Just back from my annual winter Stewart Island trip
Last week I returned from our annual winter trip down to the Island. Once again we used the excellent services of Stewart Island Air and flew by fixed wing down to Doughboy Bay. We had booked the block for 7-8 days, but chose to go down on the 4-5 best weather days. Unfortunately it was a week of rain showers and fairly cold so we caught the crappy weather anyway. Scott and I made the winter trip down to Cavalier last year, this year Glen joined us and it was to be his first trip to island.
Doughboy Bay
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We left Invercargill airport at 1:30 and were on the beach at Doughboy Bay about 40mins later. It was probably the bumpiest plane ride I've experienced, but was good fun. Landing down there on the beach is always pretty neat. We quickly unloaded from the plane and got set up at the hut. There was a fair bit of junk and rubbish left at the hut, bottles, batteries, gas canisters etc. We cleaned them all up and flew that out with us.
I'd visited this spot 2 times previously, but had walked in both times. The last time was 10 years ago! Although not much had changed except for the hut being tidied up a bit.
The DOC hut at Doughboy Bay
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Its a standard 8 bunk hut, with potbelly and stainless bench. A few plates and pots/pans are there too. There is running water from a tank outside, rain water which is safe to drink. There is also a long drop dunny which was fairly clean and not too stinky!
In side the hut (taken just before we left!)
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Once sorted at the hut we went hunting. Scott headed bush straight away, and I took Glen for a look around some of the dunes at the southern end of the beach. I love hunting beaches and dunes, deer sign is easy to see and it really starts you off on a positive note seeing marks thru the dunes. We found a fair bit of sign that hadn't had rain on it and given we only had an hour or so left of light set up in some cover to wait in anticipation.
Glen glassing some dunes and bush edges
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None of us saw any deer that evening, but returned to the hut for a beer and a yarn. The next day we were up early and all split up in different directions to hunt for the day. It rained on and off all morning and Glen and I both returned to the hut soaked to the skin, having spent a few hours looking for decent bush to hunt.
Glen had got into some decent bush and in doing so saw two deer. He also saw kiwis and plenty of birds. He was rapt. I on the other hand had spent a few hours pushing thru tight scrub and clambering over broken and fallen manuka. All I'd seen was a kiwi and found a nice waterfall! Needless to say we avoided that area for the rest of the trip.
A roaring fire soon had the steam rising off the clothes and warmed our spirits;
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That evening Glen and I again travelled to the other end of the beach and set up in cover, watching some really nice country that had a bit of sign about. An hour before dark we spotted Scott trekking back along the beach with a deer on his back so were looking forward to a yarn and a beer that night too!
Nice swampy dunes at the south end of the beach offer a nice spot to sit and wait;
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Wandering back to the hut in the dark with my headlight, I dealt to a few possums that were hanging about in the dunes with my 223. Back at the hut that night we enjoyed listening to Scott replay his days hunting. He'd found some really nice bush so spent the entire day crossing back and forwards through it with the wind, working his way slowly inland.
He found plenty of sign and soon worked out the country the deer were hiding in. While sitting eating lunch a movement across a gully caught his eye, it turned out to be a big black cat...so he shot it.
Literally minutes after shooting the cat, and only a hundred yards away he was again stalking thru the bush when he spotted movement below him. Stopping and waiting quietly, a deer soon materialised as it mooched up towards him thru the crown fern. Its head was hidden by the fern as it moved along sniffing the ground, but Scott could tell by its body size he was looking at a buck.
Without hesitating, he closed the bolt on his 243 and had dropped the buck into the fern...and just like that he'd shot his first whitetail, his first in a few years of trying.
He excitedly made his way down into the gully and found the buck lying in a heap. With huge anticipation he rolled it over to get a look at its head, only to discover it had only just cast its antlers!! Gutted! We knew the whitetail usually cast early, big ones generally earlier, who knows what this buck could've been!?!
Rather despondently he broke the animal down and prepared it for the carry out.
Scott's white tail hindquarters hanging in the tree;
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The next day I again headed south while the boys went into the bush to the east behind the beach. I had a good day snooping around in some steeper country, finding some really nice bush but also getting into some ugly crap. Within minutes of stepping into the bush off the beach I was eyeballing a young whitetail spiker, but as I've already shot a few I chose not to take this one.
Throughout the morning I worked my way over to the southern most beach in the bay, spooking and getting a glimpse of a large whitetail doe on my arrival, and spent most of the day mooching about there looking for cast antlers ;D
This beach was a wee gem, with plenty of sign on it. I even went for a nude swim it looked so good (as I was wet and cold already and had to do my "ice challenge").
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By late avo we were all back at the hut, and decided to try a spot of fishing off the rocks. A mean westerly swell and nasty hail showers made it tough going but we persevered until we'd lost all our gear in the granite crevasses under the surface. We were rewarded for our efforts with a couple of fish, but it was hardly the fishing success story we would of liked!
Scott perched on his rock, fishing for cod;
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That night we had a bit of a leer-up, talking crap until the small hours, eating copious amounts of food and having a few beers. It was bloody good. And we were back into the bush as the first rays of light pierced the canopy the next day.
Glen and I chose to go hunting together, in the area he'd spooked the two deer on his first day hunting. Just off the beach in some nice clearings we spotted out first deer for the day, as it ghosted through the ferns back into the forest. There was no chance of a shot.
These wee clearings had enough sign to make any hunter feel optimistic!
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We continued on, getting into some beautiful bush in the process. Stalking parallel 50 metres apart we covered the area fairly well. At one point I took the lead into a nice gully that felt very "deery". I pointed Glen onwards, with me sitting back behind him, in an attempt to get him his first whitetail.
Within minutes of doing dropping into the gully, a big doe sprung up out of the crown fern between us and boosted it off into the shadows with its white flag flashing. What a rush! We were both stoked to see another deer, and only a little disappointed that Glen hadn't spotted it earlier and hadn't managed to get a shot away.
The gully we spooked a couple of deer in;
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Optimistically we carried on, stumbling upon another kiwi (we'd all seen 2 or 3 over the last couple of days), and hearing another deer scarpering off through the fern. With the plane arriving later that afternoon we pulled pin and split up to stalk ridges back towards the coast.
Meeting back on the beach we wandered back to the hut to clean up, cut a heap of firewood and wait for the plane to arrived.
Glen at the mouth of the Doughboy Creek. (This can't be crossed at the mouth at high tide, but can be further up stream. Low tide crossings are no problem. Be wary of quicksand)
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At four o'clock on the dot the plane arrived to pick us up and soon enough we were back in civilisation wishing we were still in the bush.
A couple of milestones were the highlights of the trip this year, the first being Glens first visit to the island which he loved, and the second being Scott shooting his first whitetail although it was bittersweet.
For me it was another trip to paradise. I have always loved the place, since my first visit when I was about 10. There aren't many places I haven't seen or visited, although it is a big place. Making the trip down is always worth it, even if it is just to relax for a few days. The hunting, fishing and diving is just an added bonus.
For anyone wishing to do a fly down trip like this, I recommend it. We have flown with SIA a few times and find to a very good way of getting down there. It's relatively cheap and is a hassle free way of getting onto the island. All up cost including flights, hut tickets, block booking, food & beverages wouldn't have exceeded $400 each.
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Cheers
Josh :)
