Sarah, Jackson and I recently hooked up the boat and went on a holiday to the Marlborough Sounds and Lake Rotoiti. Here’s a few photos from the trip. It was great fun and we just relaxed for the first time in ages. 
Just a nice photo of the Opihi Gorge. I went flyfishing with Stu Clark for the day. Saw a few trout, caught none, but had a great day!
We found a nice spot on the river for lunch and a swim 
Jack having too much fun in the water and looking cheeky… I think he needs some water pistol action.
“Gotcha Jack! – Take that!”
“Oh No! He’s coming after me!”
I took Sarah and Jack to the Hurunui river for a nice family day out. We all did some fishing, Jack had a swim and it was a great day. Sarah also got a chance to try her new pink fishing rod.
I spent Friday fishing the Opihi river with Karl, an industry mate and another creative. Was a great day, we saw a large number of fish. Karl landed a few and I had plenty chase the fly. The water was crystal clear and very little wind. I need to do this more often!
This is Jack’s first fish! Good job buddy! Look at the rod bending over – man, must be an absolute whale! Giant Kingfish perhaps!
Well, not a monster, but I’m still really proud!!
Si and Zach hanging on the boat!
Sarah and Jack having a moment…
The ‘boys’ took a fishing trip to the Great Barrier Island for Ben’s birthday. Was a great trip and relaxing time with the mates… Great weather, fish to eat and good company. This is Gavin’s dad’s boat.
We’re planning to bring our Fiji developer for www.proworkflow.com to NZ to live and work, so he’s been here the past week checking out the NZ scene. I took my boat down to Lake Tekapo in the weekend to attempt to freeze him. Vishal lives in Fiji so I thought the cool minus 2 temperature would be a bit of fun
Very scenic and no wind! We went about 30kms to the top of the lake. Even had a fish, but not a lot of fish action. Anyway, here’s a few pics from the day.
After the lake, I took Vishal to the Salmon Farm to feed some fish. I think he enjoyed that – here’s a vid:
Ben Viv and I took off to the Rakaia for the morning to chase Salmon. We didn’t catch any but was fun trying to drive the jet-kayaks up the gorge in 100km winds!
On Monday Ben Viv and I decided to take a fishing day at Motenau. It’s true offshore Canterbury fishing, and has a tricky shallow bar you need to cross in only certain conditions within a tight timeframe either side of the low tide. Our boat sits about 60cm deep in the water and the whole way down the river and out the water was averaging 50-70cm – so man she was tight!
Over the bar’s waves and into the open ocean it was ver clear that the 2 metre swell was here to stay. It was confused sea, coming from two direction in a motion that made us pretty green.
Once over the bar, we are unable to come back for 4hrs til the tide is right, so we decided that we’d get out to the spot. I had marked the fishing spots on the GPS so we drove about 6kms up the coast and 3kms out and got within a few metres of the spot!
The fish were biting, but our lunch was coming up. We both spent about 3hrs vomiting over the side and attempting to fish in between chucks!
We both caught plenty of fish, but Ben caught the ‘keepers’ and also hooked into something huge that fought hard for 10 mins before breaking off. We think it was a huge shark!
As soon as the tide was right, we got ourselves together and got back in over the bar. Land sweet land!! I think I like Motenau – not a 1st choice spot but I would do it again… Just never again on a 2 metre confused sea!
Some shots above of the river going out to the bar. Very shallow and tricky but doable if careful.
