Cattle and Dundas Ridges - Tararuas

Hi team,

I went for a bit of a recon mission up to cattle ridge hut over the weekend (unarmed). It was an awesome trip and the tops up there looked similar to my old hunting grounds in the South Island. I would definitely be keen on spending a bit more time hunting up on those tops with the provision of a similarly clear forecast.

I was just wondering how people have got on hunting the Cattle and Dundas ridges? I think on my next trip I would be keen to hunt upwards to the Dundas Ridge from Herepai hut and let my binos go to work.

Any advice/insights appreciated.

Cheers.

Havent been up there for years but it used to be a great spot up on the ridge above Dundas hut, on a fine day you can glass them from the hut.

Hunted up towards Dundas from herapai a bit. It was quite productive. That was a few years ago now though. Beautiful country up there


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spent quite a bit of time around there and roaring stag area, its been 1080d in the last couple of years,havent been in since then so not sure what its like now but good spot for numbers before then.

We pulled a couple spikers off Cattle Ridge near Waingawa last year early March. Pretty cool country aye - we saw six deer total that morning however a few of them were on open slips (on the photo shown below) however they had a pretty decent defensive moat of leatherwood (I think.. or similar bastard scrub stuff) 80 - 100m thick that would certainly get in the way of recover.

Keen on exploring more of the Tararua tops (heading out this weekend actually..). The pack came close to deleting me aye (we came in from Kiriwhakapapa campsite). I will never, ever leave my hiking poles behind again.

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Been a while but I’ve seen choppers taking a ton of animals out of there on one trip so the numbers are there/were there.

Awesome stuff Harry. She's pretty steep country up there for sure but it's good exercise. I didn't have a rifle or optics with me and it was certainly a gut buster to the top. I agree the poles are a must. What tops are you exploring this weekend?

We hiked the Jumbo circuit recently but didn't go any further in... looked like AWESOME country around there (Three kings, McGregor etc). Might try and punch up to Jumbo thurs night.. that or potentially cattle ridge but via Roaring stag entrance this time

:thumbsup:

The roaring stag entrance is pretty cruisy, just a wee tree root staircase section to warm you up early on. It a gutbuster up to cattle ridge from roaring stag though. Two hours of straight climbing with the last hour being through fairly overgrown scrub and tussock. Have fun!

As Harry Max said (great photos BTW) don't underestimate the leatherwood up in those parts. It can easily make kill retrieval impossible.

The basin below Herapai / upriver from Roaring Stag where Haukura Biv used to be and probably still is very productive for red deer. But again, stay well aware where the leatherwood is around you!

There's plenty of deer around the tops once the weather warms up.

Herapai brings back memories. Couldn't sleep a wink in a tent there for all the roaring one roar. Would have been 1975. And yes, the leatherwood makes for horrible retrieves.

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Originally Posted by Backcountry Bob

There's plenty of deer around the tops once the weather warms up.

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Yeah I think I got in a bit early. Ended up going to Kime and on to Hector/winchcombe ridge, no deer seen but awesome weather.