George River Fiordland Period 2
George river block period 2
As covid managed to cock up so many plans for so many people the boys and myself had high hopes on our Wapiti ballot and were duly rewarded with George River block for period 2. As with any Fiordland adventure the moment we knew we were going was when the work started with obsessing over maps and equipment and negotiations with the other ballot winners to split up our hunting area.
As fly out day drew near, we knew we were in the money with the long-range forecast being 5 days of excellent weather before the eventual Fiordland downpour. 4 lads 5 packs and 4 guns flew down from whangarei to Te Anau for a brief briefing and a long chopper flight into our Block.
We had opted to split our block into 3rds with the Lower and Upper George being our parts and the other party taking McDonald creek through to Trophy Burn. Flying in from The Downs early on the 30th of March we started our slow plod up George River with 20kg plus packs on and enough food to stay up there for 10 days.
Day 1 at the chopper Pad we herd our first Roars and Bugles, but we plodded up to the first gorge passing at least another 4 or 5 stags and bulls making a racket. At the gorge we had our first navigation cock up by gaining to much height and trying to drop down a spur that turned into a cliff, what should have taken 1hr turned into 5 hours of fun and hard work with the team arriving at the first camp site fairly late and fairly broken, Fiordland 1 team 0.
Day 2 the Team packed up under blue skies and headed out with a stag going bananas across the river from us to plod up to the clearing opposite to the unnamed lake, the 2nd gorge was an easy job and we arrived at the clearing with the lead lads spotting a Cow on the riverbed and narrowly missing a look at a bull. At this point we split into two crews with Jack and Rolf headed up to swamp clearing and my brother Jarred and myself staying put to poke around.
Day 3 started with clear skies and bugles directly behind camp, up river and down river, my brother chose to chase something close and I choose to make for the catchment upstream from unnamed lake, it was easy walking (Fiordland easy) to make it up beside the river to where it flattens off before the clearing, as soon as it started to flatten off I was in good sign with wallows and rubbing galore and at-least 3 bulls going well all around me. I stalked without roaring through to the clearing that typically Fiordland like was a swampy mess with grass around the edge. Expecting to see a cow I stalked along the bush edge and was rewarded with a decent rack poking up above the swamp, as the bull was lying down in his wallow I was unable to see anything but his head gear and I had to make my full assessment on him from that, unsure exactly how massive these buggers needed to be I was on the point of letting him live until I saw a nice 4 way split on the tops on one side and decided he was coming home with me. I roared at him, and he bugled back at me until he stood up and I sat him back down with the 300WM. Upon closer inspection I had shot a 13pt bull that might just go 40x40, not a true Wapiti hunters trophy but a good start for a Northland novice. My brother heard the shot and came up and gave me a hand carrying back to camp.
Day 4 and more sunshine saw me taking a load of meat and the rack from camp 2 back to camp 1 and Jarred going further up my catchment to get a look at the other animals we had herd the day before. 4hrs down and 3 hrs back saw my load eased and Jarred found a way up to the tops.
Day 5 Jarred and I put in a big push and made the tops above unnamed lake, more sunshine and light winds made for a hot day up top with no animals seen on the tussock but lots of bulls herd down low around the lake. After a fair few hours behind the binoculars and nothing seen up top we made our way back down the way we had come and bumped into a small bull that had taken up residence where I had shot mine a couple days before. It was holding cows and hinds and was ready for a fight and made for some awesome photos and video.
Day 6 with our last day of blue skies and knowledge that it was only 4 hours with a load back to first camp I packed down all our gear while Jarred went for 1 last look for the bull behind camp. Everything dry and packed on the rocks I waited until midday when Jarred came back with a 14pt bull a bit smaller than mine but as I said before, good enough for a Northland newbie. Now overloaded we slowly plodded back to campsite 1 to await the storm.
Day 7 started with rain early morning that was light but consistent all day then through the night heavy in parts with thunder and lightning that had me shitting my pants. We were closer to the river than was comfortable, but the river stayed low enough that we didn’t have to relocate.
Day 8 was back to sunshine with the boys bugging back ahead of us giving us better info on how to navigate the 1st gorge, we made good time and were back to near the chopper early enough to have a beer by the river while the lads went for a look for the bull across from the pad. Jack took the rifle and stripped down to his undies to cross the river while all 3 of us sat drinking and roaring for him, when he was dead centre in the river the young Bull came half out onto the river bank on the other side and gave us a good lesson in bugling for a few minutes while we cursed ourselves for a lack of camera.
Day 9 we bugged out early as we had seen more animals than we could count and no one had the energy for another big walk.
Track tips-
-If the river is low stay right beside the river or walk in it, the bush can be a bastard with water courses and game trails being all mixed up
-First gorge, gain beside the water fall before the gorge and enter the bush at around the 140-160 mark, stay at the 140-160m heights all the way through the gorge (around 380m from the waterfall) and drop out of the bush down the spur
-Spurs can be an ass, lots of bluffs we found following game trails beside rivers or up random lines to be the best access, if the deer are there then there is a way, if the deer sign stops you probably should too.
