly (or maybe its fortnightly) community assembly where family are able to attend. There’s nothing like a hall full of children singing the national anthem to give you goose bumps, took me straight back to primary school.

Lonely in Lumsden- we had a couple of nights at the NZMCA Park in Lumsden before heading down the road to Winton, the first night with one other van, the second by ourselves.

We also had some friendly visitors who called into see us. Paul & Amanda have a 5th-wheeler and Amanda saw a photo of Lumsden on the NZMCA Facebook page that I had posted and as they were passing through Lumsden they decided to call in and say hello. Wasn’t that lovely? Great things happen when you belong to NZMCA, it’s just one big friendly family.

The storm arrived during our second night at Lumsden; ferocious wind and rain that bucketed down. We survived it fine, although we were buffered and rocked about a bit. The gravel patch was a large pool of water in the morning and the temperature had certainly dropped- there was snow out there somewhere but not on our patch.

It was raining and miserable as we left the park and we had to stop in Lumsden on the way out of town to do our abultions (I’ve decided that’s a better word than ‘dump’). From the bustling village centre I could see a light dusting of snow on the hills behind the township. And that was the extent of our winter snow storm. More is the pity, I could have quite happily been caught back in Arrowtown for a few days, I want photos of lots of snow. I was a bit peeved off that we left Arrowtown just two days before the big dump (there’s that word again). David’s quite happy we missed that bullet. He is not coping too well with the chilly weather, but we’ve come this far and it’s a long way back to the warmth.

To ease his discomfort, I visited the ‘famous in the South Island’ Lumsden bakery, which is right next door to the dump station, and bought some of their famous doughnuts and pies for lunch to have when we arrived in Winton. The bakery has won the ‘Deals on Wheels Best Eatery On The Road’ competition three years running. The doughnuts were so yummy I forgot to take a photo of them before we ate them!

I should have a few more back dated blog posts ready to post this coming week- believe me I am trying to catch up!