The anticipation had been building over the last four or five months since BaldBob first text me to see if I was keen on a Tahr trip.
Was I ever!
I had never seen a Tahr before and while Iv hunted parts of the coast I had never been in Tahr country.
Wed the 16th I had gear sorted and waited around home for Kiwi Greg to stop pissing round at work and eventually we were off to Baldbobs in Grey were tuiman, bob, Greg and myself had a couple of quiets and talked guns and shit.
Eventually we got some sleep and were off to Whataroa in the morning to catch the chopper.
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My first ever ride in a chopper! Its awsum ! Click pic for vid
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Coming in to land (vid)
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Quick sort out of gear and out for a evening up behind the hut Kiwi G and I headed down then up a creek to a bench to glass and the boys went up another.
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Tahr were conspicuous by their absence but I guess not surprising after a chopper had just been in. Got bloody cold sitting still that long with no jacket:huh:
Keas were everywhere and they kept me amused.
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Heading back down that evening we came across this neat ice formation.
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A few brews and a few laughs that evening and Friday morning was a cracker
vid
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We all dropped down to the main river and headed upstream. The young fullas took off up towards the saddle Kiwi g and I going a bit more leisurely. We saw a few groups of Tahr and earmarked one lot for the next day that looked well achievable with a earlier start.
Heading up a bit further some more were spotted and we decided they should fall to a recoverable position.Unfortunately the catabatic had just started to turn and it caused the 308 some issues.
My Bull managed to get around to a unrecoverable position to expire:oh noes: but I ended up with some Trophy Tahr meat:thumbsup:
vid
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Kiwi G on the Ipod sorting a firing solution.
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The boys had got onto a few upstream and Bob had his first Tahr head tuiman2 a pack full of meat.
More food drinks and shit talked that night.
In the morning tuiman had kindly offered to carry Gregs cannon for him so us three headed up after our "easy" Tahr and Bob went down stream to look for a Cham
Unfortunately for us the group that had been lowish the last two days was now at the very very top of the range which I guess was due to the snow melting off lower down.
Greg pulled off some fine shooting and a good looking bull fell to what looked like a recoverable spot.Tuiman volunteered to go get him being the youngest and fittest while Greg and I took up two different positions to cover the face with binos and try to guide Tuiman2 with the radios around the certain death parts.
Despite a mammoth effort by tui up and down several different spots he couldn't quite reach the bench he was on.
I had forgotten my Camera that day unfortunately possibly something to do with celebrating my first Tahr the night before;)
Back at the hut Bob had got a nice 10.5" cham and was understandabley stoked but we were all sick of hearing it by the time the chopper arrived the next day:D
Was a wicked trip with some great guys and I will never forget it. Thanks Greg Abe Adam:thumbsup:
Hopefully Tuiman will add some picks to this