Dragged a mate out to a new (for him) spot, for a change of scenery, and in the hopes of getting him onto a deer or a tahr on the weekend just gone.
Left as early as we could on Friday evening and drove south past Tekapo hoping to beat the crowds. 4 other vehicles in the bloody car park - including the NZ Hunter Adventures ute - bugger. We grabbed the tent just in case and began the walk in. Just as well because the huts we passed were full. Headed partway up the hill, set up and got our heads down for few hours before a nice cold start at 0430.
Began the rest of the climb and crested about 30mins before sunrise. Stalked along the tree line for a short distance before coming across the TV bunch who were busy breaking down their camp - bugger again. No bother though - they're heading in a different direction so we carry on and get set up in a nice spot to do some glassing. Before we even have time to get the jetboil on, @Steelisreal's shiny new binos pick up a spiker off to our left in a tiny clearing.
Range? 500m. Can we get closer? Unlikely - too many trees - deer's not gonna hang around that long either. Bugger, again - best you get set up for a shot from here then mate. But the downwards slope is awkward for a righty to try and shoot to the left, so after a couple minutes trying he gives up and tags in the southpaw... OK... 536m, 16 degrees downhill, no wind, rifle rested over the pack, 6.5x47L shooting 130 eld's. Shot feels good as I squeeze it off and the rifle barely jumps. The deer looks really small through the scope (still stupidly set on 6x) but I'm sure I see it hunch forward before it crashes down out and of sight.
We collect our stuff and begin cutting across. I'm 99% sure the deer is down but the 1% is playing on my mind on the way - that was a fair distance and I couldn't make out the hit??? We get there and the clearing's actually pretty big (we just couldn't see the extent of it thanks to the terrain and the trees). Walking through it, I'm hit with a heavy waft of deer - yes! He's close. Moments later @Steelisreal finds the blood trail. It's epic. It goes down, across then back UP the clearing about 50m total and we find the deer stone dead. Double lunged with a nice exit.
We get the jetboil on finally and get some hot food into us and pause for photos before getting into butchering...
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Boned out there's 25-30kg between the two of us so quite a good haul! Right... Straight up the hillside now and out of this valley. Then back down the hill to collect the tent, then down onto the track. We bump into some lads from one of the huts and they tell us we're lucky to have seen anything because it turns out WARO were in a few weeks before and pretty much cleaned the place out. Gits.
Back at the car by mid afternoon for a nice sunny drive back to Christchurch. Result :thumbsup:
