We arrange it. You fish it.

1. Who this is between

This agreement is between Reachwater, the operator of the Reachwater platform (“Reachwater”, “we”, “us”), and you, the angler booking a trip (“you”). If someone shares your trip, these terms cover them too, so pass them on.

It covers the trips on our trips pages. Asking a guide about a trip of their own has its own terms.

2. What a trip includes

A trip is a set number of days in one area, for the length you choose. It includes:

• the guided days for that length, with a local guide we arrange;
• our view on your dates, before you pay;
• a day-by-day plan for your days on your own;
• a shortlist of places to stay near the water;
• answers to your questions about the plan, until your first day; and
• a check of the water and the forecast in the week before, with any changes to your plan.

It does not include flights, accommodation, vehicles, fishing licences or permits, meals or gear, except what your confirmation says the guide’s day includes.

3. Asking for a trip

Sending a request is free and needs no deposit. It holds nothing on a guide’s calendar.

Where a trip page shows places left for a season, reserving holds one of those places for you, free, until you book the trip, tell us you don’t want it, or turn down the price we send.

4. How we find your guide

We ask the local guides who fish the trip’s water which of them are free on your dates, and choose the one who best suits what you have told us about your fishing and what you are after. We cannot promise that a guide will be free on any date. If none is, nothing is booked and nothing is charged, and we tell you.

Guides are independent businesses. They are not our employees, and how they run their day on the water is theirs to decide.

5. The confirmation

When a guide confirms, we send you a confirmation with:

• the guide’s name and what their day includes: the hours, gear, lunch and where you meet;
• the shortlist of places to stay;
• our view on your dates: where they sit in the season, and whether another week would fish better;
• the price for the trip; and
• how long the guide can hold the days while you decide.

Our view on your dates is our judgement of the season and the usual conditions. Nobody can promise fish or weather, and we don’t.

6. Price and payment

The price is one figure for the whole trip, in Australian dollars. It covers the guide’s rate for your guided days and our platform fee. You pay us, and we pay the guide.

To book, you pay the full price once, by the payment link in your confirmation. From then on the price is fixed: if the guide’s rate rises before your trip, or the New Zealand dollar moves, that is ours to carry.

Nothing is added later unless you ask for it and agree to its price first, such as asking for the best water or bringing another angler.

Where these terms refund a guided day, they refund its share of the price: the price divided by the number of guided days in your trip. On a trip with one guided day, that is the whole price.

7. Your plan

Once you have paid, we send your day-by-day plan. Until your first day, you can ask us questions about it, and we answer them. In the week before your trip, we check the water levels, the forecast and any closures or fire bans, and tell you if the plan changes. Conditions can still change after that check.

8. Bringing others

Others can join your trip on request. Tell us how many of you there are, and the price for your group is in your confirmation, before anything is paid. Your plan and shortlist cover everyone. Three or more usually means a second guide on the same water.

9. If you cancel

Tell us in writing. We count back from the first day of your trip to the day we receive it:

• 30 days or more before: we refund the full price.
• 14 to 29 days before: we refund half the price.
• Fewer than 14 days before, or if you don’t turn up: no refund, because the guide has kept those days for you.

If you would rather move than cancel, ask. If the guide can move your days, we move them at no charge, and these terms then count from your new dates. Refunds go back the way you paid.

10. Weather, water and safety

Your guide decides whether the water is safe and worth fishing, and their call on the day is final. If they call a guided day off for flood, high wind, fire danger, a closure or another safety reason, we move it to another day of your trip. If it cannot move, we refund that guided day’s share of the price.

Rain or cold on their own don’t call a day off. Days on your own are not refunded for weather; your plan names backup water for high rivers or wind, where the area has some.

Being on the water carries risk, and a guide does not remove it. Follow your guide’s directions on the day. A guide can end a day early if you put yourself or others at risk, and that day is not refunded.

11. If your guide, or we, can’t go ahead

If your guide falls ill, is injured or has an emergency, we look for another local guide for the same day. If none is free, we refund that guided day’s share of the price. If we have to cancel the whole trip, we refund the full price.

12. What you book yourself

Flights, accommodation, vehicles and fishing licences are yours to book, on their providers’ terms. If a guided day moves or is refunded, or the trip is cancelled, we can’t cover what you have paid others, so travel insurance that covers cancellation is worth having.

13. Licences and rules

You are responsible for holding the fishing licence the water needs and for following its rules: seasons, bag limits, closed waters and access. Your plan says which licence you need.

14. Your information

To find your guide, we tell the guides we ask what they need to answer: your dates, how many of you there are, and what you have told us about your fishing. The guide we book also gets your name and how to reach you, so you can meet. We do not sell your information. The privacy policy has the rest.

15. Liability

We arrange your trip with due care and skill, and if we get our part wrong, we put it right or give you a fair refund. To the extent the law allows, Reachwater is not liable for what happens on the water, for what you catch, or for the cost of bookings you make with others. Nothing in this section limits any rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law, the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act, or other laws that cannot be excluded.

16. Changes to these terms

These terms may change as Reachwater grows. The version that applies to your trip is the one published when you paid.

17. The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of the Australian state or territory in which Reachwater operates, and the courts there have jurisdiction. If you are in New Zealand, nothing here removes the protections New Zealand law gives you.

18. Talk to us

If something about your trip hasn’t gone the way it should, get in touch through the Reachwater website.