5 Attachment(s)
Best laid plans & a milestone
I'd been poring over maps and found a potential spot, not too far from Nelson, that we can drive then mountain bike into (me towing the lad up the hills behind an e-bike to make it all quicker and easier). Then we just needed to wait for the weekend weather and sickness to play along. (we had Influenza A through the house despite all being vaccinated - I was in bed/on the couch for 10 days and it's taken over a week after that to recover!)
Plan A for the weekend just gone was to head into the spot on Saturday afternoon, have a poke around then fly camp out there for the night. Next morning we'd give it a serious nudge before the afternoon sea breeze comes up and blows our scent up into the valley we'd be hunting.
On Friday the lad came home from three days of school camp pretty tired, so we scratched Plan A.
Plan B was to head in to the spot early on Sunday morning to get plenty of sneaking done before the wind came up. Then the lad's best mate invited him for a birthday sleepover, so that was the end of Plan B.
Plan C was to pick the lad up from the sleepover when they resurfaced, and see if he was up to a hunt after that.
After a dead calm morning we ended up on the bikes and riding in around 11ish, just as the wind started to pick up.... Oh well.
E-biking in worked well, and we were soon at the bottom of a steep sided, native bush clad valley, with a deeply cut eroded stream flowing in the bottom of it. The topo map showed some slips on the sides of the valley further up that looked like they could be promising.
Attachment 286848
At the start of the valley
After a snack and a drink we started working our way up the stream. The sides were pretty steep, and the bush above that too thick to see into.
Attachment 286845
Further up the stream
Eventually we got to the first slip on the true right, and a waterfall that was going to be a mission to get up.
We checked the slip out, but it was a solid head-high Onga Onga jungle, so that was a no-go.
Attachment 286846
Surveying the Ong jungle
We started clambering (as quietly as we could) up the side of the valley, beside the slip, and began seeing quite a bit of fresh sign.
After about 20 minutes the lad hauled himself up onto the bottom of the trunk of a tree that stuck horizontally out of the ground, and as I was pulling myself up, the lad realised that a log he'd been looking at off to his left had turned to look back at him!
Frantic whispering of "There's deer, there's a deer, there's a deer" ensued, along with hyperventilating and shaking. The lad was frothing! It was the first deer he's seen in the wild while we are hunting.
With a couple of trees in the way I couldn't see the deer, and although he could see it clearly about 20-30m away, it was head on to him, and with a bunch vines and a couple of pungas in the way the lad didn't have a clear shot. Even if he did have a clear shot there was nothing for him to rest the rifle on, and the state he was in he didn't have a hope of holding the rifle steady freehand.
A hilarious stand off ensued. The lad was in clear view of the deer, and it knew he was there but obviously couldn't smell him. After about 5 mins the deer must have got a whiff of us, and turned and melted into the bush with a little warning bark as a goodbye.
We carried on up the valley side, but the wind was blowing up the hill and swinging from side to side now, so our chances were pretty slim from then on. We cut across to the slip near it's head and checked it out, but nothing there. We contoured back down valley a bit, and saw huge amounts of sign, droppings, hair, plenty of deer beds, etc. which was encouraging.
Attachment 286847
Glassing down the slip sides
Then we dropped slowly (and as quietly as we could while fighting to stay on our feet) back down towards the stream. The sign petered out as we got lower and we ended up above where we left the bikes, but with a big drop into the stream. 20 mins of bush bashing back up the valley to the slip again and we could drop into the stream and head down to the bikes.
Attachment 286844
Sneaking and peeking
On the way out we scoped another area with a couple of flatter bottomed stream valleys. Again a lot of Onga in the open areas made things tricky, but we did see bit of pig sign in there.
All up it was a great afternoon, and me and the lad are pretty broken this morning (I'm glad I only have to work from home, not go to school!)
It's the lads birthday next week, and I getting him a used Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel. He doesn't know yet. I'm not going to complain about having a shorter, lighter rifle to struggle through the bush with!
We're already making plans for the next mission.....
