Thread: Getting Out of The Comfort Zone

After too many years of creamy farm hunting, I thought it was time to get back into some public land stuff and challenge myself more. It’d been years since my dad and I used to spend our weekends up in the public land round the Ruahines and Hihitahi up Taihape way.

My cousin had been part of the local tramping club for a while and always had tales of the many deer he saw on his walks. He’d started taking a rifle on his solo walks due to the number of animals he was seeing. It was funny listening about the first time he shot a full bodied stag and the realisation that hit him upon seeing the mountain of meat that was before him and the distance back to the car.

We decided to go check out an area none of us had been to on the western side. After a 5am pick up and an hour drive north we arrived. Luckily for us we could save an hour and a half of boring farm easement walking because a mate owned the property next door. A ten minute quad bike ride had us at the bottom of the range, ready for a grunt to the top up the polled route before dropping down into the forest park entry.


Top of the lower range looking west before dropping down into the bush access point.


The first deer were seen on a big slip as we were descending down the steep track through the beech trees to first hut. A hind and yearling feeding out in the sun mid morning. Without knowing the area and not knowing if we could even get to them due the minimal view through the gap in the beech canopy plus the voices we could hear below at the hut, they were safe. As it turned out, anything shot would’ve rolled below into the river bed north of the hut.



It was a quick stop at the hut for a brew and a snack then we were off on our way downstream to the next hut with preconceived ideas of multiple trout in every pool we would come to. How wrong we were. The cyclone had really done a number on the trout population and we didn’t even bump a single trout along the way. I’m no fisherman, but have never had a problem spotting trout in a river previously. Who knows, maybe I was looking in the wrong places.



Half way along to the next hut, we bumped into a hind and yearling on the side of the river having a drink, both of us had rifles strapped to our packs due the depth of the river in places and the need for a spare hand and a waking pole in the other. We watched as they took a couple steps and disappeared back into the canopy. Cool to see when they’re only 20 yards away, bright red summer coats shining in the sun.
After a couple hours we were at the next hut, in hind sight I’d save the river walk for first light or last light next time as we walked past some very nice slips and clearings along the way.
The sun was humming at this stage so we opened up all the windows and door in the hut and had a mid afternoon snooze while we listened to the rat in the roof space scratching round, they must like the heat because it must’ve been well over 40 degrees in the cavity with it being in full
sun.


Not long after waking up, a fisherman showed up. He’d walked up from the Rangitikei, he’d seen very few fish and confirmed that the cyclone had really done a number on the fish stocks, seeing only 10 - 20 percent of the fish he’d normally see.

Once the heat of the sun had eased, we headed along the river to check out some of the slips and a side creek before dark. We saw one young velvet stag up the top of a steep slip at 500 yards, with the light fading we decided to leave him as to get up to him meant going round a steep set of bluffs if he got hung up and didn’t roll to the bottom.
We called it a night and headed back to the hut after a long day.
The morning brought another cracker day and we were up early for a reasonably long haul out, albeit with slightly lighter packs after a few luxuries had been consumed.
We decided to have a poke around up in the country above the hut before making our way out. The contours looked good and a trappers track made it easy going.

We’d just broken through into the beech level when we both got the whiff of deer in the breeze. I snuck a round into the chamber and sure enough, within a couple seconds a yearling hind walked into view at 15 yards round the end of a small spur. No mucking around, I put a round straight into the shoulder and down she went.



We boned her out and hung the muscles in nearby trees to cool while we had a bite to eat before making the journey out and up to the top of the range before dropping back down to the farm boundary.

Definitely a spot we’ll head back to in the future with a bit more learnt about the area and good to push the body and get out of the comfort zone. Shame about the trout, and I’ve heard the Tuki didn’t fair too well either on the other side.