The World’s Best Fly-Fishing Retreat Is an Epic Commute—and Totally Worth It

Deep in the glistening heart of New Zealand river country, Eleven Cedar Lodge is an adventure angler’s dream where your next mammoth trout awaits.

By Ryan Krogh – Men’s Journal

There’s nothing in New Zealand’s backcountry that can seriously bite, sting, strike, poke, jab, stick, or generally hurt you, my Kiwi fishing guide Alex assures me. At least not in any debilitating way.

“So we can move fast through the bush without worrying too much,” he explains. “Or we can stay here and hope the helicopter comes.”

Alex is telling me this because we’re huddled under the branches of a massive beech tree, taking shelter from an incoming lightning storm. To no avail, he’s tried to radio the helicopter pilot who dropped us off here, on the upper reaches of the South Island’s Young River. The dense cloud cover seems to be affecting communication. Now we’re about to hightail it through the forest to reach a trekking shelter roughly two miles downstream, where two other members of our fishing group have taken refuge. Between us and the shelter, however, is a steep, slippery mountainside and the only “trail” to follow is the faint impression of a track where local biologists occasionally traipse through to check on traps they’ve set to catch stoats, an invasive ferret-like varmint. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE