went to stewart island with the family for xmas, had big plans on where and how i was going to finally shoot a whitetail....
got there unloaded all the kit and food for the 6 days, watched the sealions f round in the bay, tried to get the outboard going and failed, went for a row and fish. been 16 years since ive rowed a dingy still crap at it. we caught some cod , rowed back while being hassled by the fing sealions . got back fed the kid the cod went for a hunt.
got lost had my compass so headed east till i found the sea, got back to the hut and quietly put gps in day bag.
went down the beach to check the dingy, looked down the beach and there's a red thing ..... pull out the binos and behold a silly spiker out for a wander.
back up to the hut incoherently muttering theres a fucking deer on the beach and grabbing the rifle ,wife and kids staring at this apparent mad person that's busted into the hut i hurriedly leave, stuffing ammo in rifle, get to the beach and peer out he's still there.. dive back into the scrub and hurtle round out of sight, pop back out and im well close leaning on a rock in the grips of buck fever (i get this with every new critter) big breath let half out and booomfaa . down he goes. i look up cant see anything . shit did i miss? i scurry round the shore and behind a fold in the beach there's a very dead very small buck on the sand . in the back ground the resident sealions are going nuts . i also realise that my knife is back in the hut with my camera. ffs.
thankfully my lovely wife had worked out what was going on from the gibbering and hurried departure waited for the shot and came down with a knife and her phone
this is the 5th deer that ive seen in 3 trips to the island, the 1st trip i shot at one and missed all the other encounters were seeing either a flash of tail or watching them on beach another block
id thought i put a 3kg bag of salt in with the hunting gear. rather unhelpfully id not so while i tired keep the skin there was on joy, we did have venison and blue cod everyday tho just means i have to go down again for another skin .
we had a great time overall , the wx was interesting and changeable as always. all the other trips have been in winter so there seemed to be more birds about but no kiwi seen this time , just heard at night . next trip i will get a permit for a 22 as there was 3-4 possums around the hut, they wouldnt go near the trap. was also a heap of cat crap up on the 100m contour. i would love a trophy stewart island cat skin.
will post photos when i get round to it
