19 & 20 January: Twizel and fishing and (trying to) work

@ Ohau B Canal NZMCA members Park Over

View from our freedom camping site neat to the Ohau B Canal

Crikey it was windy here! No chance of getting the awning down for shade. Lots of space though, so we camped near to the hillside for shelter. Justin went fishing and I went to the nearby town of Twizel to seek-out some wifi and somewhere to work. Deadlines for academic conference papers were imminent and there was some writing to catch-up on too.

Twizel town centre - about 3 kms from our freedom camping location...

Our first experience of the town wasn't a particularly friendly one: there were not too many people around when we went to the iSite to find out about the local pool and showers. We discovered there was no inside pool open (too cold for outside) but that there was an 'events centre' (big modern building. obviously partly sponsored by the local dairy industry). Showers were available to visitors at $1 per minute of hot water. $1 per minute we thought? must be a mis-print. No, it wasn't. And with the slot for the coins the other side of the opening for the shower, it was a bit of shock to get an instant blast of ice cold glacial water when the money ran out! And I was perturbed to see how all the power-sockets had been blanked off in the changing rooms. There didn't seem to be any hospitality here - including at the nearby cafe, when coffee was very expensive and wifi very slow. 

Later I sought out the public library to link-up with the APNK network. But the inhospitable atmosphere continued there too: the sign on the door shouted: "no power sockets available for charging devices." The space was connected to a school, and in this holiday season I was concerned to see this sign - surely the students themselves didn't adhere to this rule - and why on earth would a library in a 'digital age' provide free wifi when without power this is utterly meaningless!

I spoke at length to the librarian. She voiced her apparent reason for this blanket ban: tourists have been guilty of plugging-in their toothbrushes  - something some people find offensive in a public space. Strange that she didn't see her job as one that has a 'quiet word' with such people - to point-out the error of their ways. Instead, far easier if no-one was allowed to plug in anything - not even me as a professional writer with my (low battery) lap top. Ho hum. I gave up with my questionning and went next door.

Next door was a friendly lady running an Op shop. She took pity on my predicament and gave me her store room to work in - luckily it had a window (reachable to the library wifi - just) and a power socket (took a few attempts to find a working one).

My improvised 'workstation' in the Op shop store room...

With no blinds or air-con, and surrounded by clothes smelling of moth-balls I took the opportunity to write and managed a far bit of work in the nearly 3 hours of peace. During that time I uploaded a Word document and 2 photos - that took 20 mins. This APNK has been running for 10 years now. It's time for libraries like this to enter the 21st century. What a shame that seems unlikely under its current management regime.

It's not that I blame the management - after all, we don't know what we don't know. And if I've been used to fibre-optic broadband with speeds of about 150kbpm compared to this rural tortoise offering about 10kbpm, it's little wonder that the education system is suffering in some areas of NZ. Kids today need those questioning minds nurturing, and sometimes only an (intelligent) internet search will suffice. If the staff can't access this quickly and easily - how can the children? And what kind of preparation for the workplace are we providing?

All questions I don't know the answer to. And will wait to be written about properly another day. However, on a more happy note, upon returning I found Justin had caught his first ever Salmon. And others also followed that filled-up our little caravan freezer. A boat trip with friends on the lake was next on the list and more sunshine followed the following day. Here is Justin's salmon-fishing anecdote:

Everyone in New Zealand knows that there are some of the largest trout in the world to be caught in Otago near Twizel and also some very fine Salmon - we were always destined to go there to try our luck. Whilst in Dunedin we met with a couple who had caught two Salmon only the previous day - There were also rumours that a disgruntled ex-employee had visited and released several thousand farmed salmon only the week before in an act of retribution after he was fired.

Naturally, there was preparation required and much conversation about what types of bait, lure or method would work best - or even at all. In order that we had the best chance possible, the lady in the tackle shop in Alexandra chose a selection of probable  - and some highly improbable lures  - that might just do the trick. When we got to the canals the milky mountain meltwater was flowing fast and fresh, sporting an almost unreal blue/green colour hue, and we saw plenty of other hopefuls casting out, so I knew we had a challenge. Our neighbour - who had forgotten to go home after his one-year furlough and has now been on the road in his bus for 11 years  - had been trying to catch a fish (any fish) for four days and was purveying tales of doom. Not to be deterred, we got Stan-the-van settled and off I set, rod in hand (but just in case, we had bought some farmed Salmon up the road so there would always be fish for dinner)….

After about half-an-hour I decided to try a new lurid blingy-gold lure (as shown below) from the bridge and indeed after a missed strike, tempted this 13.5lb rainbow trout (which was smoked last night incidentally) and Ursula had to come running with my landing net and scramble down the bank to net the monster. Pleased with my bounty and about to call it a day, when only 10 minutes later I was fighting a very angry 10.5lb Salmon which had succumbed to the same shiny gold highly-improbable-lure that the lady in Alex was sure “might just work but they'd certainly never sold one”!

The gold-bling lure that became the 'lucky' lure! 

The following morning I went for a little dabble with the same kit and lo and behold the river gave up another smaller Salmon that weighed in at just under 4lbs.

The moral of the story is  - if you don't try everything in your tools or tackle box you might not get the job done! And just before we left, our neighbours were dashing to the nearest tackle shop just to see if they could get something that looked like what worked for me - imagine trying to explain that to the shop staff: ‘Some Pommie bloke come here and cleaned up every time he went fishing!” For the record fresh Salmon fillets  lightly sautéed in garlic butter 2 hours after being caught is Gods own food - what a way to start your salmon fishing career...  J

Justin with his first salmon!

Overall, it was a fascinating experience and the landscape and waterways interesting contrasts to the places we'd come from down South.