Chopper trip

The boys and I have just returned from a 5 day trip into one of the most remote rivers in New Zealand... We had to helicopter into this river... It is nearly impossible to walk to... I have read in a hut book that numerous people have attempted to walk to this river and have gotten lost... nearly drowned... and were forced to return... it requires crossing a big river and climbing through gorges on either side... Wayne the helicopter pilot told us that he has only met one person that was able to walk in there.... Anyways we took a chopper in and dropped off some kayaks to get across the river....
We hiked an hour from the drop off point took our kayaks across and away we went... the first pool we came upon had 6 trout swinging around eating nymphs.. we hurried to get a camp set up and get fishing.... it was evening time so we made our camp and fished for a couple of hours... The next day we started early and fished long and hard... we ate out normal oatmeal and raisins and took off... Right from the get go we started landing fish... this river is so remote it sees maybe 10 parties a year... the fish were obviously not educated... I have never caught so many fish in New Zealand... we landed fish after fish.. working our way up from each pool... we kept trying to skip the faster water but every time you looked in front of a rock or on a seam there was a 4 pound brown swinging in the current... it got ridiculous... it is easy to get spoiled by this kind of fishing... we landed 18 trout that day... we made a big fire and slept hard...
The following day we moved camp up about 4 miles and fished the afternoon... we got stuck on a couple of bigger pools within the first mile of camp... there were so many fish that we would be fishing to a fish we spotted and you would get intercepted by some other fish that swung over and ate your fly... I would be spotting... staring at the fish... watching the dry fly coming down... then out of no where a fish would rocket up from the bottom and eat the fly 4 feet in front of the intended fish... After a 3 hour bush bash and 6 hours of fishing we were beat and passed out...
Our last full day of fishing we started early... after breakfast we started up the river around 9am... we fished our way up through a couple of gorges trying not to stop on every fish... .we really wanted to explore this river and see if we could find some bigger fish... at this point we had landed around 30 fish and they all were in a slot of 3.5 to 5.75 pounds... we covered more water this day and did not fish as well... we landed plenty of fish but all three of us went through some rough patches... I think i hooked 4 fish in a row without landing one of them... Little josh went through a streak like i have never seen... he seriously broke off 6 fish in a row.. ON 3x tippet! Josh was not laughing but he was all smiles when he finally landed a few after that... We fished until about 7:30 and then realized we better head back to camp before it gets dark... It is nice here in NZ... it does not get dark until about 9:30 but there are no trails on this river... we bush bashed our was back to our camp... because of the weather forecast we decided that we better be cautious and come out a little early...
The next day we banged and crashed our way back to the botttom of the river... we were able to find a better route back to the confluence so we made pretty good time...when you are bush wacking with no trail it is hard to see where you are stepping sometimes.. this causes you to lead with your foot and as a result your shin seems to lead the way... It is amazing how bloody your shins will get when you crack them on 1038402844 logs and rocks in 5 days... anyways we fished the bottom section of the river for the afternoon... kayaked across the river and made our way down to the edge of the wilderness area where our helicopter was coming to pick us up... It is Christmas day.... Wayne came ripping in on his helicopter wearing shorts and sandals... told us to jump in and away we went... in a flash we were back in civilization... It is strange how you can be in one of the most remote areas in the whole country and be back to your car in under 20 minutes... I think I need to buy a helicopter! We spent our Christmas evening at the Rongo in Karamea... they had a big feast with about 20 people... Roasted Lamb... Lasagna... all kinds of food... this is really what we needed... It was kind of strange eating Xmas dinner in shorts and T shirts outside in the sun.... There was a great sunset tonight and summer is finally in full swing... All three of us are a little sun burned from the last couple of days..
We are now headed down to Queenstown... We will be stopping on our way to fish a little bit but we are mostly going to take our time.. relax a little bit and spend some time on the beach... We are going to spend New Years in Queenstown and then get back after it.... I will be meeting up with my dad and step mother in Queenstown and will spend 8 days with them... Little Josh and Marty will go fish a few rivers in the area and then we will join up again on Jan 10 to spend our last few weeks explore some more rivers...
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a great New Year... See you all in February!