Back to Central Otago and more fish maybe! 🐟

Parked up opposite the Salmon Farm on the outlet of Lake Ruataniwha

Helen & Ralph enjoying the music at Fat Freddies 

 After a good nights sleep by all but especially Bill, Shannon & AC after their rafting/camping on the Clarence River - Bill & I took them out early to the airport for their return to Wellington, back to the grindstone.

Approaching Fairlie in the McKenzie District

A change of light for the salmon - alas no results.

Some scaffolding was required for the task

The comparison of one side painted to the other!

Fishing at Wye Creek outlet on Lake Wakatipu

Not a bad sized Rainbow Trout - but not big enough to
keep for Bill. So it returned to the lake to grow for
another day 😃

I had enjoyed Labour Weekend with Helen & Ralph and Marg with Christchurch hosting the Big Jazz Bands Festival. Plenty of concerts on around the City. H&R and I went to the new Fat Eddies and listened to the American band that was attending the festival - the Ellensburg Big Band - an hour of swing jazz music. Excellent.
On the Monday we walked into town from Marg's and had the day listening to most of the bands as they took their place in the recently renovated Victoria Square. There were a few school bands involved and they were just as impressive, particularly some of the young vocalists coming through. Great talent. Such a wonderful setting to play in with a good crowd to play to with Christchurch turning on the sunshine.
So after having dropped S&A off at the airport, we readied ourselves to head back to Central Otago. We spent the next morning getting the COF for our Bus - no problems once again. We are good to go for another 6 months. Thankfully we can make a cuppa while we waited as once again it was nearly 3 hours before we got it. It doesn't matter where we go around the country - these Testing Stations always seem under staffed. Frustrating for many who are on a tight time schedule.
We only made it as far as Ealing that night, less than 2 hours from Helen & Ralph's, but that was 2 hours closer to the Salmon!
After a quiet night in the NZMCA camp we moved onto the Ohau Canals near Twizel for a couple of nights so Bill could catch another "biggie" as we had finished eating the last one 😋. With Labour Weekend over, we expected to see a lot more motorhomes parked up here as there tends to be more on the road from now on. But this wasn't the case thankfully so there was plenty of room to park up.
Five minutes after arriving, Bill had his rod in the canal along with a few others.
It wasn't till later in the day, nearly dusk, when a vehicle pulled up over the other side of the canal - cast his rod out and pulled in a couple of salmon in a short time - leaving the others (including Bill) a bit stunned on this side! Hmmmmmm perhaps we will check that side out tomorrow.
As there were other people coming and going on the far side the next day, and no fish being caught, Bill and the others kept trying on our side but sadly no luck. Oh well perhaps next time!🙏
It was time to move onto Queenstown for Bill to help out Jenny & Murray painting their holiday home. As we have stayed here a few times, and hopefully will again in the future, Bill was happy to help out. We had hoped to do a few more cycle trails and a bit of fishing while we based ourselves here but the weather didn't play ball! We must have picked the wettest 3 weeks of the year, with a couple of dumpings of snow on top of the mountains - typical spring weather.
The house is built of cedar - which apparently needs painting every two years! And with the harsh climate down here (freezing winter conditions / extreme heat over summer), it does take it's toll on the buildings. Not sure we will be back in two years time!
So it is time to go chase that salmon once again, and with only 3 weeks till we return to Nelson for the summer, see what cycle trails we can find as well.