The Written Word
for January 16, 2000

As this is published, Wendy and I are In Honolulu and will leave shortly for New Zealand – the long way! I believe this is my 20^th trip “down under” and I look forward to each one as if it was my first.

This time we’re taking the long route – Canada 3000 to Fiji, Sydney Australia then Auckland where we’ll be met by old friends Chris and Norman Martensen – Norman was a businessman in Vancouver back in the sixties which is where we met.

We plan to stay overnight at the Martensens place in Howick, a suburb of Auckland and then, on Thursday, take off for Northland and our favourite hideaway, Tauranga Bay, not to be confused with Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. Because we leave just about Midnight Sunday, with the International Date Line it will be Tuesday evening we get to Auckland. The good news is that the time change between Vancouver and Auckland is only 3 hours – 21 hours actually but only three on the old body clock.

On Wednesday I’ll do my usual thing – I’ll go down to Howick Village and get a beard trim and haircut from my old barber friend Warwick Doel. Then I’ll case the two book stores for any new flyfishing books then repair to the neat used book store around the corner. Chris will have made her superb roast lamb complete with my favourite silver beet for supper then Norman and I will settle back for a toddy or two and lots of good talk.

Tauranga Bay is about an hour North of the Bay of Islands where my pioneer Great-great Grandfather, Gilbert Mair settled in 1818. On the way we’ll pass through the major city of Northland, Whangerei which his oldest son, Robert, my Great grandfather settled in the late 1840s. To this day there is a suburb of Whangerei called Mairtown, a lovely Mair Park, and a Mair Street. The main Anglican Church, Christchurch is on land Robert donated.

I “discovered” Tauranga Bay some years ago when I was exploring the land of my forbears and it is truly lovely. There is one motel, aptly named the Tauranga Bay Motel and nothing much else except a small trailer park at the northern end of the beach. There is a wonderful beach, great swimming and walking.

Our time there will be spent mostly relaxing but we will put in a day of fishing for a very strong fish called the Kawahai. While the ones we fish for run five pounds or less – the ocean going variety get somewhat bigger – I wouldn’t dream of using any less than 8 pound test tippet such is their strength and stamina. The idea is to look for feeding gulls and get in the midst of the bait fish and cast a bait fish imitation. It can be wild! And there is always the chance you’ll hook a fair sized “Kingie” in which case settle back for a very long and vigorous fight. There are some super places to eat nearby – the Sportfishing Club in Whangaroa is a favourite as well as the Old Oak Inn at Wanganui.

On Sunday we’ll head down to Taupo – a long and rather tiring drive but through some magnificent country. There we stay in a cabin at the Caltex Station, Store and Tea Room owned by Stella and Peter Gordon who have become fast friends over the past 15 years. There we’ll stay for about two weeks and Wendy and I will go to our favourite run on our favourite river, the Tauranga-Taupo, and fish our time away. Actually we have several favourite places but the stretch we’ve done for the past couple of years has treated us very well on dry flies imitating the ubiquitous cicada. We’ll also fish the river mouths a bit – this makes a nice change from the hiking and you can often get some nice fish on a smelt pattern.

On the first weekend of February we’ll be back in Howick and the Martensens and we’ll do our usual treks into the very pretty city of Auckland and on the Monday before I get home we’ll have our annual lunch with Sir Roger Douglas who, as Finance Minister back in the 80s, is credited with getting New Zealand out of the terrific financial hole in which they found themselves – the recovery program was dubbed Rogernomics.

Apart from perhaps watching a bit of the Americas Cup, maybe a cricket match, that will be it and we come home of February 8 via the Cook Islands and Honolulu – back on the air February 9.

The Written Word will continue while I’m gone.