Apologies in advance - pics came in way to big but can't be arsed resizing and relinking them all again!
I had a opportunity to volunteer on a wallaby search and destroy mission in the range separating Tekapo from the Rangitata. The roos have been gradually making their way over the passes and this effort was to monitor for sign to see where they are invading from and help guide aerial control operations + take out any animals we came across.
Having only sniped wallabies in the valleys around Waimate this would be a new experience for me and the pooch who had never met a roo (and was aptly named Rue).
After driving up a river bed a few KM we split into two parties of two and flew in late afternoon. Dog was none too excited by the chopper so had my hands full keeping her calm but managed to admire several mobs of Thar running across the slopes as we flew up the valley. Before long we were whisked up to the head-valley complete with a generous amount of snow from the last storm that blew through. Dog quickly forgave the indignity of the chopper ride and spent 15 mins madly frolicking through the snow before we got down to business.
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Tracking back and forth across the the coutour we checked out the likely looking spots of thick snow grass and tussock but aside from a ton of hares and a few more startled Thar no sign of hoppers. With the sun now down and temperatures plummeting we picked a flat snowless knoll and pitched camp. Under an amazing display of stars in absolute stillness the dehy tasted bloody good would have stayed up admiring night sky if it wasn't so numbingly cold. Was thankful I bought my heavier sleeping bag but was a fitful sleep- Rue despite a couple of dog jackets and a heavy bush shirt for cover decided my sleeping bag looked much better. Nothing like a cold wet nose in the neck every hour or so.
Up in the predawn light we bundled the still icy flys into the packs and scarfed a quick breakfast before getting moving to see if we could surprise any early morning roos. Was hard going with often knee high drifts of snow concealing slippery snow grass and the odd creek. Rue was happily skittering across the frozen crust and regularly looped back to see what was taking us so long.
Found one track on the swampy creek flats that Rue managed to track few hundred meters before loosing it at a river crossing. Another headed up slope to a sunny saddle but again lost it once the snow gave way to scree. Dozens of hares seen loping around - incredible to watch them power up sheer snowy faces with no apparently effort.
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After a fruitless mornings search in the head basin we headed downstream below the snowline to the next known hot spot where roos had been shot before and the next nights campsite. Started running into more obvious sign along the creek bed and logged several areas with scat for the choppers to check out on their next pass through.
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The campsite was well nestled into a river terrace with a sheltering rocky berm, got the flys set up to dry out and gathered some wood for a campfire that night. the rest of the team joined us early afternoon after a fruitless walk down the next catchment south.
After a cuppa we headed out for the evenings stakeout on a couple of old pasture areas from the days the area was grazed that the roos seem to gravitate towards. The other team managed to down a big doe with joey at last light which was pretty satisfying after all those KM of hard yakka. Rue was very curious to see the source of the strange scents she had been following.
Camp seemed very deluxe with campfire, good company and relatively a warm night. Dog was very content to settle down and thankfully left me alone for the duration.
Day three saw us head down to the main river valley and back towards the Rangitata, after several hours and many river crossings was good to see the trucks and the hut we were staying in for the final night.
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After a quick feed we geared up for an afternoon mission up a side tributary to another known hotspot on some elevated river terraces. Again splitting up into two teams we worked the river flats with the other team on the terrace. Within 30 mins they had flushed another big doe that took off though a couple of guts before making the mistake of stopping on a distant terrace still within range of one of the 7mm08's at around 300m. Dog finally proved her worth taking us straight to it in some tall tussock.
With dusk now rapidly approaching we looped back down to the river flats and was heading for the hut when a big buck flushed ahead of us - I like to think it was the dog but probably just the sound of us coming down the track. The first two guys tried a running shot as it hopped across the slope above them which missed but they claim their wall of lead helped turn it uphill which gave me a good shot through its back. Again the dog was super pleased with herself to take us right too it. A couple of quick pics and a gps log and we were away back to the hut.
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After a comfortable nights rest we loaded up in the AM and heading back to civilisation. While not a huge amount of animals on the deck a fantastic adventure none-the-less and hopefully contributed in a small way to controlling the local roo invasion.
Dog had a great time, a few run-ins with spaniards but paws held up well. We covered around 40km in three days - she probably did double that so understandable that she spent the next day at home stretched out on her mat wagging her tail when you talked to her but not keen to do much more than that.
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