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| 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.
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| 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).
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| My improvised 'workstation' in the Op shop store room... |
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”!
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| 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
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| 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.
