Roar trip 2014

After being surrounded by hunters last year during the roar, Reuben and I headed to somewhere different in the Waioeka district on Thursday. Bloody hell - five vehicles in the carpark. Oh well, there are two ways of going into the area, and hopefully the bloody BIG hill will stop most of them from going the way we were heading. After only stopping once on the climb (once every 50 metres!) with packs loaded with tent etc, we finally reached a spot to camp. Camp up, and away for a look-see down the creek bed (which had dried up). I chose to only take a video with me this roar, so Reuben was in front with my rifle. Just downstream, and I spot a hind which walked out into the open. Hissing to Reuben had him looking around, but a big ponga meant he couldn't see it, and useless me had just put the camera away. After the hind looked around for a bit, she wandered off and was not seen again. Oh well, Dehyd food for dinner.
Late that night a stag started bellowing, and was getting closer. We were camped on a little river benched area, and the stag roared and chased hinds around the river bed not 20 metres from the tent. We discussed jumping out with the torch, ( I had my P7 torch) but we were on DOC land, and spotlighting is illegal. Bloody tempting though, as stones were scattered and twigs breaking so close to us. The stag wandered off then came back later in the night, and carried on all night. About an hour before daylight he buggered off down river and shut up. I had a spot I wanted to find ( off google earth), so we headed up, and up, and up. Found the spot, which was cool, except someone had beaten us to it by a day or so. Bugger. The wallow had been well used, but not a peep. Except by last nights stag (we assume) who opened up on the opposite side of the valley. He roared all day, but by the time we got back down, it was too late to have a go at him.
We had a go at enticing him down, and he seemed to be on his way, when a low moan close by, had me convinced another hunter was in the immediate area. We shut up and went back to camp. In the middle of the night, a couple of guys wandered through, and we had a brief chat. They were headed for the hut. Next day (Sat) was go home day, so we picked another area and put in a solid morning. Not a peep, except for a human roar on a distant ridge. We heard a couple of "booms" fairly close by, and on the way out ran into another hunter heading in, whose mate had shot a stag on his way out. We later found the carcase on the edge of the farm (technically poached). Interestingly, it had a club foot. Apparently there were now 13 vehicles in the carpark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So back home, with a stop at Ohiwa for a feed of oysters and chips. Not a shot fired, but I got 30 minutes of film, and had a good blowout, plus a bit of quality time with my son. Legs are sore but life is good!!