Guest User
November 3, 2023
“Poronui” a complete wilderness experience… Wednesday, and an easy drive of about a half hour, and a hard right on the Napier road takes you to Poronui in the North Island New Zealand high country. A private gated, secure property, and a quick call to Lisa or Claire get you in, and on your way, to a most wonderful, pristine wilderness experience. Met by Lisa, we arrived early afternoon, and immediately took in the ambience of the scenery, the Lodge, fantastic guest rooms, the mountains, the roaming deer and Ring Necked abundant Pheasant’s…..wow! To say it is very pretty is an understatement, but it gave us a feel for what was ahead over the next few days of high country, dry fly fishing, in gin clear mountain headwaters. Some tasty nibbles were rustled up” by Darren and Kay, who are part of The Poronui Experience” chef’s team. Really nice people, great food, nothing too hard to please, and a couple of drinks set the scene for an experience that is “to die for.” A bit of a rest, a familiarisation walk around the Lodge gardens, a check of the local stream for cruising Trout, and a run in with a Pheasant cock bird was all good. Lisa, a great lady, and asset to Poronui, picked us up in a Prado and took us for an educational overview 4 wheel drive around some of the property. Poronui is expansive, private, majestic in scenery, and the confluence of the rivers, told me this couple of days fly fishing would be something we would never forget. It was confirmed, in those next couple of days, and we’d go back there any time. No TV’s, just a book, a glass of wine, some more rest, then canape’s with new guests from Nebraska around the Lodge open fireplace…..a very nice start to our stay. Dinner at 7 was introductions all round, relaxed, informal, and our initial experiences, why we were here, and a few glasses of local wines and yummy food prepared by Chef Adrian, as “mein host” set the scene for a hard to beat experience. New, and I think enduring friendships were forged with our Nebraska cohorts, and during the next two days, we would several times discuss “the one that got away!” Thursday morning, after a great night’s sleep, we fronted the Lodge for breakfast at 7; clear sky’s, very frosty, an open fire in the lodge, a very leisurely experience, nice breakfast from Darren and Kaye, and a day of pristine river dry fly fishing was ahead. Some coffee, further introductions to our guides Kunio, the fly fishing ninja, and Mark, into the Simms waders, and we were on our ways into the bush, into the rivers, and trekking upstream. For quite a while, we found spotting the fish difficult and our darker lensed shades weren’t as good as yellow shades in detecting the fish, unless they moved, or spooked as they frequently were in the gin clear waters. A floating Geehi Peacock hurl beetle with small trailing bead head nymph was the go to weapon of choice by our guide Kunio, who also acted as chief spotter, lead river forder, and “chief haranguer” due