No Dice…
(Warning: Pleased be advised that no animals were harmed during the making of this hunt story)
So, I’ve just gotta write about it. To decompress. A story which ends with nothing on the deck. Despite this, hopefully this inspires someone to try a new spot.
So,living in Jaffaland, I’d been pondering other options outside of the Kaimais for day trips that don’t start at 3am and end at 11pm. You know, a magic place to bush hunt where you are onto animals the moment you step off the Doc track. Because, you’ve decided that you only hunt Public Land, and you wear it, like some weedbix box plastic badge of honor. Only animals taken through pain and suffering through supplejack holding hands over endless kilometres are worth mentioning. Well, something like that. Muppet.
Anyhow. I needed a break from super smart Sika that were just too far south for a day trip (although I've pondered that too). I thought why not the Pureoras a shade under 3 hours drive away? A mate had given me a “hot tip”. There’s a warning here that this may involve gross over exaggeration. The first sign of danger… he mentioned…. “it’s only 2 hours 40 from Auckland”. The second clue … “the guy I know had over 25 encounters in one hunt”. To be fair, he had me at the under 3 hour drive from Auckland part.
Naively I set the alarm for a leisurely 4am. The forecast was for overcast conditions with perhaps the odd shower. I woke to yet another stormy Auckland morning. Too late, I’ve got the go pass. Carted the dog to the truck so he didn’t wake the household up doing burn outs. To keep the noise down, I shut the cab properly up the top of the drive and settled into the drive south. The spot is fairly common knowledge, but again, I had superior local intel sourced through a mate of a mate who met someone fishing a year ago (the third clue).
After a brief stroll through farmland with the Dog on a lead, we geared up at the fence line. It was a crappy, stormy dark, rainy, whingy morning. Metservice, really? I left the Swandri on – the fleece wasn’t gonna cut it. Into the dark bush entrance we stepped. Using a hunting dog, the idea is to get to a likely area and follow him, wherever the nose fancies. Straight away Kai was onto a wind scent. 20 minutes later after fighting supplejack that would make the Kaimais proud I pulled the pin, and back onto the track we went.
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Trundling up the track the first thing I noticed was the complete lack of animal sign. I only started to notice marks about 100 metres off the track on the ridge I planned to siddle. This was a little concerning, as my expectation, if I was to be honest, was that I should have been jumped by at least three deer by this point. Descending to the base of the ridge we encountered the first fresh marks and sign. Kai settled into a ground scent and we worked west into the prevailing gale, which I thought put all the odds in our favour. Hum
First Contact
The first contact was preceded by a loud “crack” as we were about to crest a ridge. We both froze. Then, we heard some scuffling and an angry deep bark. Super close. Perhaps 5-10 metres over the ledge on the flats in the crown fern. We waited. This was it. He was gonna walk over. A few minutes passed. We waited some more. And .... nothing. We crested the lip to discover a big, fresh pile of stag do do. We followed the ghost for another 20 minutes before continuing on.
Second Contact
There just wasn’t that much fresh sign. At all. The bottom of the ridge looked promising, but Kai continued along the game trail on a fresh ground scent. We stopped for a much-needed brew of hot coffee, and I scoffing a cold home made hamburger while Kai inhaled his dog biscuits for breakie. It was then I noticed he was shivering, and I was really starting to shut down. A bit of a warning sign. Off with the soaked fleece top and back on with the swandri. It was really cold, windy and wet. I started to think evil thoughts about my mate and his "hot tip". Off we trundled and Kai soon had us on another ground scent, then wind scent driven hikoi. After clambering over some fairly dodgy supplejack infused rotten logs into deep mud, we’d moved to the top of a gut. Kai was winding more frequently, then he froze. I stepped forward level with his nose, and deer scent washed over me. It/they was/were very close. My gut was that they were bedded just over the big log in front of us. Just over the ledge. Ever so slowly we worked forward stopping every metre. Scanning for an ear, a tail, a flicker of movement. Anything. It felt like an eternity, but we eventually crested But we just could not locate a deer. I found a fresh, warm bed by a large boulder about 20 metres away. Ghosted. Again.
Encounter Three
Fatigued by the cold, I opted to head back on the top of the main ridge. Here to my surprise, I found a really nice game trail and lush feed areas. Toward the end of the ridge Kai indicated off the side we’d siddled along at the start of the day. Kind of a ball breaker heading back down, but oh well, I thought, why not. I followed him down, down, down the muddy slopes, clinging onto punga as best as a I could, skiing down where I couldn't. He started to slow at the base of the ridge and by this time the sun had actually come out, and rays bisected the foliage. Warmth. Finally. Kai led us to a big gully, where we spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out where the deer were. I looked and looked. The wind changed favorably, and he adjusted, moved forward, I looked. I scanned. They're here. Somewhere. Kai adjusted again to a slight change in wind. I looked and watched a gorgeous yearling 60 yards away step out of view. Ghosted. Again again. Kinda stink, but actually, kinda cool. They are such graceful animals.
We got back to the truck at about 3pm. Cold and exhausted. Belted by the cold wind, in a panic, I couldn’t work out why the truck cab tray wouldn’t open fully until I realized I was compressing my metal key lock box I’d stupidly left on the back bumper onto it. That’s a job for the panel beaters. Special.
Upon Reflection
So, when I reflect on the day, I have to say, not much animal sign in there, but what there was, was big. Good stags in there. Was it successful. I’d have to say yes. A new spot. A scouting mission. Super cool when I look at it like that. One trip closer to discovering bush hunting public land Valhala. Getting so close to three animals was super fun, and really rewarding. Would I go back. Probably not. Surprisingly, the drive was more tiring although I did 10km less on the hoof throughout the day. But probably the biggest lesson of all. I kinda have to admit it. I really really enjoy the Kaimais now.
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(Insert Dead Animal photo here….)
