16-10-18-10-2019 Twizel, lovely Time with the Kiwi Family

Arriving in Twizel, we were surprised by this cute little town and liked it so much that we stayed here for a few days.

Small town? What do you do there for a few days? Well, Twizel is known for its great salmon fishing, and that's exactly what we did. We camped, went fishing, and met a lovely Kiwi family (Elaine, Duncon, and Jack, their dog).

Interestingly enough, on our first day in Twizel, we bought fishing equipment and a fishing license and happened to meet Elaine and Duncon by chance. In New Zealand, you can fish in the sea, but in lakes (like in Twizel), you need a license, which can be obtained for a day, a month, or a year. We bought a yearly license for 180 dollars as well.

We spent the whole day fishing near a salmon farm in the canal. The weather was beautiful, and it was already T-shirt and shorts weather. Just as Jenny finished cooking dinner and we were about to eat and head back to the campsite, a salmon actually bit the hook... and what a catch it was! It weighed nearly 6 kg. Elaine and Duncon had been fishing on the other side of the canal all day and were on their way home when they saw that we had a fish on the line.

They immediately jumped out of their camper and helped us bring the big catch ashore, gut it, and make it ready to eat.

6 kg of salmon... way too much for the two of us. We kept only 4 pieces and gave the rest to Elaine and Duncon. In New Zealand, 1 kg of salmon costs around 25-35 dollars.

That evening, our paths diverged again, but the next day, we bumped into each other by chance while shopping and then spent the whole day fishing, making coffee and cake, and just hanging out at the canal together. We didn't catch any more fish all day, and then, in the evening, just when dinner was ready, another fish bit the hook. This time, it was a trout. The weather deteriorated, and it started raining, but Mike was still fishing.

15 minutes later, another bite, another massive salmon, weighing 5.5 kg. Unbelievable!

We shared the salmon with Elaine and Duncon again and then all drove to the same campsite (Lake Wallden, only 15 km away and free of charge).

It was already dark, but we all sat together in their camper and talked a lot and shared stories.

It felt like Elaine and Duncon had been everywhere and had friends all over the world. Now, we are their German family and they are our Kiwi family :-). The two of them live in Dunedin, Duncon is an author, and Elaine is a photographer. She sells her works as coasters, pictures, and much more at the market. She even has a website and gave us some coasters as gifts. We got along with them sooo well, as if we had known each other forever! We will definitely visit them in Dunedin :-).

When we said goodbye, we actually wanted to head to Mt. Cook, but it was raining... It didn't stop raining all day, so we spent the whole day in the van, frying delicious salmon and watching DVDs.

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