MAKARORA, New Zealand —
I was tromping along the edge of the Wilkin River when guide Paul Wright, treading ahead of me, held his hand up for me to stop.
“I’ve got a fish here,” he called above the steady gurgle of the river. “It’s a brownie, I believe. About 10 feet out from that rock that’s above the water. Can you see it?”
The water had a sparkling clarity, an aquamarine hue suggesting the Caribbean more than a mountain stream.
“I can’t make it out,” I replied. Though the brown trout was less than 40 feet away — and nearly 24 inches in length — it was invisible to my uneducated eyes as it finned above the rocky bottom in less than two feet of water.
After a false cast to where Paul said the fish was — I had still not spotted it myself — I made another cast.
Seconds later, a large spotted head popped out of the water and engulfed my beetle fly. My fly rod bent double and line peeled off my reel as the feisty brown trout tore about, leaping clear of the water twice before coming to Paul’s net. It was a thing of beauty — buttery golden skin, dotted with fine black and silver spots. Paul gently removed the fly, revived the fish by holding it by the tail in the current, and let go.
The South Island of New Zealand has seen an uptick in visitors since the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy — and now, “The Hobbit” — graced the big screen; many fans have been eager to see the sweeping “Middle-earth” scenery featured so prominently in the films. Although I’m one of the few people who have not seen Peter Jackson’s epics, I have still long desired to visit South Island. Instead of exploring Frodo and Gollum’s haunts, I longed to unfurl my fly line on a few of its trout streams.
Like so many Kiwi inhabitants, both rainbow and brown trout were imported in the 1800s — in their case, from California and Britain, respectively. With no natural predators, the fish have thrived. The average South Island trout stream does not contain enough forage to sustain more than a few fish, but the trout that are present are quite large, averaging 3 to 6 pounds, with fish in the eight-to-10-pound range encountered every year. It’s the combination of big fish, spectacular scenery and streams clear enough to allow anglers to stalk their prey that has made New Zealand, particularly South Island, a bucket-list destination for diehard trout anglers.
American transplantChris Daughters — guide, fly shop proprietor and now owner of — is an American drawn to the South Island more than 20 years ago.
“I’d just finished college and had heard it was a great place to go for a fishing vacation on the cheap,” he recalled. “Some guys from the fly shop (where Daughters was then an employee) and I saved our pennies and spent three months that winter bumming around, fishing. I was taken with the landscape, the friendly people and the quality of the fishing.
“Some years later, my wife, Shauna, took me to Cedar Lodge to celebrate my 40th birthday, and I was taken with the spot. Its location on the border of Mount Aspiring National Park provides fantastic access to a great diversity of water — big braided rivers flowing into the region’s vast lakes, intimate streams in steep valleys and wild, seldom-visited rivers on the west side of the Southern Alps that drain into the Tasman Sea.”
A few years later when Cedar Lodge came up for sale, Daughters purchased the property.
A day at Cedar Lodge begins with a hearty breakfast; a favorite during my stay was a breakfast sandwich featuring locally farmed eggs, bacon, avocado and tomato chutney on a freshly baked croissant. (Chef Steve Weiler makes a special effort to highlight local ingredients in his cuisine.) While guests enjoy a second cup of coffee, Daughters and his guides share the day’s itinerary. With miles of fishable water on a dozen rivers to choose from, the day’s destination is determined by weather conditions and how recently the rivers have been fished. Anglers don their fishing togs, then each pair of anglers heads across the golf course to the helicopter to embark on their adventure.
On my first day out, pilot/guide Dion Matheson provided the basic rules: Hold your hat as you’re approaching the copter, let your guide load your gear in the storage compartment, use the handle (not the door) to pull yourself in, attach your seatbelt, pop on your headphones … and enjoy the views.
Seconds after strapping in, we were off, soaring above the Makarora River that borders the lodge property before banking right into the wide valley formed by the Wilkin.
There’s a saying among Kiwi helicopter pilots, “The wind begins in Makarora,” and indeed, it was howling that morning. But Matheson hugged a hillside festooned in beech trees to ensure safe passage. Shifting clouds revealed the peaks of snow-capped mountains beyond the green hills. After five minutes, we set down. The scenery was every bit as dramatic as I’ve witnessed in the trout havens of Montana and Alaska. There were no other anglers for miles.
“Hobbit fishing”
On my last day, Daughters and I fished an unnamed river west of the crest of the Southern Alps. As the helicopter darted through a small hole in the low-lying clouds, we were greeted by a riot of green, the dense beech forests punctuated with lighter-colored cabbage tree palms. At one point, Daughters spotted a large brown trout in a pool below a huge boulder. Thick brush enveloped the shoreline.
“The only way you can get to the fish is to crawl down through the brush to that rock outcropping and make a side-arm cast. I call it Hobbit fishing,” he said.
I gently dropped to the rock in question and made a cast without tangling the fly in the brush behind me. The current slid the fly a bit to the right of the fish … which was unimpressed.
But the defeats are as compelling as the victories when recounted over drinks back at the lodge. After swapping a few fish tales at happy hour, there was time for a few holes of golf before Weiler served up an entree of pan-fried, panko-crusted red stag. The murmur of the Makarora was barely audible as the setting sun glinted off the peaks of the Southern Alps.
Peter Jackson couldn’t have scripted a better ending to a South Island day.
If you go
Cedar Lodge
78 School Road, Makarora, South Island
011-64-3-443-8285
cedarlodge.net
A five-night/four-day fishing package is $4,500 per person. Price includes accommodations, meals, alcohol, guide services and daily helicopter fly-out (weather permitting). Anglers will need a New Zealand fishing license, available at www.fishandgame.org.nz.
