This was a bit of last minute trip with my good mate Pete, into some country we've often looked at but never hunted. Left home at 3am Friday morning destined for the lakes region, and by 730am we were waiting for enough light to start glassing.
We spent a couple of days glassing from one area, a fantastic vantage point. However animal numbers were fairly low (we'd spoken to local operators and they were honest in saying they had done a fair bit of waro thru the area since xmas). We only saw a handful of deer spread over a huge area. We also saw a few chamois, including one very nice buck who came out on the first evening about 3km up the valley. Too far for a stalk.
The only maturing stag we saw was a lovely young 8 pointer, who given a few years may be something nice. He came out and found a hind feeding on his patch, it was really interesting watch them interact.
It was bloody hot, so during the day we'd curl up under tussocks and have a good old sleep! (Something I am learning to cherish as a young Dad)
On the last day we bailed off the top of the ridge we'd perched ourselves on and wandered on down the river. It was amazingly good getting into the shade of the beech forest, and we made good time through a couple of rough gorges. Bumped into a couple of deer on the way out which was cool.
We were due to be picked up by helicopter in the main valley about 530, and timed it just right, only having to wait about half an hour before another stunning flight back to our vehicle. Can't beat our back country.
The highlight of the trip for me was seeing my first ever wild NZ Rock wren / tuke - we actually saw four!
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Cheers,
JoshC
