Day 332: Fly Fishing with Declan
Declan Wong is a fly fishing guide and a magician.
Not “a magician,” like he’s really a really good angler — though he is. But meaning he also does magic tricks for a living.
Margaret found him online and booked two experiences with him — a full day fly fishing, scheduled for today; and a magic show with dinner scheduled for tomorrow evening.
Unfortunately rainy, chilly weather has moved into the area and will be hanging around for several days. Our vision was a full family excursion today — with Jim and I fishing with Declan while Margaret and the kids explored and played around the river. This morning we smartly made the call for Margaret and the kids to stay home while Jim and I went with Declan.
Overall it was a really fun day. We fished in Roberts Creek, about an hour’s drive south of Queenstown. The landscape was gorgeous — standard here in NZ — clean, rushing water, green farmland, snow capped peaks. We saw plenty of sheep but not one other human the entire day save a couple tractors driving past in the distance. The weather was varied — we had sideways rain, lots of wind, periods of glorious sun and a couple rainbows. The fishing was humbling. It was my first time fly fishing and it was even more challenging than I expected — made more difficult by these windy conditions. We saw several fish, targeted each for an hour plus and didn’t catch a single one. And it was still really fun! We finished about 6:30 with a beer and then made our way back to Queenstown. Jim and I were wet, cold, tired and happy.
Declan is a super interesting guy. American, raised in Upstate NYC. Newly vegan. Techy, with fancy cameras and drones. And a super-knowledgeable angler with an amazing ability to spot fish. Did I mention he’s also a magician!?! We’ll see those skills tomorrow.
UPDATE: He also has video-editing skills! He compiled and sent us this great video of the outing:
Meanwhile, back in Queenstown, Margaret and the kids also had a good day. They did school in the morning during the worst of the weather. Then they ventured out for some playground time and a little hike around the lake. They were also wet and tired when they arrived back at the apartment — but Margaret had forgotten a key!
They were locked out. So they went back into town for some dinner at an Italian restaurant. Mealtime entertainment included a pros and cons game and an online, 100-question Harry Potter trivia marathon from where James read the questions to Willa off Margaret’s phone. Willa got 82 out of the first 84 questions correct before they had to leave. “I’m trying not to feel so pleased with myself,” she said.
When Jim and I got back Margaret had cozied up the apartment, with a grocery store pizza in the oven, cheese, crackers and salami on the table and G&Ts ready to pour. No better welcome than that! We all recapped our days, put the kids to bed and said goodnight to Jim. Margaret and I went straight to bed to the soundtrack of more rain overnight.
