Wildside - South Canterbury Adventure

Press-ganged into having fun after all

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Press-ganged into having fun after all, Nelson Mail, 16 January 2010

A reluctant trip south turns up trumps because of great people.

The salmon-fishing experience was enjoyable but, alas, unsuccessful, not even seeing a salmon porpoising in the perfect water and low-wind conditions. The only thing we caught was a brand-new lure I hooked up off the bottom on one of my casts.




Blown Away: Izaak and Jake Mirfin in the hills above Albury.

Over New Year, I was dragged kicking and screaming on a family holiday. My anglers had pulled the pin at short notice and I had no excuse to avoid Aimee’s cousin’s wedding down south. Aimee was adamant that I go and although I
was press-ganged into the journey, it turned out to be a great family holiday.

Pleasant Point in South Canterbury is a wonderful place, a small rural town reminiscent of a safer, more traditional New Zealand. The area is a sportsman’s paradise with hunting and fishing opportunities all around, and a warm, sunny, and inviting climate.

From a trout-fishing perspective, the lowland streams revolve around the Opihi River and significant tributaries, the Opuha, Tengawai, Waihi and Temuka. Historically these streams were iconic trout streams that I’ve fished on earlier trips, but time has not been kind to such waters, with development taking a significant toll. The Opihi has improved in recent years as a result of the Opuha dam releasing cold constant flows but the grim reaper of trout streams, the invasive alga didymo, continues its relentless march.

Driving around the district, it’s not difficult to notice the huge water demand for agriculture and horticulture – water use must be massive, with large-scale irrigators watering crops and pasture as far as the eye can see.

Talking salmon fishing, it seems everyone in South Canterbury has salmon fever at this time of year and fortunately one of the best New Zealand Pacific salmon rivers, the Rangitata, is not far away. Catching up with my old mate and guiding comrade-in-arms Graeme Marshall was fun and easy too, as he now lives in Pleasant Point, only minutes from where we were staying.

When Graeme suggested salmon fishing on New Year’s morning, it took me all of two seconds to accept his invitation.

The wedding was on New Year’s Eve, so the kids and I spent the morning visiting some icons of the South Canterbury sporting scene at their premises in Pleasant Point.

Adrian Gilbert, of Gilbert Tackle, is a well-known figure in fishing circles, manufacturing fishing lures of all manner of styles, shapes, weights and colours. Adrian has been in business for decades and supplies state-of-the-art lures to wholesalers all over the country. He was just wonderful with my children as we selected brightly coloured ticers and zed spinners for future kahawai and salmon-fishing adventures together.

Just down the road was G D O’Rourke & Sons Taxidermists, a wellknown taxidermy service run by three O’Rourke brothers. Kerry O’Rourke is a fabulous chap with great patience who explained all manner of things to my boys and girls as they ogled mounted creatures, skins, skulls, horns and antlers from all over the world. As we left, Kerry offered to call some local landowners about wallaby hunting access for us if we were unsuccessful in meeting local farmers at the
wedding. I was humbled at small-town South Canterbury hospitality and thankful that my children had the chance to spend time with Kerry and Adrian and their kindly outdoor ways.

The wedding itself was special. As an old married man of 10 years, it’s hard not to be a little sceptical sometimes, but the old stone church on the hill at the small rural settlement of Cave was a perfect venue and it was great to be part of the happy celebrations.

The kids lapped it all up and the outdoor party that followed beside the old Oamaru stone stables at the bride’s family farm, ‘‘Loudon’’, was fantastic. We met wonderful people with South Canterbury charm and after a few hours of enjoying glasses of Pimms and fine company, I’d met several local landowners who kindly invited me on to their properties to hunt wallabies.

The evening just kept getting better in the big white marquee and we were entertained with a ceilidh, a Gaelic dance party.

The kids had a wonderful time folk dancing with everyone and we even got to dance hand-to-hand with outdoor endurance guru Steve Gurney. Steve may well have got voted off TV’s Dancing with the Stars but he will always be a far better dancer than Mirf, even with his left arm wrapped in a sling from a recent misadventure.

New Year’s Day was seen in beside a blazing bonfire under a big fat full moon. Sleep was too short, and I was woken by a text message from Graeme Marshall outside at 7am – ‘‘your taxi awaits you’’.

Graeme is a well-known author of numerous hunting and fishing books – we even wrote a book together back in 2000 called Brown Trout Heaven – Fly Fishing New Zealand’s South Island. While fishing, Graeme and I had a great time catching up, reminiscing and talking about his latest sell-out book, Aerial Hunter – The Dick Deaker Story.

It’s an epic read and we talked about fantastic helicopter adventures we have had together with Dick and our American anglers over the years, including the time we both flew the length of the South Island from Nelson, spending 10 days fishing the wild, remote and pristine rivers of Fiordland with Dick at the chopper controls.

We had a great time fishing two favoured pools on the large Rangitata river for several hours, which we had all to ourselves. The salmon-fishing experience was enjoyable but, alas, unsuccessful, not even seeing a salmon porpoising in the perfect water and low-wind conditions. The only thing we caught was a brand-new lure I hooked up off the bottom on one of my casts – someone else had had even less luck than us.

That afternoon the wind intensified as the nor’wester hit gale force. High on the foothills above Albury, the boys and I searched in vain for a wallaby in the howling wind. Wallabies are introduced marsupials from Australia, offering great sport in their stronghold of South Canterbury’s Hunter Hills, but conditions were diabolical for the boys’ first attempt at the speedy varmints.

I can’t remember winds so strong – it felt like being slapped as the gusting winds knocked us around, even blowing the boys off their feet at times. After my hat blew from my head and went hundreds of metres up into the air, Jake, 9, looked at me as though I was a crazy man and said, ‘‘The wind’s too strong Dad, I think we should go back.’’ And so it was, with a great adventure making it back to the safety of our vehicle.

As we headed down the mountain, a text from Aimee said: ‘‘dinner @ Loudon’’. The timing couldn’t have been better. Salmon fishing and wallaby hunting in South Canterbury mightn’t have been very successful but the people of South Canterbury and their legendary hospitality couldn’t have been more awesome.

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