Introducing myself

Hi All,

I'd like to introduce myself. Im a dutch guy called Hans Smeets and I dable in bushcraft a bit ;).

I visited your beautiful country for the 1st time in 2017 and again in 2018 and come this October I will be moving there (permanently).

I love the nature, freedom and emptiness New Zealand has to offer. Imagine I come from a country the size of Canterbury with 17 million people living in it, so you can imagine how crowded that can be. ( we don't have any real nature here anymore and every 100 meters or so you will find a path or firebreak and your cellphone always works :) )

I'm not so much into traditional skills, though i love seeing them (some of which i wish i could master), but when i go outdoors i tend to carry hightec things with me like a cuben fiber tarp, ripstop nylon hammock ferrorod etc etc . I have of course played around with firebow's and flint/charcloth...both with various success (or failure :) )

One thing I hope to do in New zealand is actually being able to catch a fish in a stream, clean it and grill it ...believe it or not , in the Netherlands nearly impossible to do that , due to regulations etc. Basically you would have to go to a special stocked pond to catch for instance a trout (you would pay and entry fee, followed by x amount per trout you catch :)

I will be living in Chrustchurch and I am of course curious to see what the outdoor community is in New Zealand

Warm regards

Hans Smeets

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NewbiePermalink Reply by Matthieu on July 25, 2018 at 21:49

Hi Hans,

Welcome.

Hope you will enjoy your time here.

Do some research on what's possible here as it can be really different from Netherland. For fresh water fishing you need a license that will be different depending where you are fishing. There can also be a lot of fire restriction.

I still strugle to know what I can do and where.

Same thing with wood access still not clear about this so cannot help.

CHeers

Matt

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ShrafterPermalink Reply by hans on July 25, 2018 at 23:42

Hi Matt,

I have been doing some reading up already and indeed there are quite a lot of rules, but still more opportunity than overhere I think. Fire restrictions are quite logical from what i have seen of the south island so far, especailly the east ? coast seems to be pretty dry

Over here fire bans are common to. I prefer my trangia as preferred cooking method anyway.

The access I'm still figuring out, but I do see DoC had some nice sites with no facilities and certain areas you can go into with a form of license.

I'm not sure about the hammock posibilities on the east coast from what i have seen sofar so that will be a learning curve :)