Driving to the melbourne airport I wasn't beaming with the enthusiasm I had envisioned at this point. "Check in is at 5 and it's five to now and we've just missed the turnoff you tell me we're not f*cked dad" I sighed heavily. I rang air new Zealand and told the bloke our situation "as long as you can get here by 5:15 it's fine otherwise you'll miss the flight" he informed us. "right" I said "we've got 20 mins to get there and have our sh*t sorted" "fat chance" my brother patrick chimed in. Buy after some unusually aggressive driving from the old man we hit the airport running and got the the check in with under 10 mins to spare; crisis averted! Or so we thought! We then got to customs with our hunting backpacks as our carryon and proceeded through. Patrick entered first "hang on this guy has a deodorant can" said one if the customs blokes, "good one dickhead" I thought of Patrick as I put my bag on the scanner. "hang on this guy has a knife" my heart sank as I looked over and saw their eyes fixed on me, it then suddenly dawned that I hadn't emptied my bag properly before chucking in what I needed on the flight. Now I look like I pretty innocent guy but I don't need to point out how it looked to customs as I'm standing here apparently trying to sneak on a knife with a 9cm blade. "sir would you like to tell me what your doing with thus knife?" asked the woman, I explained that it was an accident and I was sorry but she told me I'd have to be interrogated by federal police before I was allowed to leave. Well that just about the best news I could've imagined at this point!! After a wait they arrived and pulled me aside, after about 15 mins of questioning I think they realized that I was just a tool and not a terrorist and minus my favorite hunting knife which I gladly let them have in exchange for my freedom we were at last on our way again. After an uneventful flight we arrived in aukland at midnight where exhausted hungry and tired we ended up at the epitome of healthy eating McDonalds. Half way through eating and after having noticed a gang of thug looking characters they began approaching us in the deserted corner of the airport we'd intelligently chosen to eat in. I think the thought was running through both our minds 'two young naive blokes in a new country for the first time and we've done something wrong and are about to get our heads bashed in' I'm not sure what they were doing whether it was intimidation in which case it worked or something else but they walked to within five meters of us and just stood there staring. We dare not look up and both stared intently at our big macs, after a minute or so they retreated back to their previous hangout and as soon as they were distracted we slinked away upstairs and curled up on the couch near kfc. Needless to say I didn't get a wink of sleep but luckily we were unmolested. We headed to the domestic airport nice and early and checked in and awaited our flight. 20 mins after we expected to be called our flight number was announced over the p.a. We prematurely got excited for a brief second before the following was announced "flight NZ blah blah....to taupo has been cancelled due to engine failure" we just looked at each other and thought "can this get any worse?" after a lot of rooting around and assuring the people at the airport that we couldn't hold off until tomorrow we bargained them into a free shuttle bus ride from
Aukland to Taupo, "don't worry said the girl it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive" "well that's not bad" I thought, little did I know this wasn't geographically possible. Having no phone we had to scab some internet and eventually scrounged up our guides house phone. After calling and talking to his wife she assured us that everything would be fine. On the bus ride I met a nice bloke who turned out to be a meat hunter from taupo, after a chat and seeing some beautiful country along the way I dozed off for a 45 minute nap my first in two days. We arrived in taupo and got picked up and after a half an hour drive we made it to poronui and after a coffee and a chat our helicopter arrived and we took our first helicopter ride which allowed us some beautiful views and a good chat with the pilot despite the feeling like I was about to drop out of the sky. We finally arrived and where greeted by Brian "where the f*ck have you been?" he exclaimed with a smirk in his face. Straight away we knew this was gunna be a great trip! After a couple of practice shots from Patrick who was shooting first we headed down to a ridge looking out across manuka forest scattered with clearing patches of tussock and grass. After maybe half an hour and after seeing a couple of hinds which we were both stoked to see I looked down at a wallow Brian had pointed out earlier and couldn't believe my eyes. "dude...there's a stag!" everyone focused in on the wallow, "he's a gooden we're gunna get him!" Brian announced. He was moving out to the big clearing to feed for the night and had just moved out of sight. We made our move and skirted the ridge we were on landing ourselves on a rocky patch that enabled Patrick to set up the bipod and he readied himself where he expected it to show up. Time ticked on as the cliched minute turned into an hour. My concentration had wavered and the initial adrenaline rush from seeing the stag had been replaced by the tiredness of no sleep virtually for two days and to my embarrassment I feel asleep with the binos resting nicely between my eyes and my knees. I was awoken by Patrick exclaiming "there he is!" with the excitement of a kid Seeing Santa for the first time, the adrenaline kicked in again for all involved as Brian read off the distance "297 mate" I watched through the binos as Patrick squeezed off his shot with the bullet hitting above his shoulder about 5 inches and off he took off! Thankfully for us it was back along the valley parallel to us and it kept him within range. Bring let out a sika roar (if that's what it's called) which stopped him "320 mate" Patrick dialed it into the leupold vx-3 with bdc dial and let rip. He hit him but unfortunately it was a bit far back and he took off at a great rate of knots. *Stopping again at about 50m further he let off another and again landed it back a little too far and he took off again. Finally he stopped and Brian ranged it at 429 and Patrick lined up as I wagged unconvinced at what was about to happen and then "bang!" and bugger he dropped on the spot unintentionally spine shot, never the less he was down. I congratulated him and we headed down to see him and what a head it was, granted no monster but we've always grown up with the belief that the trophy is only a small part of a hunt and it doesn't take a world record to look good on the wall which we knew this guy would! After photos,caping and cutting off the meat we made the big trek back to the hut, and had a well earned beer while spending the rest of the night admiring the head and exchanging stories with Brian. Needless to say we slept like logs that night. The next couple of days were filled with watching a lot of reds roaring and fighting over hinds as the rut was just heating up, as well as seeing lots of sika and taking a lot of video footage. We saw only one head worthy of taking in that period and we couldn't get to him because of a river that had risen and was too dangerous to attempt. With a couple of days left I was a lot less worried than I thought I would've been having not taken a head by this stage just being happy with the experience we were having. A few mornings later we saw a head "sh*t look at that!" Patrick excitedly said. I fixed on the spot and saw this magnificent wide sika stag in full winter coat and knew straight away he was the stag I'd come to this country for. We didn't think we'd have a chance at him because of deer between us but after they moved I said to Brian "stuff it let's get him". We had to drop down the ridge we were on and climb up another and he should've been on the next one across at around 200m away. We dropped down the first one and were faced with a near vertical cliff for 20m it looked too much! But my stag *was over there and it had to be done so up I went. After gettin up a meter or so I grabbed on to a rock which gave way and sent me tumbling into the creek gun in tow. After gathering myself we eventually made it up and crept up to the ridge gasping for breath and heart pounding! this was living I tell you! We got into position and there he was oblivious to our presence. I wasn't keen on repeating the events of a couple of days previous so wanted to get the job done quick. I lined up on the stag quartering away and squeezed the trigger but instead of BANG there was the silence. The trigger was stuck and wouldn't budge, Brian was as shocked as me and grabbed the rifle to inspect it. It wasnt a great feeling going through my head at that time, traveling a this way, hunting and finding a deer only to have it as useful as a stick and knowing I was about to watch my chance walk away. Brian took apart the bolt, put it together and pulled pushed and prodded until it finally started working he handed it back and said "please shoot him" I lined up and pulled the trigger and to everyones relief he collapsed on the spot. From here on words can't explain how I felt but needless to say it was march and today I still have the smile on my face from walking up and running my hands over this magnificent animals antlers for the first time, the first time any man had ever touched him, a connection between us no-one else could ever have with him. I was sad to see him die but glad for the hunt and to this day I respect him as much as any other deer I have ever taken. Oh and the trip back home was uneventful! For pics go to Brian elwarths website and look up 2012 sika trophies theyre under jack and Patrick except out names are mixed up.*
Cheers everyone,*
Hope you enjoyed my yarn!*
Happy hunting
Jack
