Sworn to secrecy on where this is, but it's in the Nelson lakes area, with all the beauty that conjures up.
Drove an hour up our chosen valley and set off straight up the hill, got called back by the others in our party to tow their stuck jeep out of the river crossing.
This turned out well so we were back at the slog in 20mins, slipping & sliding our way up the damp lower reaches of the 1000m climb. With a bunch of negotiated windfall and bush lawyer behind us, we found the leading ridge which was much dryer with a good deer trail, noting some antler thrashed trees at 1200m
Got to the top at 5pm. We were a little worried about a water supply but promptly saw local tarn and some snow lying about so we had a good brew and set up camp, keeping our sleeping bags over our legs as the sun was seriously beating down.
Edging over to the watershed to the north of us it was pretty cool to immediately spot a hind & yearling browsing within 400m of camp. They were in no danger from us as we were targeting Chams at that stage. Of which Ricky spotted several at the head of the valley behind us. After that big climb I slept like a log. The next day dawned clear at our level, overcast and cool, perfect for stalking.
The deer will still there, 80m further up the hill. As we climbed up to look for the Chams they winded us and moved off.
The next valley head was bare but we got some neat photos, with my pano feature on the phone coming in handy as Ricky walked in one side of the pic and out the other.
We climbed over into the main valley head glassing all the way to pick up the Chams. They were still over 1000m away and an approach stalk would be useless as they held the high ground with no natural cover in the approach.
Then the classic Cham scenario- Rick suddenly rasped "keep still!!" A lone Cham buck was over his right shoulder, slightly behind us, just over 200m away, just watching us with only his head and neck and front chest visible.
As Rick got set up I kept the binos on him, estimating (incorrectly as I couldn't see the returns on his hooks) that he was in the 8 inch class. As Ricky hadn't got a Cham before I said definitely take it, it's a good first.
Ricks Howa Alpine 6.5cr spoke and the animal broke right and disappeared.
As we got over there the blood trail looked like WW3 had occurred! The ELDM Hornadys doing the job perfectly. Old mate Cham was 100 down a slip so some careful descent was required. He looked better on the ground and Rick was elated later to see it go over 9 inches.
The rest of our trip yielded no further game sighted except for Hares. The other parties had no luck with big climbs but little to no animals seen on the tops, however a couple of yearling Reds were shot on the river flats. All in all a beautiful part of the country and good to stretch the legs.
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