NZ Earthquake info - int'l travel & donations

From the Fly Shop NZ, we get this email update about current trips, donations, etc. Important note is that the earthquake was centralized, as most recent ones have been, around Christchurch. It's not as though the entire country was hit by the quake.
"Greetings!

Our hearts go out to the people of Christchurch and to all our Christchurch customers who have been affected by this terrible disaster, we wish you all the very best during this terrible time.
For our overseas customers who are perhaps wondering whether they can still come over for their planned trips I suggest you contact your travel agent for the latest information. Note the the earthquake is very much centered on Christchurch, the rest of the South Island has escaped without any damage. Christchurch airport is open, and international travelers are arriving through the airport. No doubt some supporting services like rental vehicles will be affected though, however your travel agent will be the best person for advice.
How can we help;
Seems the best way we can help is to donate some $$ to a reputable orangisation;
Westpac Bank has an account set up to help the Christchurch Earthquake relief effort. The account is for the public and bank customers to make donations, and all funds will go to the Salvation Army to help those in need.
The account details are:
The Salvation Army - Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Account;
03 0207 0617331 00
For people making donations from overseas: Transaction fees and foreign exchange fees will be waived for any donations made by Telegraphic Transfer. These fees will be waived both for donations made in New Zealand currency or foreign currency. If you're making a donation from outside New Zealand, please ask your bank to send payment by Telegraphic Transfer to;
Westpac Banking Corporation, Wellington, New Zealand
SWIFT Code: WPACNZ2W
For credit to account: 03 0207 0617331 00
Beneficiary: The Salvation Army - Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
Or the Red Cross The Red Cross have a payment gateway so you can use your credit cards to donate Red Cross Donate"

We are home Canada - CHCH earthquake info

Thank you for the folks that follow our blog and that have taken the time to email us. We are home, safely in Red Deer, Alberta. We have been here for over a week. It is a very odd feeling to have been walking through Christchurch and the Canterbury area not quite 2 weeks ago, given the drama that has unfolded with this intense earthquake yesterday. New reports suggest as many as 300 people may have died.
For up to ate info, please follow the NZ Herald website:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Christchurch is dubbed the garden city. It is a wonderful city of about 450,000 people. Imagine the feel of Vernon, BC mixed with San Francisco. A small town that grew large, with small shops and perpetual gardens and parks. A very nice feel. Mix in a bustling city center that mixed old brick and mortar buildings built 200+ years ago with the new, stylish architecture that blended well with the tradition of the city. If we were to ever move to NZ, Christchurch would definitely be a major component of our lives.
We were more than thrilled to wake to the telephone ringing at 2:30 am last night. Our friends, their families, and others living outside the quake zone are all well. Serge & Sharron were sitting in a coffee shop, having just sat down when it hit. Within seconds their coffees were emptied by the quake. The building they were in is fine, though neighbouring ones were not. As they worked their way through the city, aftershocks hit, making their car jump up and down "like a kangaroo". They are safe.
It is a very odd feeling to know the region well, having spent 2 - 3 months each year there. In a perfect world, we would hop a plane next week, once things settle down, just to help even one family get their life back in order, even to help patch a roof, provide hope, anything. It just isn't sitting right with me as I type this. For as much as I am Canadian, I feel as strongly for New Zealand.

Keas

Every country has different birds. The south island of New Zealand is alive with birds. I don't know anyone who has visited that hasn't wakened to the 5am symphony. After a big day the day before, it can get a bit much when camping! There are so many different species of birds in their forests, and most are in good populations. It was one bird that caught our attention on our first trip to NZ. An alpine parrot called a Kea. Native to the south island's high country beech forests and rock outcroppings, their numbers are in decline thanks to the introduced possums, stoats, and ferrets that eat the eggs and young. They are one of few alpine parrot species in the world. There again, alpine on the S Isl of NZ is a touch different than Jasper National Park. They certainly are a very curious bird.

During this year's trip we decided to take a day and try to find a kea. For 4 years we've wondered what they look like, where to find them. We did a little internet searching and came across a couple of certain spots to find them. It wasn't exactly difficult!

Wiki has a good write up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea

10 & 2 Magazine

Latest issue on line now.

http://www.tenandtwomagazine.com/

Q the X

The concept wasn't pre-conceived for Q the X. We'd set out to gather intimate video footage for a forthcoming sight fishing dvd. As we fished this tiny stream, which we named "the X", we began to get in touch with a different perspective. It's a perspective we've garnered after fishing waters with low or obvious fish stocks, through western Canada and US, and especially New Zealand. It's a perspective that we see, that we can't shake if we're honest about the impacts we have on such fisheries. This is not to project this on to anyone, it's just sharing.


The thoughts and perspectives of fishing this tiny stream culminated in a question of our fishing, hence the name "Q the X". It's a question every angler can ask themselves on any piece of water, centering on the fundamental environmental principle that if we use it, we affect it.

This short won the best feature at the Back Cast film festival in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2011.

Example of NZ fisheries/ env issues

If you follow the link below, you'll quickly see what kind of issues even a tiny little island like New Zealand is facing. Agriculture gets more open doors than even the oil & gas industry of the early days in Alberta did. Ag, combined with power generation (dams) are well on their way to changing the face of New Zealand. We're sold on it being a green country, but under the bed sheets it isn't too different from here. Given that the recently elected national government just recently dismantled the water councils and replaced them with pro-industry overseers, it could be some time before that worm turns. This is a link to a forum post showing a series of photos of irrigation 'withdrawals'. We witnessed countless such examples of dry riverbeds due to withdrawals on each of our trips, many waters simply no longer reach the ocean.
http://www.flyshop.co.nz/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=2953

Back Cast Film Festival this weekend

If you happen to be in Calgary, the Back Cast Film Festival is on Saturday, featuring a variety of fine fly fishing films from near and far. Be sure to visit their website for ticket info and showing times, as there is a matinee and evening viewings.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Back-Cast-Fly-Fishing-Film-Festival-2011--film-lineup---ticket-purchase-.html?soid=1103420700706&aid=NTBfQCC8BjM

As an aside, a short project we worked on was chosen as the Best Feature Film Award for the festival.
"I'm pleased to announce that the film "Q the X" from Jensen Fly Fishing Productions will be receiving the Best Feature Film Award* at Back Cast Fly Fishing Film Festival 2011.
The cinematography in "Q the X" was absolutely first class. We enjoyed the storyline, and the thought provoking conclusion."Q the X" will be opening the evening program on Saturday Feb 12, 2010.
Dave and Amelia Jensen will be in attendance and they will be introducing their film.
Be sure to join us!"
Michelle @ BCFF

Thanks for the encouragement, Michelle. Small steps on our side of things, hopefully leading to continued improvements.
Cheers

New Fly Fisher online Mag

Now this is an online magazine worth checking out:
http://www.mygazines.com/subscribers/title/8364/1

From Blown Tires to Mountain Tops

It’s really neat in life when your original plans get botched due to some unforeseen circumstances, but your alternative plans turn around for the better - and even better in one’s mind that what you thought your original plans would have been. We had wanted to get out on a weekend camping/tramping/fishing trip with our friends Serge and Sharron prior to heading back to Canada and it wasn’t until this past weekend that the timing had worked out. Our first desire to hike a gorgeous west coast river with them had quickly dissolved due to rain fronts that have been passing through every day, causing the rivers to remain high and muddy. Instead, we decided to fish another area that didn’t have rain in the forecast, and hopefully hike a mountain. Both activities were of interest to all of us, but either way, we were to get out and enjoy camping and spending some time together.
To get to our destination involves a nasty gravel road, which tops sections of our Forestry trunk road back home after the usual 4 X4 traffic has pounded it. It is badly rutted out and has some large chunks of hard rock littered across it at the best of times. It is not easy on vehicle tires. So, after 30 mins of driving, we blew a tire. Not just your regular flat tire, but one that is never to see a repair. The picture says it all really.
We were feeling rather cursed by this particular road that we have now seen 5 flat tires on over the course of 2 years, on 3 different vehicles with the same friends. Not all our vehicles, but 2 of them were. We of course did what was needed and put on our spare tire, but the spare was one that we just recently had to have patched due to a flat from 2 weeks ago on the same road and it was hardly going to get us far. We were  thinking it was time to limp back, but instead we decided to stop for lunch at a lovely lake a few minutes up the road. We pulled in and within minutes we followed our friend Sharron’s idea and jumped in the lake for a swim to cool off. This time, I threw caution to the wind and I actually managed to block out the idea of eels swimming near or around me :)  It was refreshing on a hot day. By this point, we had abandoned any idea of fishing and were happy to just do something together. Looking around us, we found a mountain that looked like it needed to be climbed, so off we went. The exercise was great and the 360 views of the mountains around us were even better. The neat thing is that we found an amazing stretch of loose scree that we used to boot ski down half the mountain. I’ve never seen Dave move so fast down a mountain before, he left a pretty decent dust trail billowing behind him, with the biggest grin on his face. A ton of fun for sure.
We decided to camp the night at the lake and got to experience a fabulous Nor'wester sunset, where the cloud formations move so quickly, creating a dramatic painting in front of your eye. It was an extremely inspiring place to be behind the camera lens.
The next day, we started to limp back towards Hanmer and on our way back we stopped to climb Mount Maukuratawhai, or what we now call “My Little Tough Guy” - a similar sound to it when you can’t remember the Maori name. This particular mountain holds quite a lot of meaning to Serge and Sharron, as only a few weeks back their beloved dog, Bean, of 13 years passed away. He had spent many a day chasing bunnies and possums in and around this mountain. Serge and Sharron decided that this was the place they wished to spread Bean’s ashes, so we all made a ceremonial ascent for him. It was a real honor to do this with our friends. We have known Bean for the last 4 years and looked after him a few times during our stays here on the South Island and really appreciated his independent character, a Jack Russell unlike any other, and an amazing hunter. The top of this mountain gave us a view of the pacific ocean off in the distance and a spectacular 360 view of all the mountains and the rivers below that we have fished in the area over the years. Our 900m climb brought us to probably one of the highest perspectives of the South Island we will ever have. Many thanks to Serge and Sharron for inviting us on their journey to say goodbye to Bean and to commemorate his life. Here’s to Bean’s memory living on in those hills forever.

Mantrol

We've driven past this sign several times on the trip. I'm not sure if I should slow down or be creeped out at the thought of submitting myself to mantrol. Whose mantrol?  And why so creepy?