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Have you ever been walking along a river bank and noticed someone who forgot to take off their Halloween costume? They are easily recognized by their smug, disdainful glare at you for intruding upon their water; especially if they spot your spinning rod.
After the crop duster experience, the rest of the trip to Taumarunui was uneventful. The Whanganui River Auckland
First stop is always the sporting goods shop. The cool thing about NZ is when you go to a sporting goods shop, they actually have sporting goods. Not golf clubs. Not footballs. Just camping, firearms and fish destroying equipment. This is an invaluable stop for gathering local tribal information. It’s sort of like being a cop and interrogating a suspect. You be the “good cop”. You walk in the door and it usually goes something like this:
“How you goin’ mate; are you alright?” “Are you all right” means “can I help you”. You reply “Just passing through and thought we’d maybe do a little fishing; was hoping you could give us a bit of advice”. This is where your keen interrogation skills come into play. It’s barely perceptible, but just for an instant you catch the look of contempt which means “friggin’ tourists after our fish again”.
“What sort of information are you looking for?”
“Well we’ve never been in these parts before and were hoping that you could give us a clue about where to go and what’s good on the end of the line.”
“Well, you’ve got your Whanganui, and then you’ve got your Whakapapa.”
“Cool. What are they taking?” You walk over to the fly case. “Well you got your nymphs here and you could wetline I guess.”
“Any recommendations?” you ask. You catch that look again which says “I got your recommendation right here…” He points to a few different flies. “How would you fish them?” you ask. He’s thinking “I wouldn’t, you dumb ass.” “Well, you can fish them deep. Or shallow depending.”
You thank him for his time and pick out a few flies from the emptiest bins.
In this particular case we walk in and start asking a couple questions. It always helps if they think you will buy something. “Are you part of the Auckland Auckland
“There’s twenty-some-odd guys down from Auckland
We picked up a few things and headed out to the Holiday Park
“We got one for tonight, but after that we’re fully booked. Fishermen from Auckland
We checked into our cabin and noticed that we were surrounded by “those fishermen from Auckland Auckland
That evening it was the fisherman’s ball, of sorts. They were all coming in from the day’s pillaging and swapping (you guessed it) fish stories. All still in full uniform. You got your basic earth tones all accounted for. There’s the $500 waders, the $450 vest festooned with dozens of unused flies, the zip-off pants with the extra large cargo pockets, the $250 polarized sun glasses, the (fill in the blank, Orvis, Sage, Fenwick) rods and topping it off is the mandatory Indiana Jones fedora.
They frown disdainfully at my Nike waders. And it doesn’t make them happy that I can cast as well and as far with my 70's vintage Sears and Roebuck’s Outdoorsman Series fly rod with the picture of the Indian chief on the handle.
They all start gathering like there’s a pancake breakfast or something. Then the men all pull out their poles. They compare their poles with those of their competitors. Then they all shake their poles. Next they shake each other’s poles, nodding with approval. We got up the next morning and hit the road.
Total trip cost to date: $14,079.25 USD
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