A breast cancer diagnosis hooked the “full-on Auckland city girl”, on fly fishing. Unknowingly, Louise Stuart found her peace on a hushed street within earshot of the Tongariro River. 

Words Sue Hoffart  Photos Alanah Brown

While fly fishing may be in Louise Stuart’s genes, she never seriously considered casting a fly rod until a gut instinct drove her to add the skill to a personal bucket list. Now based in Tūrangi and working as a professional fly fishing guide, Louise has never looked back.

Year round, she dons her fly fishing vest before breakfast and strolls two minutes in search of the feisty trout that inhabit the internationally-renowned waterway, the Tongariro River.

‘Fishing is very cathartic. You hear the water and the birds, you’re aware of whether the wind’s picking up.’

In the wake of her 2015 cancer surgery, she tried fly fishing with a local club. Now the ongoing fixation rules the rhythm of her days, her travels and friendships, with deep and meaningful ties to the Central Plateau community where she landed five years ago. ‘Honestly, fly fishing became absolutely all-consuming,’ she says. ‘I became obsessed with wanting to fish on fresh water rivers as it was so exhilarating.’

Louise helps people discover the therapeutic benefits of her chosen sport as a volunteer with women’s cancer charity Casting for Recovery, as well as the Reel Recovery male equivalent. In 2023, her fishing prowess landed her in Canada, as part of the first team to represent New Zealand at the women’s world fly fishing championships. She made the team again in 2025, competing in the United States.

‘With fly fishing I don’t keep my catch, I prefer to scoop it into a net and carefully release the fish before watching it swim away.’ Sometimes Louise returns to the river for the evening hatch, when caddis bugs flit on the river’s surface and fish rise up to gulp aquatic insects. As darkness falls, she will listen for a distinctive plop then cast towards it.

‘It’s just wonderfully peaceful. It’s a joy to be standing in the water, truly seeing the beauty of New Zealand’ says Louise. ‘When I’m guiding international people, they are in awe of what we have here; so many magnificent world class rivers and lakes in this region, just here on our doorstep.’

She is fascinated with how she’s taken to it but then there is a deep genetic tie to the sport.

‘I’m doing things that in my wildest dreams I wouldn’t imagine myself doing.’

Growing up in Hamilton, Louise heard stories about her colourful great grandfather who worked as a fly fishing guide in the Taupō region in the 1930s and 40s.

His daughter – Louise’s grandmother – was also a keen angler. Louise finds herself following in her ancestors’ footsteps, casting her line into pools and rivers where they once stood. The bamboo rod she inherited from her great grandfather was purchased from a tackle shop that stands just along the street from where she now lives. Now she sits on the Tongariro National Trout Centre board and Taupō Fishing Advisory Committee.

‘I’ve met a lot of amazing people who do amazing things for our fisheries and our environment,’ says Louise. ‘Being a part of these institutions and the fishery in this area has really opened up very deep, multi-layered connections. It’s a wonderfully rich life here.’

However, as a young girl, she longed to fly rather than fish. At 18, she moved to Auckland and became a flight attendant before marrying and raising two children. Daughters, Georgia and Madeline, were launching into adulthood when their mother was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in 2015. Early detection, radiotherapy treatment, surgery and excellent family support ensured a positive outcome.

‘It was definitely a shock but, from the start, I just focused on getting better. I’m a ‘get on with it’ kind of girl. I suppose I am very practical.’

That same pragmatism helped when her marriage ended. It helped with her subsequent decision to buy and renovate a two storey brick house in Tūrangi in 2021, before buying the historic property next door and converting it into a luxury, rustic guest cottage.

While tradespeople certainly helped with the house renovations, Louise is glad to tackle the daily chores herself. She likes the physicality of lawn mowing and firewood-hauling, as well as cleaning and bed-making for her paying guests when she’s not guiding her fishing clients. When she can, she travels to Auckland to help out with her beloved two-year-old granddaughter. ‘It’s terribly gratifying, really empowering doing things on my own. I’m doing things that in my wildest dreams I wouldn’t imagine myself doing. I’ve learned so much about myself.’

Her 1970s house has been a renovation project with lots of challenges. Built by one of the Italian tunnelling experts who helped construct the Tongariro Power Development Scheme dam, it was not a style of home she ever expected to inhabit.

‘Brick and tile? Arches? As soon as I came here I could see what could be done with the garden and the house. I fell in love with it.’

Those arched wooden windows were part of the allure for Louise, alongside the high stud and natural light in every room and plenty of storage space for her ever-expanding collection of waders, rods and fishing jackets.

It wasn’t an easy start with a Covid lockdown announced the night she moved into the house. She found herself with an airbed and the clothes she stood in as the moving truck scheduled to arrive the following day arrived two weeks later. Resilient, Louise bought a cup, a plate and some cutlery from the supermarket and spent the next fortnight gardening.

‘It’s a joy to be standing in the water, truly seeing the beauty of New Zealand.’

‘It was wonderful. And it’s been a very easy adjustment. This is a wonderful community, terribly underrated. The support here, the caring. I’m lucky.’

Over the intervening years, the home’s sage green carpets and wildly coloured curtains have been replaced by more neutral tones, while solid timber doors and sarking ceilings have received a white coat. Splashes of colour come from artworks and it’s hard to miss the homeowner’s vast collection of thread, feathers and other fly-tying paraphernalia.

In 2024, she took a financial leap and bought the next door property from its largely absent overseas owner, before throwing herself into a restoration, renovation and research project. Louise admits it was the profusion of spring bulbs and old-fashioned roses that made her want to buy the run-down cottage next door and create an accommodation business.

‘I do like the journey of developing a property,’ she says. ‘And I’ve always had a mix of contemporary furniture with older pieces. I have a real interest in old things, a passion for older pieces of furniture that give warmth and substance.’

The 1940s rimu cottage, which she has renamed Caddis Lodge, was once home to respected fishing guide Geoff Sanderson and his family. Geoff created what became New Zealand’s most popular fishing lure and that famously-effective Red Setter trout fly has previously starred on a national postage stamp. The Sandersons also founded what is now New Zealand’s oldest tackle shop; the historic building was relocated decades ago and it stands next to Louise’s favourite local café a few hundred metres down the road.

Years of trawling antique stores and restoring old kauri dressers have honed her eye for a treasure. She will visualise the perfect piece for a particular spot in her home, then trawl online marketplaces and dusty shop corners to find what she wants. As with fishing, it’s the hunt she relishes more than the acquisition.

Louise says her move to Tūrangi has delivered both tranquillity and thrills. ‘The peacefulness here is absolute. On the other hand, I’ve found the last five years so exciting. I’m doing so much I never imagined, living a life I never expected to live. And I’m living life with absolute pleasure.’

Fly fishing tips

for learners with Louise Stuart

• Local fishing clubs are a great first point of contact for beginners. They are hubs of learning and a good place to find fishing buddies and willing teachers.
• YouTube is very helpful. Just search ‘fly fishing for beginners’.
• Local fishing shops are a great place to learn about rods, lines and flies.
• Facebook groups – look for one in your area.
• Books – you’ll find plenty on fly tying and fishing for beginners.
• Find a guide who is keen to teach and learn from an expert.
• Seek out rivers or lakes close to your home – you’ll practise more if you find a spot you can visit frequently.
• Quiz the people that are fishing around you.
• Practise on and off the water.
• Find a friend to fish with – you’ll have more fun.
• Don’t expect too much too soon – I know a woman who took a year to catch her first fish
• Stop and enjoy the wonderful natural areas you’ll discover along the way.