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6 Months in the middle (photo heavy)
I moved down to Central Otago (Cromwell) in early Feb following an opportunity with the company I’d been working for in Christchurch. The first port of call was to find a few spots to go looking for game and fish. The goal was set to secure a representative otago red and fallow while also hoping to connect with a decent chamois or tahr. (I don’t ask for much do I!!) First up I headed up the Ahuriri and found a few animals but they were very patchy in the area I was, it was still a great introduction to the real open country hunting down here over the following months I hunted areas from the Eyre mountains right up to Paringa with pretty patchy success. Infact just finding animals seemed to be tricky, let alone getting the drop on them. I’m a firm believer that you make your own luck though, time in the hills is all it takes.
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Eventually that mindset paid off and in some Public land close (ish) to home I found some good numbers of reds out in the open country. At this point I didn’t have a freezer so I picked up the camera and clicked away, It was quite interesting watching the way that deer behave when there is zero trees or scrub around. I spooked a wee family group and the way they used the folds in the land to hide was a real eye opener. I quickly realized that changing angles while glassing was the name of the game.
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Then the roar rolled around and the areas I had been visiting were getting pretty crowded so with the waiho bridge washed out on the coast I gamble on the idea that less people would be inclined to drive the long way around to hunt the open blocks. So I turned up at an unknown block in south westland and had a great time in the west coast jungle pitting my skills against those crafty bush stags. Eventually managing to seal the deal on a young malformed stag after 5 hours of sneaking around after him. He may not of been the representative otago red I was after but man it was a lot of fun chasing him and he’s a stag I hold highly.
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A few more fruitless hunts in river valleys around the Haast pass followed but it’s bloody great country to walk around in, even if you’re just bird watching. Then last weekend I decided to head up Timaru river to try find a yearling for the table. It was quite neat to see all the spawning rainbows still doing there thing on the walk in. Birdlife seemed pretty good in the area and there was enough fresh deer sign to keep you interested. I picked up a few deer sunning themselves in the early morning light before spotting a decent looking bull Tahr exactly where I didn’t expect to see one. Having only ever dropped the hammer on one bull before I snuck in close with the wee bush pig 308 and had one last look before deciding he look good. At 11 ½” he’s no big fulla but he’s my best Tahr to date so I was stoked.
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Been a lot of fun to date exploring some of what the area has to offer, it surely is an outdoorsman’s paradise and I’m sure I haven’t seen the best of it yet.
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