The hottest show in cold water

By COLIN MOORE

With an almost imperceptible flick of its tail, the large rainbow jack holds station in the Waihukahuka stream current.

The trout is close to spawning and its flanks shine a brilliant red. Its protruding bottom jaw is thrust into the current, mouth slightly open, waiting for food to come tumbling along the stream bed.

Sometimes it will glide a few centimetres to the left or right, or turn and chase a passing morsel. But mostly the wily fish just waits and lets the stream deliver its meals.

This view of wild trout feeding in a spawning stream tributary of the Tongariro River is one of the best free shows you will find in New Zealand. The underwater viewing chamber is the centrepiece of the Tongariro National Trout Centre, a small bush-clad reserve beside the famed Tongariro River that has long been a magical spot in which to picnic and ponder.

It is also the site for a almost-completed interpretative centre being built by the Tongariro National Trout Centre Society.

There has been a trout hatchery at the Waihukahuka Stream mouth since 1926, but in the last couple of decades the riverside reserve on SH1, just south of Turangi, has been developed as a park dedicated to trout.

It is a spot that never fails to be enjoyable. Our children have cooked breakfast on the public barbecues while their mother fished the "Birch Pool" on the Tongariro. They have fished themselves on the children's fish-out days held several times a year.

Children, from 6 to 14 years, are taught to fly fish by local anglers, casting into a pond holding nearly 5000 trout of legal size. No one fails to catch something to take home - for just the $3 cost of a fishing licence. The swirling fish in the children's pond are fascinating, too much so for my daughter who, as a 6-year-old, looked too closely and fell in.

Elsewhere in the reserve are groves of mature native trees that always seem to attract tui, and sheltered enclaves of lawn for picnics when the weather on the other side of the Pihanga Saddle has ruled out skiing on Mt Ruapehu.

I had a 50th birthday barbecue breakfast in the hatchery grounds and we always take visitors to the underwater viewing chamber, rebuilt after flood damage, from which they can see the wild trout in the Waihukahuka Stream.

It is going to be even better, thanks to a dedicated bunch of Turangi anglers who, with the help of the Department of Conservation, are transforming the now mostly disused hatchery into a national centre worthy of the art of fly-fishing and the many millions of dollars it brings to Taupo.

The society has rebuilt one of the old hatchery buildings into a multi-purpose centre that will be educational as well as a tourist attraction. It has a classroom-sized theatre and interpretative displays on the history of trout fishing, freshwater ecology, angling techniques, trout lifecycle, a fly-tying workshop, an angling museum, and a mock-up of an angler's cabin from the 1930s.

The project has been funded by a tourism grant, the Lottery Grants Board, private donations and sponsorship.

It is envisaged that the centre will become a popular tourist attraction in the region. And it is an interesting addition to the list of things to do on days when the Mt Ruapehu skifields are closed.

Certainly, no novice trout fisher should cast a fly without first observing the wild trout in the Waihukahuka Stream.

* Fish-out days, June 30, July 14, August 18, September 22, October 6. To book, contact Mandi Goffin, ph (07) 386 9243. Tongariro National Trout Society, executive officer, Gordon Stevenson, ph (07) 378 8473, email gordons@reap.org.nz; chairman, John Milner, ph (07) 386 6318, email milners@partihonz.com; Department of Conservation, John Gibbs, ph (07) 386 8607, email jgibbs@doc.govt.nz; Tongariro fishing, Sporting Life, ph (07) 386 8996, email sport.life@xtra.co.nz

Ruapehu NZ

Sporting life - Turangi

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz