Greenstone Winter Hunting Trip
Well this started about a year ago when a mate asked me about what other places we could look to go hunt, and the Greenstone came up in conversation, my late father & his mates used to hunt it back in the 70/80's & Dad took me in there once when I was 10, I think we stayed at Slip flat & I remember he left me at the hut while he went out for a evening hunt & got a fallow, the next morning he took an excited kid out for a hunt enforce walking back out.
It's been a place I've wanted to return to so we put a ballot application in & got one for July 2017.
Back in March a week before I was due to go away Roar hunting for two weeks I had a nasty mountain bike accident that left me with a dislocated elbow & a double fractured arm to boot Cry I was super pissed & 3 months later I got back to work, the elbow is still only about 90% but I was as excited as a dog with two tails about going on this trip with two good mates.
Being mid winter we decided to chopper in so we could take some proper food, a few treats & some coal (Thanks to our good wives for making a couple of nice frozen stews to take)
The usual pre-trip planning was done, maps poured over, lists drawn up, Google earth studied, etc.
The last week before seemed to draw out but finally the day arrived, Luke & I left Chch at 7am to drive to Queenstown where we were picking our other mate up as he was flying in from Auckland, the temp gauge in the truck said 3deg when we left & the highest it read for the drive down & back was 5deg! -3deg passing through the Mckenzie country but it was a beautiful clear sunny day as we drove south, a coffee in Geraldine & lunch at the Tarras Country Cafe.
We picked Garth up at the airport & headed for Glenorchy, arriving at the chopper HQ for a 4pm flight into our block, now the nice lady in the office had originally sent me a price list for a Hughes 520notar & Squirrel, I'd booked the Notar but she had failed to mention that they didn't actually own it anymore! Roll Eyes and now had a EC120 which doesn't have a pod.... Now we didn't have a huge amount of gear but it was a bit bulky, pack, day pack & rifle each, chilly bin, gas cooker & bottle, box of tucker, & 2 bags coal.
Anyways off to the pad we go, and after a chat with the pilot he Bungs us in the Squirrel & off we go, 10min later we have seen 10deer on the way in & are standing in a very frosty valley Cool
Cart the gear up to the hut & it's a feed of sausages, spuds, carrots & broccoli for dinner.
The next morning Garth heads up valley for a bush hunt up high & we head up the Passburn, we stick to the cold frozen side glassing across to the other side, at 9:30 the sun hit the bush edge & I spot our first deer of the the trip, a doe feeding on the edge. Just after midday we are perched in a nice spot getting some lunch out when Luke sees something, we both get the bino's on it to see a very nice buck that has just walked out of the bush, he doesn't hang around & disappears back into the forest. 5min later we are munching away when Luke goes, "shit there's two deer down below us"
I don't know how we hadn't seen them earlier but there was a young buck & doe feeding below us out in the open, lunch is put on hold & we manage to get to a decent spot to shoot from, I range them at 200yds & as Luke has never shot a fallow I tell him to set up on the buck, there's a bit of cross wind so I tell him to allow a couple of inchs for that & he smacks the buck in the shoulder, it stumbles about 10m before expiring. My mate is wrapt, a few photos & we bone him out for the long carry back to the hut, arriving just on dark.
Garth had a fruitless day bush hunting, no deer up where he thought they would be but did see a mob of 6 out feeding on the neighbours block.
Next day we all head off to spot X, it's overcast with a cold wind. By early afternoon we have to retreat from glassing to crank the jetboil up for a hot brew as we were all shivering, back to glassing & finally we spot 2 does & a yearling feeding, then I pick up another two down low & then bingo we spot a good buck out feeding above the bush line up in the scrub on the other side of the valley, off we go & I put a good stalk in while the boys hung back but for the life of me I can't find him Undecided I did bump a doe in the tussock, I think he may have sat down in the scrub somewhere? Anyway As we start making our way back down Luke spots a spiker below us watching us, I crouch down & get a quick rest over my daypack and bang him at 160yds through the lungs. By the time we cut him up its nearly dark & its 2.5hrs back to the hut in the dark, where a red wine & a nice stew finish the day off nicely, we are asleep by 9pm.
The next day was fine, only three deer seen including another buck which is earmarked for the following day. We manage to listen to the test match on my old transitor radio.
The last full day of hunting sees us all heading our seperate ways, I go bush hunting to a spot I'd been eyeing up, there's plenty of sign about & I hear one crash off that winded me out to the side & late morning I put up a doe under 20m who must have seen me a sec before I saw her Grin
I had a very enjoyable day stalking around some great open bush, the highlight being when a Kea swooped down & landed beside me, first time I've ever seen one in the bush.
The next morning we had a sleep in, bacon & eggs, a few brews, tidied up the hut, carted the gear down to the pick up point, the kero taxi was an hour late & we were just starting to get a bit grumpy as it was farking cold where we were waiting, awesome trip & it was great to be back out hunting.
Here's a bit of a slide show of a few photo's, not the best quality but gives you an idea
https://youtu.be/Fs0w6p05hAc
