Fly fishing SAVED MY LIFE
Johnny Kane gazes out of a window as the sun rises over the expansive waters of Lake Rotorua. He’s dreaming of better days. Deep into a two-month stay at the Te Whare Oranga Ngakau drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, his mind repeatedly casts back to a loving and happy childhood.
“I’d wake up every morning with memories of me as a kid and my dad when we used to fish Lake Rotorua,” says Johnny. “Dad would take me trolling for trout and I remembered how happy it used to make me feel. He had an 18ft fibreglass boat, a Fleetline, and we would troll up and down the airfield side of the lake, catching a few rainbows and that, there’s a good run over there. They were good times. Before the drugs.”
Johnny’s two-month stay at the centre, three years ago, marked the end of one journey and the beginning of another. Shortly after finishing rehab he picked up a fly rod for the first time and it not only changed his life but saved it. Johnny isn’t a man given to exaggeration. He talks in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. His words are all the more powerful for
