My Xmas and New Year Break
Happy 2014 everyone, hope you all had a bit of fun out there over Xmas!
My holiday period started off with a quick trip over to the coast to grab a few crays. Four of us in the water, and before long we had 24 nice eating crays to take home. We took tanks but ended up not even using them as the crays were in less than 5m of water.
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Later in the week Cleaky brought his right hand man up for a hunt, and after a couple of hours hunting a few different animals we finally managed to put a deer on the deck, which would help keep the BBQ fed thru xmas. Young Quinn did extremely well and impressed me with his get into it attitude and fantastic manners...I'd happily take him on the hill any day.
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Littlemorepork is once again in NZ and after our successful hunt last year we wanted to back it up with a chamois this year. We left early one morning and headed west into the hills. After a good climb we were in chamois country and I had soon spotted our first animal for the day, a red hind out in the tops which was great to see! We actually ended up seeing a number of deer on this hunt which pleased me considerably.
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Continuing on, we were soon glassing nice chamois country and spooked a nice buck out of the creek. It rushed across the tussock opposite us, stopping long enough for Littlemorepork to get a shot away. Unfortunately the shot didn't connect and the buck escaped out of the valley.
Not to be put off, we stalked on further and were suddenly surprised by a small group of young Chamois playing in the rocks above us. They were moving quickly and while we tried to we struggled to keep up they disappeared around the hill out of view.
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We followed them around the hillside, into a nice basin. All but two had disappeared, as chamois can so easily do. These two casually watched us as we glassed the valley and ate our lunch, not too bother at all. This is a good example of how well they can blend in, without binos these two were almost impossible to see and were only 200 yards away.
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A pesky Kea joined us for lunch, as annoying as they are, they're still pretty neat.
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Unfortunately we didn't get onto any more animals that trip, so plans for another hunt later in the week were made and a couple of night later I picked up Littlemorepork and his wife Tina and we headed into a nice valley in search of a deer. It was a fantastic evening for hunting and as luck would have it we caught a spiker out in an open clearing having a feed. An exciting stalk ensued and we crept within 20 metres of the deer. With a single shot Littlemorepork had his deer. It was a extremely enjoyable hunt for the three of us.
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For our "holiday" this year, my better half Sarah and I had an idea of driving around the south island for a couple of weeks, fishing, diving and hunting as we went. So on boxing day we left on a pretty much unplanned trip. We had the gear we needed to go wherever we wanted so that's what we did.
We started by going through the Nevis for a looksee.
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And then made our way up the west coast, where we ended up spending most of our time. We visited heaps of random beaches, and stopped for a fish, dive or hunt whenever we felt like it, cooked what we caught on the beach, drank beer and wine and watched the sun set most nights. No pressure to be anywhere, or meet anyone, and best of all the phones went flat and stayed that way!!!
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The Denniston Incline, some amazing history in this region. We visited a few mining areas, and even did a couple of touristy things ;D
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From the Coast we went up through to Nelson Lakes, and it rained solidly for a couple of days! Neat country though.
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After a spell in the Sounds we headed south again and went to Hanmer via Molesworth.
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After a pretty quiet New Year in Hanmer, we spent a bit of time poking around St James and out the back of Hanmer, and then after a couple of days decided we should head south back home.
We arrived back at the farm to see our family on Saturday afternoon, and I promptly geared up to go for a hunt. Yet to shoot her first deer, my sister has been nagging to go for a hunt since we bought her first rifle, so off we went for a look in some handy spots. It wasn't long before I spotted a young hind and I would say her first fawn.
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Watching them for a while I explained to Jess the main attractions of hunting, from my point of view of course! We carried on our way to another clearing worthy of a look before dark. Pip winded well as we approached it, so we stalked quietly to the bush edge. Sure enough I spotted a young stag feeding in a hollow below us. Chambering a round I instructed Jess to sneak forward and to aim for its shoulder, and not to panic if it spooked or ran off. She executed a perfect stalk to within 50m of the small stag and pole axed it with a neck shot (Only the 2nd time she'd fired a "big gun" too) ;D It was a pretty proud moment for big brother...both of my younger siblings shot their first deer under my wing ;)
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The next day it was hot, so we drove out to the coast grazing block and went for a swim/surf/dive. I obviously spent most of my time gathering, while the girls and Dad spent time swimming and exploring the rock pools. I came across a bed of decent paua and collected 10 big ones to take home. Posing shot with my little sis.
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All in all a pretty good break away, with friends and family. Now back to the grinding wheel :D
Happy and safe hunting for 2014!
Josh :)
My Xmas and New Year Break
Cheers for the comments guys. Was a very enjoyable break, next time we'll hopefully spend a bit more time on the yaks and MTB. We have some spectacular scenery in NZ and are quite privileged to be able to access it so easily, gathering meat and seafood from it is icing on the cake!
On another note, my sister came over for a hunt last night. It pissed down all evening, and we got soaked! Hadn't seen anything for a couple hours hunting, then at deer o'clock we found two young animals sitting under the scrub less than 50 yds from us. Jess loaded her rifle and proceeded to shoot the youngest one square in the chest dropping it on the spot. Free standing, no rest. Two for two, I was happier than her I think! While we dealt with it 3 more came out of the bush, just to top off a great hunt.
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Hahaha! Ill refrain from commenting on the looks of my sister... put it this way, with two older brothers with high standards, potential boyfriends have plenty of boxes to tick on the suitability test. She's a great kid.
