I was on the South Island for five months and one day we followed a little river to the salt trying to intercept sea-run browns. We ended up fishing the salt a bit, didn't do any good, but we saw some schools of baitfish getting driven to the surface by some sort of predatory fishes. Probably sea-run browns or Kings. I am not sure how common it is but I have to imagine that if you were able to get into a boat and get out to some of the those bait balls you would do well. Never did see any baitfish closer than 50 yds to shore, where we were, not to say that at other beaches it isn't possible to fish from shore.

 

.

 

In my 14 years of living in Dunedin on the S Island of NZ, I saw few people fly fishing for strictly marine species . Down there, substantial runs of sometimes very large sea run browns occur in estuaries on both the E and W coasts. Chinook are relatively restricted to a few river systems on the S Island. I've fished for kawahai, the so called sea trout which is not a salmonid from beaches and rocks - pound for pound, they are amazing - some spectacular sizzling runs and aerobatics. They are fairly common but travel in fast-moving schools, so better if you have a boat available. Offshore, barracouta (not my spelling mistake - a type of barracuda), tuna and mackerel and few other species are targeted with the fly. The continental shelf drops off fairly close to land, so tuna fishing, especially on the W coast is fairly inshore.The billfish sports fishery is a major one in the top half of the N Island. I'd guess that there are probably more saltwater fly fishing opportunities in the N Island, the north of which is sub-tropical. Certainly, saltwater fly fishing is much more developed in the US. That might have something to do with NZ's great wild trout fishery. Remember that it's only a 3+-hr flight to some great fishing opporunities in Vanuata, Tonga, Fiji etc.

Enjoy your time there

Graham