Rakaia bridge

For those of you unfamiliar with the South Island of New Zealand, the Rakaia River is a braided river system with headwaters in the Southern Alps. It travels across the Canterbury Plains and discharges into the Pacific Ocean.

The township of Rakaia is just south of the river, on State Highway 1 about 25km from the river mouth. Other than the large fibreglass salmon and salmon fishing, Rakaia's other claim to fame is the country's longest road bridge. It crosses the wide shingle beds of the braided Rakaia river just north of thed town. It's approximately 1750 metres in length.

I can now say I've been underneath the longest road bridge in the country :-) See it large in all its long glory

This is close to the camp ground where the fisherman mate and I spent the night. As we booked in a bloke appeared with an 18lb (gutted) salmon he caught somewhere around here.

But not us. We had a go down at the mouth. We heard only 5 salmon had been caught over an 8 hour period yesterday. Hardly a run! We tried some of the access points between the river mouth and Rakaia township. The floods in early January have made some difficult to access.

I rediscovered all men are the same. My fishing mate was determined to get his 4-wheel drive her, there and everywhere. The woman (me) said "up by the bridge is easy to access". But no, the man behind the wheel has to try everywhere and both sides of the river. Eventually after countless 36 point turns to get out of tight spots and km's of driving in reverse on tight dirt tracks with washouts at the end, the fisherman said "I think by the bridge would be as good as anywhere". The hunter is just the same.

All of which proves woman are always right ;-)

No fish but we've scouted some spots for early in the morning.