Thread: Hihitahi

G'day guys,

I'm planning on heading into Hihitahi for a night, staying at Zeke's Hut. Haven't hunted the area before, does anyone who knows the area have any advice they could give to a young fella like me? What's the bush like? How do most people hunt it?

Any info would be bloody great, cheers

take a gps, it is a big flat plateau and easy to get lost.

Some advice from an old guy that always hunts there and still does don't go where the deer don't.
There are some nasty creeks with rim rock.
Been a long time since I've been in there it's a bit like tiger county a good compass or gps. Some nice slips in there with some good stag's sika and reds.

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Yeah some good advice there, i hunt up there regularly and for some reason seems to be a lot of trampers going into Zekes hut lately , i really dont know what the attraction is apart from being a neat little hut.
If its your first time up there i would just have a look on the "five finger slips" which you will see from the track 20 min or so from the hut, i always do and seen a hind and fawn on one of the slips when last up there before xmas so you mite get lucky if they haven't been thrashed to much. Good luck!!

Originally Posted by 30late

Yeah some good advice there, i hunt up there regularly and for some reason seems to be a lot of trampers going into Zekes hut lately , i really dont know what the attraction is apart from being a neat little hut.
If its your first time up there i would just have a look on the "five finger slips" which you will see from the track 20 min or so from the hut, i always do and seen a hind and fawn on one of the slips when last up there before xmas so you mite get lucky if they haven't been thrashed to much. Good luck!!

Last time I was in there we stayed in the old Zeke's hut that's how long it's been since I was in there.
I used to love Toetoe slips around the corner and shot my first deer in there on yellow slip

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Slips are worth a look if the winds right, the bush is rubbish and creeks are pretty scrubby. Some clearings on the fringes.

Originally Posted by 25/08IMP

Last time I was in there we stayed in the old Zeke's hut that's how long it's been since I was in there.
I used to love Toetoe slips around the corner and shot my first deer in there on yellow slip

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The site where the old Zekes hut was is completely overgrown now , you wouldn't know there used to be a hut there!! , and the track on past Zekes is also completely overgrown with the usual cutty grass toi-toi etc ,a bit hard to follow even if you know it well.

Originally Posted by 30late

The site where the old Zekes hut was is completely overgrown now , you wouldn't know there used to be a hut there!! , and the track on past Zekes is also completely overgrown with the usual cutty grass toi-toi etc ,a bit hard to follow even if you know it well.

Bugger I must get back in there do you go through the farm then the top track in, or public access.


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Its got a sad story to it. I lived close to in Mangaweka but only hunter it once. Thought it was spooky. Preferred the Ruahines.

My only trip to that bit of bush was with a Navy radio guy Rex Handcock about 1964. We stayed in a hut he had made that was sheathed in corrugated aluminum from the Navy radio station on the Western side of state hiway one opposite the block. We drove down at night in my Morris Minor in mid winter from home in Devonport. I can only remember being surprised that cabbage trees grew in the snow, blackback gulls are so far inland and Rex got one. That was my first red deer hunt.
Rex left the navy and went meat hunting at Harihari on the Westcoast.
In 1997 I tracked him down in Murchison for a catch up.

@Phill243 may be able to help

Originally Posted by 25/08IMP

Bugger I must get back in there do you go through the farm then the top track in, or public access.


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A bit of both mate, if i am going in for a few days i park under railway bridge and with farmers permission walk up and around to the top track, which by the way was also overgrown till Graeme Nicholls recut it .Not a bad effort for an 80 yr old

Originally Posted by Tahr

Its got a sad story to it. I lived close to in Mangaweka but only hunter it once. Thought it was spooky. Preferred the Ruahines.

Yes i can understand how you could feel a bit spooky up there, skulking around in the thick pepperwoods all day it does feel a bit like that!!!

Originally Posted by 30late

A bit of both mate, if i am going in for a few days i park under railway bridge and with farmers permission walk up and around to the top track, which by the way was also overgrown till Graeme Nicholls recut it .Not a bad effort for an 80 yr old

Yeah Graeme and his son Rob are the ones I've always hunted there with.
I remember having Graeme's 60th over at Tracey's hut.
Graeme has some awesome stories.

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