Over the weekend, I took the two oldest boys for an explore up the Hopkins river (behind Lake Ohau). The road has been getting progressively rougher over the last few years, as the river keeps changing course and washing out the 4WD track. Half the adventure was in getting there. The river had flooded earlier in the week, and consequently we had to invent a couple of new routes to 'join the dots' between where the track disappeared and then reappeared further upstream. Finally a large rock field got the better of my nerves and we covered the final 2km to Monument hut with the boys on their bikes with me tagging along on foot with all of our gear in a 95 Litre Pack.
We shared the hut with a couple of hunters, who had spotted a few Thar and a couple of Chamois, but hadn't managed to convert their sightings in to meat. As the sun fell behing Mt Strachan, we wandered down to the stream with bellies full of half cooked sizzlers and charcoaled Marshmallow, to see if any fish were moving. The River was still high, and rather silty. I ran a Royal Wulf some smooth water, but to no avail. Gideon managed to snap his rod, while doing a text-book cast(we had another one which did exactly the same), so we'll have to replace that at Christmas. The night was spent talking Thar and Deer with the two guys in the hut. - Good blokes.
The following Morning Gideon, Jonathan and I set out for the Huxley River(the main tributary of the Hopkins) which purportedly holds one or two large Rainbows. After an hours walk with the kids, none were sighted, mainly because the fish numbers are pretty low, and not surprisingly the river was also high and discoloured. The walk was still worth it however, as the Huxley Gorge would rate as one of the most scenic spots in New Zealand.
After eating lunch (Yes, at 10:30 am - the kids were 'starving'), we turned tail and headed back to the Hut. the Weather was looking pretty threatening, so we packed up and ambled back to civilisation, via the same dodgy route that we came up.
We shared the hut with a couple of hunters, who had spotted a few Thar and a couple of Chamois, but hadn't managed to convert their sightings in to meat. As the sun fell behing Mt Strachan, we wandered down to the stream with bellies full of half cooked sizzlers and charcoaled Marshmallow, to see if any fish were moving. The River was still high, and rather silty. I ran a Royal Wulf some smooth water, but to no avail. Gideon managed to snap his rod, while doing a text-book cast(we had another one which did exactly the same), so we'll have to replace that at Christmas. The night was spent talking Thar and Deer with the two guys in the hut. - Good blokes.
The following Morning Gideon, Jonathan and I set out for the Huxley River(the main tributary of the Hopkins) which purportedly holds one or two large Rainbows. After an hours walk with the kids, none were sighted, mainly because the fish numbers are pretty low, and not surprisingly the river was also high and discoloured. The walk was still worth it however, as the Huxley Gorge would rate as one of the most scenic spots in New Zealand.
After eating lunch (Yes, at 10:30 am - the kids were 'starving'), we turned tail and headed back to the Hut. the Weather was looking pretty threatening, so we packed up and ambled back to civilisation, via the same dodgy route that we came up.
