They are intending to get all Europeans back home within the next 2 weeks.
Thanks for your kind words, everybody :)
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Day 23
In the morning it was snowing. I packed up camp and hiked out.
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Then I headed into another valley that seemed better for deer. Heaps of canada geese in there.
Set up camp and spent the last hour of daylight glassing.
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Spotted 2 spikers, 1 hind and 1 fawn.
Day 24
Woke up to a chilly morning. Frozen boots.
Climbed to a saddle and glassed.
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While doing so I recieved a message on my Garmin Inreach: my flight back home had been cancelled. This meant I would have to hike out early to book a new flight.
Finally I spotted a deer that moved into one of the highest basins way off in the distance. A pretty decent stag! I had too little food and water with me to make that hike now. So I returned to camp and got what I needed. Then I hiked up the backside of the basin.
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It was 3 pm when I reached the ridge and peeked into the basin. No animals were to be seen.
I continued along the ridge and finally spotted a deer. A spiker. But next to him there was another one. The stag. Both were bedded in the tussock. It was 330m but there was such a strong wind up here that I didn't feel comfortable to shoot. So I moved around the basin behind the ridge. That took me 45 minutes but finally I cut the distance to 160m. The stag was still bedded and all I could see was his head. Suddenly he got up and looked straight at me. After the shot he ran off some 30m and stopped. Seemed like he would drop any moment but I put another bullet in him just to be sure.
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View back towards chamois country
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Got back to camp in the night.
Day 25
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Stayed around camp in the morning. Hiked out in the afternoon and got back to the car before dark.
Headed south. Halfway to Christchurch I slept in the car for a few hours.
Day 26
Went to the airport in the morning. It actually took me 7 hours to book a new flight back home.
Then I continued south as I had a few days left. When driving through Fairlie I found a nice motel and stayed there for the night.
Made my day- a great write up and well deserved success. Geez , I recognise some of the country that you are covering and I can't wait for lockdown to end... hopefully the 23rd of ....April!
You have definitely made the most of your visit to NZ. Several of your photos have shown areas I know, from a fantastic perspective. Thanks again for sharing your trip with us.
Nice stag AT,you are a fit bugger allrigth.Iv hunted around there a bit,theres are few deer around,if you spend the time.:thumbsup:
Day 27
In the afternoon I was at the car park, intending to head into North Opuha. It was raining but the weather forecast predicted the rain to stop soon so I waited.
Studied the intentions book for a while. Wasn't very encouraging as many (most?) hunters hadn't seen any animals.
Then 4 hunters arrived at the car park and headed in so the hut was already full.
The rain did not stop and fog rolled in. I didn't want to get soaking wet without having a hut to dry and without having a chance to see animals in the fog anyway. So I decided to sleep in the car.
Day 28
Got up early and hiked in in fine weather. Reached public land at daylight. Even before reaching the hut I sat down to glass.
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At first I spotted the other hunters that were heading for the eastern portion of the block.
Then I spotted a tahr in the highest basin, some 3 km away. One tahr? I counted more and more every minute. Finally I counted 30 tahr and all of them seemed like bulls.
Also spotted 2 or 3 red deer but they were hinds.
Moved on a bit and kept an eye on the tahr, hoping they wouldn't cross the ridge and enter private land. Also kept an eye on the other hunters. 2 of them had climbed the eastern part of the ridge and it seemed well possible that they were heading towards the tahr now. In that case I was going to head elsewhere.
But the hunters moved on to the east. And the tahr bedded.
So I crossed the valley floor, dropped my camp and headed up the mountain.
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Was pretty tough in the high tussock. But at 1:30 pm I finally got within range and set up for the shot.
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Picked which seemed like the most mature bull (longest mane, biggest body). 324m. Dialled up 3 MOA and let the bullet fly. The tahr dropped after a few meters. Was only 4.5 years old, though. But it had been a great hunt which was way more important.
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The other tahr were still there and stayed around for hours. They hardly cared about my presence. Pretty crazy behaviour. I guess that these tahr usually live on private land and that it was pure luck that I found them on public land.
Would have been easy to shoot some more but I only did with the camera.
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When heading down the mountain later in the day there was another tahr at 50 m. Bigger than the one I had shot. Watched him for quite a while and let him walk.
I also had a spiker and a decent 6-point stag at 300m. At first I was unsure whether to shoot or not. When I finally decided to shoot the stag disappeared in the creek bed. Then fog rolled in. Later I actually bumped into both deer twice but in the fog I noticed them too late.
Reached the valley floor in the evening. A wallaby hopped off at 5m without giving me a chance. A bit later 2 more wallabies hopped off. One disappeared in the bush. The other one tried to hide some 20m away but its ears remained visible. I climbed a rock. That way the head and neck were visible and which gave me the unexpected opportunity to harvest another species.
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Day 29
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Didn't do much as I had shot more than enough anyway.
Headed out in the evening.
After having reached the car I learnt that my new flight had been cancelled, too.
Spent the night in the car.
Day 30
When I dropped off the trophies in Pleasant Point the taxidermist was the first to tell me about the shutdown. I had 1.5 days left.
Headed to Christchurch but no way to get a flight.
Ok, then I'm going to self-isolate in the backcountry and spend the time hunting. No safer place for sure. That was my first thought.
After some online research I found out that backcountry activities are prohibited for very understandable reasons.
Day 31
Went back to the Fairlie motel as I hoped that time would pass easier in the countryside.
Day 32
The day that my flight had been scheduled for. Instead it was the first day of the shutdown. Not the best timing for sure.
Now it's day 39 and I'm still here in Fairlie. Definately a nice place to be under the current circumstances.
Thank you, New Zealand, for allowing me to experience this awesome adventure! I hope life in this beautiful country will be back to normal soon.
Mate I think you have made more of this opportunity than any other foreign hunter that has visited this forum. Bloody good on you.
Good hunting AT,nice valleys in there.HC and I walked in there one morning,sat down on the porch of that little hut having a coffee.Well 10 minuts later,about 10 big stags stood up in the dry riverbed bush about 200yds way.Well lessons learnt here,allways have yr rifle at yr side,not 6yds away.Thoses big stags just trooted up into the fog which was near the valley floor.We were both loss for words at what we just seen.Enjoy your trophys when you get home.
Well have a good trip home mate,we all enjoyed your hunting storys.
I second that [emoji106]
@hunterAT your contributions are much appreciated [emoji41]
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Thanks for a great story, lots of "messages" there to for those who moan about not seeing any game!!
man you surely have made the most of your time here.....AWESOME writeup.... thankyou again for sharing it with us all.
Great read, thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Loved the photo's also, glad you enjoyed our piece of paradise at the bottom of the world and respected it.
Great write up
I sincerely hope you can get home speedily and stay safe when you get there.
All your kind words are much appreciated, thanks! :)
This trip exceeded my expectations in so many ways.
What an awesome trip report.
Man you covered some ground and got some nice animals.
Well done.
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Your photography is as sharp as your hunting skills, well done you.
You did some huge days there HunterAT, I'm impressed.
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?
I have always wanted to do something similar and this lock down shit has just confirmed in my mind that there is no point in waiting for "later"
I'm 26.
Just do it:thumbsup:
Did you get home alright mate?
Thanks for your great post
Yes, thankfully I was able to catch Austria's repatriation flight. Anyhow I am already looking forward to return to NZ one day.:)
Tomorrow is the last day of my home quarantine. Will do some scouting on Saturday. Currently we are a little luckier than you... there's no ban on hunting anymore and deer hunting season will start in 3 weeks.
Good to hear you got back home ok. Great timing for your hunting season over there!
Glad to hear you got home ok hunterAT. It was great following your trip and seeing photos,brought back some good memories of my own time spent in some of thos areas. Oh to be 26 again, not 58. Good luck in the future.
Finally got the trophies...:)
A great addition to the invaluable experiences I've had in your beautiful country.
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That is a cool display, there are some great memories sitting right there.
Just out of interest who did your euro mounts?
O'Rourke in Pleasant Point did them.
Great to hear you got back home safely we are in a crazy time with the covid thing at the moment. Your trophies look great, well deserved for the time and effort you put in.
Nice trophys there and lots of deserved memorys you will never forget.
Thank you very much for shearing with us . Please stay safe so you can come back for round two , may be West Coast next time ? .
Your story was both epic and very well told, but made me sick to the core with guilt and regret. Regret that despite living here with what you experienced on my doorstep as it were, I have never taken an extended hunting trip / domestic safari myself. Thankyou for showing the way