My driveway looks like a high-mountain pass this morning. I pushed and tossed fresh powder for about an hour, and was grateful when a neighbor showed up to help clear the last quarter of the pavement with his snowblower. But I’m dug out, and my head is anywhere there isn’t snow.
I’m good and ready for summer, and it’s high summer right now in New Zealand where the video below was shot. It’s nothing fancy, honestly—just some footage of cold, clear mountain water, somewhere known only to the two Kiwis casting to massive browns in water so clear, you have to wonder at times if it’s there at all.
For some reason, the simplicity of struck a chord. A portable gas stove and a rather unappetizing can of soup. A ramshackle shanty in the middle of nowhere. Stoking the fire before bedtime. And a day spent casting to wild trout. These simple days are where my head goes when my own trout water is locked in snow and ice. I curse winter and, at the same time, cherish it, knowing that, come summer, this snow will be nurturing wild, backcountry cutthroats.
Enjoy the video. Feel free to steal the daydream, too.
— Chris Hunt