North Rakia huts

A good day and a big day.

Big is better

I started with a run. The old injuries are improving but I'm still taking it easy. A good catch up around the area. I watched a house being demolished. Hard to see. Nearer to home I stopped and chatted with a couple my parents age. Their lovely home looks fine but it's cracked in half and has shifted 5cm towards the river.

They're weather proof and livable but doubt that land and insurance issues will be sorted out in their life time. They wonder how much to put into their lovely garden and when the bulldozer will arrive.

A domestic blitz by super woman (me ;-) followed by a trip to the fishing shop. They convinced me to try my hand at fishing the mouth to the Rakia River for sea run trout.

The big braided rives that cross the Canterbury Plains often form a large lagoon at the sea with a narrow mouth opening to the sea. River mouths and lagoons with large spits can be dangerous places. I took a cautious approach and quickly realised I wasn't where I needed to be.

Bugger. But it was fun in a wild and wooly sort of way. I battled along a narrow path through some of the thickest bush and scrub I've seen in a while until I reached the north branch of the Rakia. I tried to head out to the lagoon edge but deep water stopped me. Back again.

I found a way to the inner lagoon edge and tried my hand for a while. Most people launch a boat and roar off down to the river mouth, or take their 4-wheel drive or 4-wheel motor bike the 5-km along the spit to the river mouth.

Not me, I decided to walk. It was tough going with a stiff nor'westerly blowing on loose stones and gravel. Time was getting on so I only went about half way along. Still not close enough to the mouth for the sea run trout.

I knew the hunter would be expecting me and started my long journey back around the far northern end of the spit and back to my car at the boat ramp by the northern Rakia huts.

A good adventure, a few racing stripe scratches on my legs, a good work out for my legs on the rough loose ground and the beauty of changing light.

It's the sort of place where a bit of knowledge and experience helps. I'll be back, probably with the young hunter or one another mate of the hunters.