I posted this in a hunting forum i frequent in new zealand,thought id re-post it here cause a few of you fellow knife-nuts might be interested in something a bit different.
Life and work had been getting in the way of having fun in the last couple of years , so I thought bugger it and booked in a nice long holiday.
My wife and kids went to see their grandparents overseas for 5 weeks (timed conveniently for the start of the rut) and I went hunting and diving.
First up I headed to great barrier for 3 days on a live-aboard boat called the barrier boat for some under water hunting with 20 odd other like minded individuals.
Lots of fish smashed , and yarns spun. I would describe the boat as a floating backpackers , and would recommend the trip to anyone . Saw a lot of sharks which was a bit of a buzz as we dont see many down Wellington way.
Next up ,back home for a couple of days to pack , and off to sunny Marlborough for 6 days in nice open high country with my father brian , and backpack (geoff).
What an excellent place ,lots of animals , always something to glass or shoot at , plenty of pigs , deer and goats, even the chance of a chammy .
There was a bit of a lack of water here so you had to carry a reasonable amount as you needed to drop down a fair way to hit the creeks. And the weather was hot as hell.
We all got animals and let a fair few go too. We managed to get very close to a couple of pretty good stags one day but couldnt quite seal the deal , still exciting stuff.
I went out on my own for a short afternoon glass not far from camp , and sat till dark hoping something would show . maybe 20 minutes before you couldnt see your crosshairs , a large beast stepped out from under a small manuka bush just 150 yards right below me . I got a good rest on my pikau and shot it , it staggered on its feet and looked like it wouldnt go far , but I put another shot in it just to make sure. I didnt need to though as it barely took a step and fell. Racing down there I found that it was a pretty good 14 pointer.
It was in excellent condition ,just starting to get smelly for the roar. A very big animal with nice big backsteaks and legs.
Next up brian and backpack headed back home and I toodled off down to south westland for a weeks solo mission .
Feeling pretty fit from a week in the tops already the 5 hour walk to the hut was reduced to 4 . I had decided that I would try hunting with my full kit on my back so I could just sleep where I ended up ,which I found to be an excellent way to hunt,saving a lot of walking back down to base each night and making it much easier to stay up high for the 3 oclock onwards prime time for thar.mind you at one point after battling uphill for 2 hours through steep gnarly monkeyscrub with a full pack on,only to have mr scotts gunship open fire on the face opposite me shooting approx 40 shots , I very nearly gave up ,turned round and went home. But I carried on and came out in a very nice set of tops . after a couple of hours of glassing the predicted front started to roll in off the sea and visability started dropping and my options started to disappear fast.
I moved quickly to an area with lower tops hoping to be able to see something still.
My luck was in and coming over a rise I spotted a reasonable bull thar and got him.
After dealing with that I headed down further and managed to see a couple of chammy , and I nailed them too.by this time it was doing what the west coast is known for . pissing down. I headed down hill for the hut,making the sidecreek just on dark,so I spent a contented but wet night in my bivvy bag.next day I headed down to the car with a heavy wet pack full of skulls and back to franz joseph for a nice soak in the new hot springs there.
After that mission it was straight off to Cromwell for 2 days of drying gear and repacking for 10 days in the light river wap block.
Flying in there we were disappointed to hear from the pilot that it is very unlikely to see any wap type animals in there. I would be interested to hear from anyone else who
Has been there on their opinion.
We decided that with a crappy long range forecast we would stick with the low costal hills hoping for quantity of animals rather than quality . the first five days we didnt have a lot of roaring happening , possibly because of the full moon , and the fact that the reds roar later than the waps? We had a few dramas with our camp being flooded out once , ruining our mountain radio, and also our outboard motor broke down , limiting our access a lot . my mate ,who had taken his young son into the block with us went up the sound one day ,to sneak up on a deer that had been roaring overnight only to hear a boom when he got close to it , and find the %$#@ from the block opposite us had got his mate to drop him off across the sound and poach our block !
We managed to see a lot of deer in the end , with one group including a hind,spiker,yearling and a fawn , which I thought was pretty odd for this time of year.
A lot of the deer acted like they hadnt seen people before which was pretty good to see. On the last few days I had some success with roaring stags in on me , including 3 before 10 oclock one morning! Exciting stuff. A couple came in so quickly that they trotted straight passed me before I could swing the rifle , and they winded me then spooked. On the flight out we had the best weather of the trip ,and saw the fiordland mountains at there best.
Now I have to work flat out to pay for the time off.it was well worth it though.
Life and work had been getting in the way of having fun in the last couple of years , so I thought bugger it and booked in a nice long holiday.
My wife and kids went to see their grandparents overseas for 5 weeks (timed conveniently for the start of the rut) and I went hunting and diving.
First up I headed to great barrier for 3 days on a live-aboard boat called the barrier boat for some under water hunting with 20 odd other like minded individuals.
Lots of fish smashed , and yarns spun. I would describe the boat as a floating backpackers , and would recommend the trip to anyone . Saw a lot of sharks which was a bit of a buzz as we dont see many down Wellington way.
Next up ,back home for a couple of days to pack , and off to sunny Marlborough for 6 days in nice open high country with my father brian , and backpack (geoff).
What an excellent place ,lots of animals , always something to glass or shoot at , plenty of pigs , deer and goats, even the chance of a chammy .
There was a bit of a lack of water here so you had to carry a reasonable amount as you needed to drop down a fair way to hit the creeks. And the weather was hot as hell.
We all got animals and let a fair few go too. We managed to get very close to a couple of pretty good stags one day but couldnt quite seal the deal , still exciting stuff.
I went out on my own for a short afternoon glass not far from camp , and sat till dark hoping something would show . maybe 20 minutes before you couldnt see your crosshairs , a large beast stepped out from under a small manuka bush just 150 yards right below me . I got a good rest on my pikau and shot it , it staggered on its feet and looked like it wouldnt go far , but I put another shot in it just to make sure. I didnt need to though as it barely took a step and fell. Racing down there I found that it was a pretty good 14 pointer.
It was in excellent condition ,just starting to get smelly for the roar. A very big animal with nice big backsteaks and legs.
Next up brian and backpack headed back home and I toodled off down to south westland for a weeks solo mission .
Feeling pretty fit from a week in the tops already the 5 hour walk to the hut was reduced to 4 . I had decided that I would try hunting with my full kit on my back so I could just sleep where I ended up ,which I found to be an excellent way to hunt,saving a lot of walking back down to base each night and making it much easier to stay up high for the 3 oclock onwards prime time for thar.mind you at one point after battling uphill for 2 hours through steep gnarly monkeyscrub with a full pack on,only to have mr scotts gunship open fire on the face opposite me shooting approx 40 shots , I very nearly gave up ,turned round and went home. But I carried on and came out in a very nice set of tops . after a couple of hours of glassing the predicted front started to roll in off the sea and visability started dropping and my options started to disappear fast.
I moved quickly to an area with lower tops hoping to be able to see something still.
My luck was in and coming over a rise I spotted a reasonable bull thar and got him.
After dealing with that I headed down further and managed to see a couple of chammy , and I nailed them too.by this time it was doing what the west coast is known for . pissing down. I headed down hill for the hut,making the sidecreek just on dark,so I spent a contented but wet night in my bivvy bag.next day I headed down to the car with a heavy wet pack full of skulls and back to franz joseph for a nice soak in the new hot springs there.
After that mission it was straight off to Cromwell for 2 days of drying gear and repacking for 10 days in the light river wap block.
Flying in there we were disappointed to hear from the pilot that it is very unlikely to see any wap type animals in there. I would be interested to hear from anyone else who
Has been there on their opinion.
We decided that with a crappy long range forecast we would stick with the low costal hills hoping for quantity of animals rather than quality . the first five days we didnt have a lot of roaring happening , possibly because of the full moon , and the fact that the reds roar later than the waps? We had a few dramas with our camp being flooded out once , ruining our mountain radio, and also our outboard motor broke down , limiting our access a lot . my mate ,who had taken his young son into the block with us went up the sound one day ,to sneak up on a deer that had been roaring overnight only to hear a boom when he got close to it , and find the %$#@ from the block opposite us had got his mate to drop him off across the sound and poach our block !
We managed to see a lot of deer in the end , with one group including a hind,spiker,yearling and a fawn , which I thought was pretty odd for this time of year.
A lot of the deer acted like they hadnt seen people before which was pretty good to see. On the last few days I had some success with roaring stags in on me , including 3 before 10 oclock one morning! Exciting stuff. A couple came in so quickly that they trotted straight passed me before I could swing the rifle , and they winded me then spooked. On the flight out we had the best weather of the trip ,and saw the fiordland mountains at there best.
Now I have to work flat out to pay for the time off.it was well worth it though.
