Mike's 50th birthday!!! 269726kms, 12:59, 21°C. Off to Poolburn. Weather has not been great, but might be ok for next couple of days and we are tired of sitting around at home waiting for the weather to come right! Filled up with diesel (52L, 269735kms), got some more beers (only $14.99 for a 15 pack!!) and got some reading material from the Alexandra library before heading off up the road.
Stopped at Muddy Creek and got some fish and chips for a late lunch, at them beside the Manuherikia just over the bridge outside of Omakau and got to where we hoped to park overnight at 15:00. A van parked up already, so asked them if they were staying (one of those spaceship type things, so if they had said they were I would have asked them where their toilet was!!!) but they said they'd move on, so we left Maggie where we'd driven up and got the rods out. Not bad temperature - out of the wind it was T-shirt material.
Decided after a couple of hours that the fishing wasn't working here, and the breeze blowing from wrong side for fly-fishing, so moved to beside Whippy's hut. Fished some more but then breeze turned on-shore so called it quits.
Talked to Linda and Danny Stephen for a while, had some more drinks and played some cards (Mike won 3 to 2). Been around 22°C and not too bad - a bit changeable, windy then calm, sunny then cloudy but definitely not bad for up here! Had whitebait patties (thanks again Darrin!) and salad for tea and amazingly (because Mike was tired at 18:00!) went to bed at the later time of 22:30.
Stopped at Muddy Creek and got some fish and chips for a late lunch, at them beside the Manuherikia just over the bridge outside of Omakau and got to where we hoped to park overnight at 15:00. A van parked up already, so asked them if they were staying (one of those spaceship type things, so if they had said they were I would have asked them where their toilet was!!!) but they said they'd move on, so we left Maggie where we'd driven up and got the rods out. Not bad temperature - out of the wind it was T-shirt material. 
Decided after a couple of hours that the fishing wasn't working here, and the breeze blowing from wrong side for fly-fishing, so moved to beside Whippy's hut. Fished some more but then breeze turned on-shore so called it quits. Talked to Linda and Danny Stephen for a while, had some more drinks and played some cards (Mike won 3 to 2). Been around 22°C and not too bad - a bit changeable, windy then calm, sunny then cloudy but definitely not bad for up here! Had whitebait patties (thanks again Darrin!) and salad for tea and amazingly (because Mike was tired at 18:00!) went to bed at the later time of 22:30.
11 December 2009
Up at 07:00 and YAY! it's dead calm and a mild-ish 11°C, so straight into fishing. Mike caught a nice fish on the worm at about 09:30 but nothing at all after that, The sun did try a couple of times and then very pleasant, but mainly cloudy with about 20°, until 15:00. 
Then it started to get darker and darker with a few spits of rain. And then all of a sudden the wind got up, and then the rain really came. And the associated temperature plummet - in a couple of minutes the temperature had dropped to 13°C!. And the rain kept coming, so decided at 16:00 that Poolburn is an awesome spot, but not in this sort of weather, so headed home. Got home at 17:00 - much warmer and calmer and no rain at home! 269855 kms.