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Catch up with an old Mate
Towards the end of June me old hunting mate Rod ( Top of the South) came up for a visit and hunt with us. Rod and I started out hunting together about 50 years ago and have remained good friends ever since, hunting tends to create great friendships.
Our first hunt was down in the Sambar area where we checked cameras and did a couple of short hunts, I managed to miss another deer right on dark when we were walking back down a road to meet up with Beeman.
A couple of days later Rod, Neil (Beemans son) and I headed into the Kiamanawas for a look around, it had been about 45 years since Rod chased the little Sika.
We made good time and Neil ( being the youngest and fittest ) was in front and at about 1.30pm shot a nice 6 point sika stag of the side of the track. We gutted him and hung him up for retrieval on the way out. We reached the Tiki Tiki mid afternoon and after a quick brew went for a short afternoon hunt. Neil and I hunted down towards the footbridge while Rod did some sunny faces on the other side of the stream. A bit of fresh sign was seen but not as much as expected.
Day two and I was a bit sore in the knees so i decided it would be better to come out today rather than the next day and have to push it so we all thought the the old Te Iringa hut site would be worth a look as there was plenty of sign about up there.
We made it up to the stag Neil had shot and boned him out then carried on towards the old hut site, not far from the top under Mt Te Iringa I heard another silenced 223 shot go off and number two sika stag bits the dust, a bit bigger bodied 4 point stag this time. We hung him on the track for Neil to bone out in the morning.
Rod did a afternoon hunt and ended up seeing three deer which included two on the track on the walk back up to our camp site. I had one squealing at me on the way out even after the other boys had been through before me. She was pretty cold up at the old hut site with light snow on the ground and a cold gusty wind to keep us chilled but once in the sleeping bag we soon warmed up a bit.
The last morning had Neil going down to bone out stag number two and Rod on a search for his phone which wasn't found. I packed up and took the meat from the first stag and Headed out to carpark with the boys about an hour behind me with the other stag and their gear.
What a great trip despite a bit of pain in the legs, it was good to be out hunting with good mates.
Neil with his stags and the old Te Iringa Hut site.
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