| THE
instructions were cryptic, and whispered, which made them
impossible to ignore: "Little to the left, righto, righto
. . . ," followed by, "Cast again."
That was what our guide, Craig
Aspinall, was telling us from his vantage on the bank of the
Kaipo River in New Zealand as my wife, Lindy, and I stood
midstream and cast to a trout as big as a piece of firewood.
The fish was active and not yet "suspicious," as
Craig would say of spooked fish.
The water was so clear that
you could see it sucking stonefly nymphs off the bottom with
the easy grace of a natural athlete. After several casts,
I laid the fly in the right place and three runs, two jumps
and one whoop later, we had landed and released our first
New Zealand brown trout.
This was the first of several
fishing expeditions we took during our one-week stay last
December at Poronui Ranch, in the rugged center of New Zealand's
North Island, a 45-minute drive from the resort town of Taupo.
Over the last 10 years, this intimate lodge - surrounded by
more than 16,000 acres of mountainous forests, grassy flatlands
and trout-rich rivers - has developed something of a cult
following among international anglers, including the late
John Denver and Vice President Dick Cheney. The Lake Taupo
region is the epicenter of fly-fishing in New Zealand. It
was here, in 1883, that rainbow trout eggs from the Russian
River Hatchery in California, were first planted.
We had arrived in Taupo the
day before, on a one-and-a-half-hour flight from Auckland.
The lodge's van picked us up from the small airport for the
drive to Poronui, in the Taharua Valley. While staying at
Poronui, there's no need to rent a car, since the guides provide
all transportation.
Poronui (pronounced poor-NEW-ee) is a small affair, with lodging
for 14 guests and 7 guides. The décor of the main lodge
is neo-rustic, comfortable and well appointed, with wood-timbered
ceilings, a large fireplace, intimate dining room table, and
an open kitchen, where the lodge manager and chef, Eve Reilly,
can be seen hard at work conjuring up the meals Poronui has
become known for. We were treated to local fare like paradise
duck, roast lamb, fresh fish, Sika venison and desserts ranging
from bakewell tarte to almond chocolate cake.
The best thing about our spacious one-room cabin - besides
the stone fireplace, the roomy bathroom, and quiet front porch
overlooking the Taharua River - was the lack of television,
VCR and telephone. It was quiet, low tech and light-filled,
decorated in a tasteful, understated fashion with country
furnishings, comfortable chairs and a wide window with a view
of a meadow filled with wildflowers.
The first day we talked fishing with the guides (the guest-to-guide
ratio is 2 to 1), and learned about Poronui from Eve. Although
the property had been a primitive fishing lodge for 10 years,
it was not until 1998, when it was bought by Mark Blake, an
American businessman based in San Francisco, that it was extensively
renovated. With that transaction, Mr. Blake secured what surely
must be one of the most enviable private properties in angling:
an area larger than Manhattan of old growth beech forest,
wild-grass meadows and 25 miles of pristine trout fishing
on the Taharua and Mohaka Rivers, as well as access to a dozen
other rivers on adjacent properties.
The most recent additions to Poronui are a seventh and final
cabin and a large recreation center housing stables, snooker
tables and a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, and a new shooting
range. Since these are the last developments planned for Poronui,
thousands of acres of wilderness remain for guests for mountain
bikinge, hiking (called tramping in New Zealand), riding,
white-water rafting and, of course, fishing, which was our
main focus.
For those who would rather
not haul their fishing tackle, the lodge provides all necessary
equipment, including waders, rods and flies.
Meals at the lodge are served at a long single table adjacent
to the open kitchen. Guests and guides mingle and share fishing
stories or learn about New Zealand's history from the staff.
The lodge attracts an international crowd and we were pleased
to find that our dinner companions included a family from
Malaysia, a lawyer from Canada, and pair of geologists from
Atlanta.
But all the muted elegance of the lodge, the stunning landscapes
and Eve's delectable meals would have been for naught if the
fishing were less than spectacular. And despite being on the
receiving end of the wettest December in 20 years, our guide
Craig gave us a taste of why Pornui is considered one of the
best fly-fishing destinations in the world.
You don't so much fish for trout in New Zealand as hunt for
them, walking quietly through fern forests trying to spot
them from the banks before they spot you. Once a fish - usually
a solitary leviathan hanging at the head of a clear pool -
is located, guide and angler stand back and slip into a conversation
filled with curious words like s-cast, upstream mend and royal
wulff (a fly). After that, it's time to step into the river
and put the talk to the test while the guide kneels on the
bank and calls out the play by play.
Fishing starts around 9 a.m. and lasts as long as the anglers
are willing and able. Guides pack lunches made from the tastiest
parts of the previous night's dinner, which can be eaten at
leisure by a rushing river or wolfed down, as we did, between
backcasts when the fishing was good. |
A
good day usually involves a couple of miles of walking and
scouting out fishing sites. December is the beginning of summer
there and the weather was mild but wet, so our raingear came
in handy.
BY our third day, Lindy and
I had re-enacted this scenario a dozen times and caught some
very large trout, including several 28-inch browns and an
equally large rainbow on a dry fly. Fish of this size can
be 7 to 10 years old and Poronui prides itself for being strictly
catch and release. Thanks to the vastness of the property,
we fished a new beat of water every day and never saw another
fisherman on the water.
So it was with a relaxed demeanor on the morning of our fourth
day that we tramped off toward the Mohaka River, down an abandoned
logging road, fly rods bobbing behind us, trying to identify
the purple and red mushrooms beneath the beech trees. About
halfway down, Craig's face cracked into a mischievous grin
and he asked if we'd like a peek.
"At what?" I said.
"The Bivvy," he replied, and disappeared between
two manuka bushes. A few steps later, we emerged on a rock
ledge 30 feet above the river and into a scene straight
from a Maxfield Parrish painting. High rock banks covered
in mint-green lichen forced the river into a casual curve
that formed the Bivvy Pool.
On every river I've ever fished, there is always something
like this, the proverbial blue hole, where all the river's
mystery lingers in a swirl before moving downstream. The Bivvy
was no different, both enigmatic and supernaturally fishy.
Two feet off the ledge the water turned to topaz, then blue
and, deeper still, an impenetrable blue green that appeared
limitless. I looked upstream at the head of the pool where
the current had deposited white pumice sand.
It took a few moments for my
eyes to adjust, but the sand provided the necessary contrast
and I finally made out in the deep water the black outline
of a fish so large that at first it was oddly ominous. Scattered
around the pool were the ghostly images of a few other fish,
but none so large or well defined as this trout-shark.
I could hear Craig whispering under his breath as he counted
out the fish he could find. He stopped at five.
We climbed down from the ledge to the pool, and I stripped
out several handfuls of line from my reel and cast. The fish
in the tail end of the pool must have tolerated about 30 seconds
of my attempts to seduce them before retreating into the blue-green
depths because when Craig climbed atop a rock perch to take
a look, they were gone.
But the trout-shark we had spotted from the ledge was still
there, visible above the white sandy bottom, improbably arrogant,
as big as a lawn gnome. After watching him for a bit, Craig
pronounced it time for the BD Special.
An extra-large stonefly with a heavily weighted body, the
BD Special looked to me like exactly the kind of thing that
a trout-shark would eat. I made a cast to the spot where the
fish lay and watched the quarter-inch-long fly descend 6,
8, 10 feet.
Suddenly, another enormous
trout glided onto the scene, destroying both my serenity and
sense of proportion. So entranced by his glide, and the sight
of two of the biggest trout I'd ever seen swimming next to
one another, the changing colors of the water and the clear
contrast of the white pumice sand, that it was only very faintly
that I heard Craig call out: "He's got it! Strike, Strike,
Strike!"
The fight was long and strong and Craig's netting job superb,
but long after we had photographed and released the monster,
long after our last tramp through the beech forest and our
last delectable meal at Eve's table, I could not help but
wish to get back to that place of utter blue green solitude.
| Visitor
Information
The easiest way to get to the
Lake Taupo region is by plane. Air New Zealand, (800)
262-1234, www.airnz.com, flies 20-seat Beech aircraft
on the 90-minute flight from Auckland to Taupo twice
each weekday, once a day on weekends.
The standard round-trip air fare is $112, but is $104
with a South Pacific Airpass, bought in conjunction
with a round-trip international air ticket.
A private minivan will transport you to Poronui Ranch,
a 45-minute drive away. The ranch is open October through
June. The best fishing is in the spring and summer -
December to April. We were there in December and temperatures
ranged from 60 to 70 degrees in the daytime and in the
50's after sunset.
Reservations should be made at least three months in
advance, particularly for holiday weeks. The cost for
seven nights is $2,650 a person. This includes all
guides, meals, wine and cocktails. All major credit
cards are accepted. Picnic lunches should be ordered
the day before a fishing expedition.
There are no extra charges for other activities, which
include horseback riding and mountain biking, except
that guided helicopter fishing tours cost $425 a person
and should be reserved. The lodge provides all fishing
equipment.
For more information, contact Poronui Ranch,
Post Office Box 1047,
Taupo,
New Zealand; (64-7) 384-2080,
fax (64-7) 384-2054; or see www.poronui.com. |
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