Belated TR: the kids trip to NZ

I was slightly reluctant to post a TR back in May, as the Great Hong
Kong Fly Shipment generated so much turbulence here. But in light of
the Last Seven Days, I think its time to post some on-topic stuff, and
give feedback to all y'all about how the trip went, and the impact of
your generosity.

For those of you who are struggling with memory loss, I took 18
relatively well-off kids from my school on a week long flyfishing trip
in New Zealand as one component of a school-wide outing week. My
intention was to let them see a slice of life that they could preserve
when they grew up and became CEOs, owners and managers of potentially
environmental-impacting businesses. In summary...the plan worked. :-)

We flew from HK on the Friday after classes, and it was obvious that
the kids were going to be terriffic. There was not one single late
arriver at the airport, and they all had the proper gear, carefully
and properly packed. Some of these kids had never even worn a raincoat
or carried a backpack, but as I showed them a good way to secure the
straps and loose ends for airflight, they were entirely into it and
excited.

The flight was long...14 hours, and when we arrived in Auckland, we
were met by Nick, the outfitter who was providing our land services.
He is not a fly fishermen, but was an enthusiastic outdoorsman, and
his enthusiasm was contagious. The kids took to his bubbly ways
instantly, and we loaded up the van and trailer, and headed to some
river cottages for the first few nights.

The next morning, I broke the kids into three groups. There were three
training stations, and they rotated through them over the course of
the day. One station was run by Nick, and they learned river safety;
how to swim rapids, how to catch a throw line, how to set up safety
when running a rapid. I ran the second station on how to paddle a
canoe. We paddled down the tiny stream out to Lake Rotorua, worked on
eddy turns, high and low braces, river signals, how to load a canoe,
etc. The third station was run by a local fishing guide, and taught
the kids how to cast. In groups of three, he had them casting dummy
flies across a grass field, keeping tight loops, giving nice
deliveries, snapping their backcasts up and their front casts nicely.
By the end of day 1, the kids were all proficient paddlers, had
usuable casts, and had a touch of river sense.

The next day, we drove down to the Mohaka river. The weather had
turned sour, and by the time we arrived, it was pretty much dumping.
However, their enthusiasm had not dampened at all, and the two local
fishing guides we met were anxious to provide the next level of
training...how to read water and how to target fish.

The most amazing thing happened on the drive down to the Mohaka. The
scenery started getting more and more familiar, and amazingly enough,
the location where the guides took the kids turned out to be precisely
the same stretch of water that Roger and I 'discovered' a year earlier
when we were poking around on our own! On an island with thousands of
miles of fishable water, we ended up returning to the same half-mile
of river that I had fished before!

The kids rigged up (the first time in 'battle conditions', and hiked
through the rain and mud to the river. We split them into two groups,
one above a rocky rapid, and one below, and the guides gave a brief
intro to looking for structu eddys, pools, current, etc; and where
to target trout. At one point, the guide mindlessly tossed out his fly
in order to demonstrate how to mend, and a 5 pound trout slammed it.
The kids could not be contained after that...they wanted to FISH, and
they wanted to do it NOW! So we spread them out about 30 feet apart,
and let them get going. Within minutes, one girl hooked and landed the
first fish of the trip...an 8" NZ brookie. Soon thereafter, kids
started hauling them in....all about the same size, but no one cared.
They were loving life. By the end of the afternoon, about half the
kids had caught fish and were so excited they did not even notice the
pouring rain and soaking ground.

A few hours later, we headed downstream to base camp. Nick had chosen
a wide open and private field in the lower stretch, and had set up a
giant tarp and kitchen area. The kids had to set up their own tents
(Nick provided them) under a stand of trees nearby. None of the kids
had set up tents before, so there was a lot of instruction going on,
but in short order, they had all created cozy, dry spaces to sleep in.
The camaraderie and enthusiasm was contaigous, and before long they
were all in the kitchen area, cutting up veggies, gathering firewood,
and pitching in however they could.

The next day, Plan A was to pack up the camp, move upstream, load the
canoes and start a 4 day canoe trip. But the weather continued to be
miserable, intermittent downpours and constant drizzle, so instead we
spent the day fishing the river by camp. No one minded not having to
break camp, and the kids were all spread out over the waterway,
casting proficiently and many were catching fish again. They really
took to it. At one point, I gathered a few more enthusiastic kids, and
we waded across the river and worked our way upstream to fish virgin
water. One kid pulled out a 15" brookie right above a rapid, and
moments later they were all in there, casting to every ripple and wave
they saw.

By the end of day 2, it was apparent that the weather was not going to
lighten up, and their spirits were not going to darken, so we decided
to switch permanently to plan B...keep the base camp all week and do
day trips, either short canoe trips, or drive to different fishing
venues. We decided on day 3 to head back to Rotorua, visit a fly shop
(most of the kids had developed enough skills by then to determine
that there were different pieces of equipment (hats, fly boxes, etc)
and different flies that they wanted), and then to a local hot spring
to warm up. As it was actually partly sunny in Rotorua, we hired a
guide to take them up the Waitaganui, a river that Roger and I had
fished the previous year, and show them some giant fish holding in the
deep pools. They were as hard to catch this year as they were the
previous, and everyone had the experience of being skunked while
staring right at abundant fish.

The next day, we did a short canoe trip downriver, and decided not to
carry the gear in case of dumps. Good thing, as several of the kids
turned over on sneaky eddy lines, but the river was very tame and no
one was ever in any danger. There was one bouldery rapid of
significance, and we scouted it and gave the kids the option of lining
it or running it. Most volunteered to run it, and their shouts of joy
convinced the others to run it instead of lining. In the end, only one
boat dumped, and the kids spent much of the rest of the trip talking
about how exciting it was. When we got to take out, our shuttle driver
had a 24" trout he had caught while waiting for us, and the kids got
their first glimpse of what a larger NZ trout looked like. They could
not wait to get back to their camps to string up, and they fished
until dark.

The next day was our last day on the lower stretch of the river, and
the kids voted to return to the place where the shuttle driver caught
his fish. They fished all morning, catching a few 12 inchers, but
nothing significant. Then we moved camp (the sun finally had broken
through) back to the upstream section where we had recieved training
earlier, and made our last nights camp. The sun was beaming, and the
kids all were able to slide into their favorite activity. Some of them
hiked upstream, returning with enthusiastic tales of how beautiful the
river valley was. Others lounged in hammocks, reading books and
listening to the sounds of the birds around them, others fished the
river near camp, catching fish on dries and vegetating with nature.

That night, we talked about the trip, and the overwhelming message was
that it was absolutely stupendous. They all expressed how they had
never realized that spending an entire week outdoors was so relaxing
and recharging...they had been afraid of such things as getting too
dirty, where to go to the bathroom, being wet and uncomfortable all
day, and being harassed by animals. They realized in retrospect that
none of these things were realistic fears, and that the wonderment of
hearing the birds at dawn, seeing stars at night, feeling resilient
when spending several days in raingear and not being uncomfortable,
and the knowledge that 'there's fish in them there rivers' was the
reality.

As we packed up to return to HK, I could see from the care with which
they packed their fishing gear that they had taken complete ownership
of it, and were excited for the next time they would be able to wet a
line.

Mission accomplished.

--riverman

As we packed up to return to HK, I could see from the care with which
they packed their fishing gear that they had taken complete ownership
of it, and were excited for the next time they would be able to wet a
line.

Mission accomplished.

--riverman

considering the rather inauspicious beginnings here, it sounds like a
good outcome

"riverman" wrote in message
...
I was slightly reluctant to post a TR back in May, as the Great Hong
Kong Fly Shipment generated so much turbulence here.

Good stuff snipped.

Nicely done Riverman. I've been waiting for this TR...

JT