NYE

Scene: NYE day

Simon and Els pick me up at my hostel to get some breakfast around 11:45 a.m. Our breakfast included discussing what we should do that day and scarfing down our food so that we had time to do it. We decided to hike the Greenstone/Caples trail (12 kilometers/7.45 miles) to a hut, fish on the way up and if we weren't rained out the next day, fish on the way down. Oh, but wait, we needed hut passes and food, and I needed a fishing license plus a sleeping pad and bag. At this time it's roughly 12:50 p.m. 

Ready, set, go!

Els and I rushed to go get hut passes, a sleeping bag and pad and the fishing license while Simo ran to the grocery store. We met up, smashed our stuff into the back of the car and were off.

An hour or so drive later, we arrived at the parking lot, repacked all of our stuff and took off (3 p.m.)

On the way up the trail we saw some fish but did not have a very good opportunity to catch them but that doesn't mean we didn't try.

We got to our hut around 9:30 p.m. and were so so so so so happy to see the hut. Apparently we were not the only ones with this great idea of how to spend NYE because the hut was PACKED! We set up camp on the floor in the common room. This turned out better than expected as a very intense snorer almost cleared out his room of sleepers with his all-night sawing.

We got up the next morning, took off and hiked straight to the confluence of the Greenstone and the Caples. We hiked up the Caples and began to fish. Here in NZ, it's sight fishing, we see the fish and then try our hardest not to spook the fish, all the while presenting the fly just perfectly for them to eat. 

Els spotted, probably, the hardest fish to spot behind a rock. She hiked down the hill and set out a few cast and all of the sudden, boom, fish on. It was maybe one of the coolest takes I have ever seen. 

We continured on for a couple more hours but we were all pretty tired of walking and being wet so we decided to head back. In the end, we probably walked a total of 19 miles and were pretty impressed with how much we accomplished after having no idea what we were going to do the day before.

Here's to my first real adventure in NZ! So glad I got to do it with some of my favorite people. Love you guys and thanks for including me. Happy honeymoon.