Four of us flew into Mangaturutu hut on sat April 19th with Midwest helicopters. We were lucky to get in with the wind and low cloud , our pilot Owen had to put the helicopter down on the large clearing above the hut because it was all fogged in at the hut site but it cleared after a minute or so Owen dropped us at the helipad. Shortly after he departed the weather closed in again with wind rain and low cloud and was much the same for the next 4 days. The previous party had left a few days earlier because of the bad weather and must have been in a hurry cause they left a box of gear sitting on the hut doorway, we found a contact number for him and my brother has since been in contact with him to get his stuff back to him.
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Despite the average weather we all got out for a hunt every day , and made good use of the fire when we returned to dry our gear out, but those sika stags proved too clever for us , we got close several times but not close enough.
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Several hinds were seen in the bush but incase there was a stag nearby we left them. My nephew Hayden shot a spiker on one of the two fine days we had.
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And on the other fine day we had while the rest of us were trying our luck elsewhere ole mate "Balls" was taking it easy looking around the large clearing above the hut when two hinds walked out of the bush in front of him ,closely followed by this stag.
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So a very enjoyable if challenging week in the Kaweka's . The weather had turned bad again on our fly out date of sat 26th , and i was doubtful if we would get out but our pilot Owen managed to land up on the clearing above the hut again so we carried our gear up to meet him there.
I didn't know how we could fly out in the thick fog but Owen knowing it was clear at a lower altitude just hovered out to the edge of the clearing and keeping the bush in site lowered the helicopter down the valley till we were out in the clear again , too easy.
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