Sam's Birthday!!!

February 10:

Mount Cook

Sharon fishing

The boys and Sharon

fitting right in...

Good Luck Rainbow on Sam's Birthday!

Annie Fishing for salmon

Today is Sam's 10th Birthday and we are determined to make it a memorable one.  We plan to travel about 40 minutes up to Lake Tekapo where there is both a Salmon farm and good trout fishing in the lake.  The only problem is to find rods and reels and then we will be off.  I head to the local grocery and pick up some croissants for all, before stopping by a shop where we need to get our licenses to fish.  I return to my birthday boy and wish him a GREAT day.  We eat our breakfast and give out a couple of presents before packing up to head north.  The weather is most undesirable - grey and rainy - but we contact the information center at the lake and learn that they are enjoying sunny skies.  We are off and before we know it we arrive at Lake Tekapo and see the bluest water you have ever seen.  It is turquoise blue and glows in the warm sunlight. We find the information center and meet the nicest man who helps us with the fishing gear and offers a number of suggestions on where to go and how to catch the salmon with live bait and the trout with lures.  We head toward the Salmon canal to try our hand at catching what they call "Alpine Salmon".  The farms raises the salmon to sell without use of any chemicals or hormones in the frigid glacial waters of the mountains.  Apparently, about 40,000 salmon recently escaped and we have a good chance of catching some.  We are encouraged and get the poles out and into the water.  No luck.  We move our spots a couple of times to try to better position ourselves to catch some, but they aren't biting for us.  At about 4:00, we are too hungry to continue and so head back to the village to grab a bite to eat.  We dine on hamburgers and sandwiches, before going around the lake to a spot to try to catch trout with our lures.  We find a great spot at the side of the lake and walk down a short, dusty path to the water's edge.  Hudson and Sam cast out there lines, which keep getting snagged on the rocks on the bottom.  After a while, our attention turns to skipping rocks in the lake and we enjoy that activity for a while before having a "small splash" competition where we through a stone into the water and see who can make the smallest splash.  It is now past 6:00 and we are all a bit weary so we head back to Fairlie for the evening.  Underway, we see the most amazing rainbow - a good omen for Sam's birthday.  We take a picture through the car window and hope that it will show up.  When we get home, we all change into cozy clothes and turn up the heaters.  It is amazing how the weather is so different in areas that are not that far apart.  We have a great meal and then make a chocolate birthday cake.  Sam blows out the candles on his cake and marks the end of a fabulous day!

Happy Birthday Sam!