Last weekend was our first real weekend off of work in New Zealand. What to do? Go fishing of course. After negotiating different hikes and fishing spots (some of the water is too high, too low, or too fished out) we took up an invitation to go fishing in Twizel for the weekend. Twizel is a small town located about half an hour south of Mt. Cook National Park. This little high desert town has a grand view of the year round snow and glacier covered mountain in the distance. Twizel also has several salmon farms that are located in canals that run on all sides of the town and are a beautiful turquoise color. We pulled off at the first canal and had no luck fishing there, we went into the first salmon place to ask where a good place to fish would be. We were greeted with several deer in the headlight looks and no information about where to actually fish. After a nice man at a local outdoor shop pointed us in the direction of another canal and a trout fishing river, we headed out. The river was cloudy and too high to fish, but the canal had lots of people catching salmon, as that farm had to release about 50,000 of them due to flooding and temperatures. It was early afternoon, so we decided to come back the next day after heading to our retreat for the evening. We decided to just relax and enjoy the warm weather on the shores of Lake Aviemore, but could only get about knee deep because the water was too cold. Plus I can’t get over the fact that there are creepy eels that hide in every waterway in New Zealand, ugh! Our hosts friends went jet skiing with their kids, but the water was too cold for these American southerners.
We stayed at the barracks of a sheep farm and enjoyed a beautiful dinner (as the locals say) of steak, potatoes, salad, and veggies. Tony and I managed to skip the hearty serving of Deep South Ice Cream we were offered. They serve this ice cream several times a week at the barracks, and it is by far the best and most creamy ice cream I have ever had, and since it is made with full fat cream, it is surely the most fattening I have ever experienced as well. The next morning we were treated to a real kiwi breakfast with fried eggs, buttered toast, grilled bacon, grilled onions, stewed tomatoes, and more potatoes. It was honestly some of the best bacon I have ever put in my mouth, and I don’t even really eat pork. We all headed down to the canals for some good old fashion easy salmon fishing. This is not fishing that really requires any skill, as you just put some precooked shrimp on a hook and stand there until you catch a fish. However it was Tony and I’s first salmon to catch and you can’t complain about the easy fishing when they taste so good. Tony seemed to inherit the duty of helping net and gut the fish, since he was the only one who brought a net.
After we had our fill of non stop salmon catching, we decided to just keep 6, as we do not have a fridge back at the barracks. We then all parted ways and Tony and I drove onward to see Mt. Cook. We stopped at the first pullout to see a hazy, but still wonderful view of the snow covered mountain. It is a unique site among all the desert scenery and well above 90 degree temperatures to see a jagged, rugged, and isolated snow covered mountain. We then made our way back to Alexandra since it is a 2 hour drive and we have 6 salmon on ice in the “chilly bin” (aka cooler). Tony stopped at the “Warehouse” which is their version of a big box general store to buy a “Gone Fishin’” portable fish smoker. This is essentially a stainless steel box, with two racks to put fish, poultry, or ham on. Tony let the salmon marinade for about half an hour with some sea salt, brown sugar, and paprika. Portable smoking is pretty easy, you line the bottom with 2 handfuls of manuka wood chips, then fill a small stainless steel dish with “Meth” spirits (aka dyed rubbing alcohol) and light this on fire, and finally you set the whole unit on top of it. After only 15 minutes the fire is out, the wood chips are burned, and you have a delicious meal of smoked salmon.
On a sad note, while I was at the Mt. Cook overlook I received a call from my Mom that my uncle Bobby had passed away that day. It is hard to get such sad news, especially when you are so far from home, family, and familiar things. He will be very missed as my uncle was one of the best pranksters I have ever met. When I was a child I would call him “baby Bobby”, I do not remember why though! I would call and sing him songs on the phone like, “popcorn popping on the apricot tree” and silly songs I had learned in preschool. He loved jokes and could tell the kind of stories my generation doesn’t have enough of, the kind that are drawn out and would make you laugh so hard you would either pee or pants or cry (hopefully not both). One of his favorite pastime was fishing and he passed that joy onto all of my cousins and myself. It only seems right that I was salmon fishing that very day, even if it was all the way across the world. So those salmon were for my Uncle Bobby who has now “Gone Fishin”.
