Graham Lee is hooked on his latest venture.
Work is under way on a $4million salmon fishing and restaurant venture beside the Cardrona River, near Wanaka.
Hook is an ambitious project, which also involves wetlands, tracks and alpine areas and one Mr Lee and his wife Hayley are excited about.
Coupled with the proposed adjacent purpose-built water-ski lake, on land alongside Cameron Creek, it would be like "one big water park'' to Albert Town, Mr Lee said.
The couple have consent for their development, which is on the corner of the Wanaka-Luggate and Albert Town-Lake Hawea roads.
The final regulatory approval required was a fish farm licence from the Ministry for Primary Industries and Mr Lee was now preparing for that.
Originally, it was intended to open Hook in time for Easter next year but that had proved a little ambitious and it was more likely to be the middle of the year.
Mr and Mrs Lee have owned the 26ha property - of which the 14ha site of the restaurant and surrounds is on a separate title - since 2003.
When they bought the property, it was with the view of having a base for themselves and to do "a bit of farming''.
The site obviously became more important with the continuing expansion of Wanaka, Mr Lee said.
It had become increasingly difficult to farm the property, as there were always people coming through and gates being left open.
During a family holiday in Golden Bay about a decade ago, the Lees visited the Anatoki salmon farm, at Takaka.
A friend suggested they embark on a similar venture but, after they started to move on the idea, the global financial crisis hit, and things were a bit quiet.
They thought they would put one pond in and that had worked better than they ever anticipated, as far as holding water.
It also allowed planners and others involved in the project "to see what we're talking about'', he said.
There were natural fish in the pond now, which had spawned and come up Cameron Creek, a tributary of the Cardrona River.
The project stuck around for a long time and then "everything just sort of came together'' as they decided to go for the bigger activity consent.
"It's almost as if everything aligned at the right time. We thought we'd start the consent process,'' he said.
That included their financial situation, which made it easier, particularly with the upturn of business in Wanaka.
Their earthmoving business was "booming'' as residential properties were developed.
The consent process took about two years.
"Once you start dealing with water, it brings in the regional council and a whole lot of issues you've got to tick off.''
It probably was about 18 months of getting the information together and six months of "really intense stuff''.
More than $200,000 was spent on the consent process, a figure which Mr Lee described as "horrendous''.
He had budgeted on $100,000. Mr Lee said he did not have any gripes with the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Rather, the biggest cost involved for them was the consultants they had to use and that was the biggest burden.
They ranged from ecological, traffic management and acoustics experts to landscape architects - "everything you could possibly think of''.
"The RMA [Resource Management Act] allows too many mischief-making type people into the system. There needs to be a better drafting system to wheedle out the ones that are truly vexatious,'' he said.
Cameron Creek ‘‘hardly existed'' after the 1999 floods and it was a bog when they bought the property, he said.
The Lees upgraded it to the stage that it was now a spawning creek and there was no reason they would want to downgrade it.
Mr Lee was frustrated by suggestions during the consent process that they wanted to do that.
Once the wetland got going, he believed it would be well-stocked with wild trout and eels, so it had created a habitat.
During the design phase, he spent "hours and hours'' in the local library, studying regional and district plans, particularly to do with water, so he knew exactly what he could or could not do.
Rather than laborious, it was a task he found quite enjoyable, as he gained a much greater understanding.
Mr Lee was "really disappointed'' with Fish and Game New Zealand and intended raising his concerns with Department of Conservation director-general Lou Sanson and possibly Conservation Minister Maggie Barry.
Fish and Game had said the proposal was not in keeping with the Conservation Act 1987, including protecting rivers and their margins from "inappropriate development'' and protecting trout and salmon habitat.
Mr Lee described Fish and Game as "basically a competitive body'' and he believed its title of statutory manager of sports fish should be stripped, if it was going to act in a competitive manner.
Fish and Game ran its own fish-out ponds to encourage people to go fishing and and buy licences, which was where it got funding from, he said.
"They get into these processes under the guise of statutory managers of wild fish. But they are actually protecting their own assets and it's wrong.
"In essence, they are a trade competitor. They have turned into a political body and they are protecting their own self-preservation with opposing projects like this.
"They have outgrown their mandate.
"They are supposed to foster the use of the natural resource for recreational use and tourism,'' he said.
He believed greater control was needed of the body's funding.
"They are using licence fees to combat what is good for the community and tourism and it's not right.''
When contacted, Otago Fish and Game chief executive Niall Watson rejected Mr Lee's criticism.
He said Mr Lee was welcome to "write to whoever he likes'' and raise his concerns and he was sure they would be considered on their merits.
His personal feeling was that there was "not much merit'' in the criticism.
Cameron Creek had, in the past, been an important spawning tributary.
Fish and Game was concerned the project would adversely affect the water temperature in the creek and it was also concerned the proposed stocking regime in the ponds would have adverse effects on water quality.
"I think there's a real issue there which he [Mr Lee] needs to look into and try and get to the bottom of,'' Mr Watson said.
Fish and Game also believed using a fish farming licence for a fish-out pond was a misuse of that particular mechanism, he said.
Mr Lee said Hook was aimed at families.
The activities provided would increase in age as further out from the restaurant building, where there would be a large sandpit, catering for "more challenging stuff'' for older children.
The aim was to have a relaxed atmosphere where the children could play, their parents were satisfied, and they could catch a fish.
Once a fish was caught, it could either be smoked on site or prepared through the restaurant.
The salmon would be supplied by Aoraki Salmon, as the Lees did not have the capacity to farm them from the egg or fingerling stage.
The proposed restaurant would be about 560sqm, seating 150 people.
Wrapped around in front of that would be a holding pond for fish for the main fish-out pond.
Part of the property would be sown in grass in an area which Mr Lee said would be similar to Pembroke Park in Wanaka, where "kids can tear around madly''.
Buses would be banned, as he did not want them "ruining'' the atmosphere.
Instead, a shuttle bus service would run, bringing bus passengers out in smaller groups.
He was keen to see a shuttle bus service running regularly, servicing not only Hook but also other tourist attractions in the area, given the activities on that side of Wanaka.
Mr Lee, who is also busy running earth-moving business Diverse Works, enjoyed spending time at the site.
"I just love being down here. It's such a nice area to play around. It's so sheltered. It can be blazing away on the lake and it will hardly ruffle your hair down here,'' he said.
A keen fisherman himself, he quipped that each fish he caught probably owed him more than $1000, given the amount of money he had spent on fishing licences.
Mr Lee, who grew up on a farm in North Otago, has lived in Upper Clutha for 32 years.
As a child, he spent holidays with his aunt and uncle, John and Mary Lee, at Cardrona, and it was an area where he "always wanted to be''.
