Rolf Steinar Bjørnstad, lives in a small valley near Geilo in Norway and regularly visits New Zealand to fish for big trout. He has made seven trips over the past 26 months. In this article he explores an intriguing connection between his country and New Zealand and shows how Norway has contributed to the great fishing that we in New Zealand experience today.

Some years previously James Arndell Youl (1811-1904), an Australian pastoralist, did a lot of research in an effort to safely transport trout eggs to the southern regions. In February 1860 the Sarah Curlng sailed from an English harbour with 30.000 eggs packed in pine boxes. Under deck was an ice compartment with two adjacent rooms covered with graphite. The space between the rooms was filled up with charcoal dust. A full water tank above the icehouse with a hose into the tanks contained sufficient water to keep the eggs alive.

But this effort failed after 15 tonnes of ice melted. On the 68th day of the voyage the last eggs died. A further attempt two years later aboard Beautiful Star similarly ended in failure.

Youl was up against the obvious obstacles of a long voyage, weather conditions, and the necessity to sail through tropical regions. But he was a man not easily deterred from a mission.

January 21, 1864 heralded another attempt by Youl, aboard the Norfolk carrying a gift of trout eggs from Frank Buckland, and Francis Francis who was editor of the magazine The Field – Francis arrived in Melbourne, Australia, on 15 April 1864. Trout eggs from the rivers Itchen, Whycombe and Wey, were involved in the Norfolk experiment. They were packed in boxes of inch-thick pine. The boxes measured 12x8x5 inches, with top and bottom sides perforated. At the bottom was a layer of fine charcoal covered with a layer of ice and on top of that a nest of washed moss.

On this springy bed of moss the eggs were placed. Over the eggs was another layer of moss and on top of that, a layer of crushed ice. The whole thing was in a trough perforated with water vents and locked with screws. One hundred and eighty nine such boxes containing 100,000 salmon eggs and 3000 trout eggs were packed in the icehouse and on the top were three meters of ice in large blocks

The Australian State of Victoria received 4000 salmon eggs. Of them 400 had hatched. The remaining eggs were sent to Tasmania onboard a government steam ship. The ova was shipped to the Derwent River (to New Norfolk) and placed in a well prepared hatchery. An estimated 30,000 salmon eggs and 500 trout eggs were still living.

On May 4 the first ova hatched to become trout fry and by May 25, 300 trout and 700 salmon eggs had transformed into fry. At the end of 1865 the surviving salmon were transferred to the ocean. Youl had achieved something others had for a long time suggested. He was later honored with a knighthood in Australia and a silver cup from New Zealand. Curiously, his achievement was recognized in France when, in 1866, he was awarded a gold medal from La Société d’Aclimatisation

Several more successful attempts at transporting ova to Australia were made from 1865 until 1870. Francis and Buckland shipped ova from the same rivers in Hampshire. All of them were introduced via Tasmania.

As connections with shipping agents were established ova was also sent to New Zealand from 1867. After a short time good results were experienced with the successful; liberatiion of trout into the rivers south of Christchurch and Otago.

This has long been a curiosity for me. It is clear that England did not produce any ice from 1860 to 1880. The coldest month was in January 1862 with minus 0.5 for just a few days according to Norwegian meteorologists.

Gothe Gothes author of With Ice and logs cross the North Sea presents a great documentary for this transportation. From Norway, sailing ships went to most of the countries in Europe to keep the ice solid. The ice was taken from Oslofjord and from lakes down the coast from Oslo.

Ice for export was also taken from the Folgefonna Glacier. Initially Norway did not trade ice with Britain because of high cost. But a limited ice export became a reality with the developing British food industry and continued until technology (after the turn of the century) enabled artificial ice production. Norway’s early ice export to all countries was around 400-500 000 tonnes annually. The ice blocks were large – 0.3m cubed. Extracting them was a dangerous operation. Men died and ships were crushed in the cold sea.

Norwegian ice from the Oslofjord region and down the coasts (as far as Drøbak on the east and Kragerø on the west) was necessary for those pioneer Southern Hemisphere shipments until Tasmania and New Zealand became self-reliant in ova.

The first time I visited New Zealand was in January 1998. On the very important first cast in a nice late evening, almost under the bank on the other side of the Ahuriri river, a 2 kg brown eating a late supper made a mistake. The menu included an artificial fly. A caddis fly No 14 did the job. After releasing the trout I felt such a great satisfaction and I decided to return every year if I could. It was, however, more than two years before my second visit and you can imagine how my life has changed, lost into a new dimension of the fly-fishing sport, thanks to New Zealand.

But these beautiful waters need to be taken care of. New Zealand has an enviable reputation as a great fly fishing country with big trout. I am sure, far into the future, farmers and fishermen will work together for the ongoing good of the environment and waterways. It gives us a very good feeling when we look at the 100 per cent Pure New Zealand commercials.

It is such a beautiful country: But it has to be kept up to 100 per cent. That must be the vision. To run a big station or even a smaller farm is always a challenge. Mother Earth deserves to be taken care of. Please work hard to keep the waterways in pristine condition – seek advice if you need to. Didymo is a bad case of waterway pollution. Fishermen have brought it from somewhere. That is devastating. I plead for a better understanding so we care more, and can enjoy the outdoors with our rods and flies for a long, long, time.
Tight Lines and heavy nets!