New years wander for freezer filler
I took leave from work between xmas and New years and we (the family) decided to go bush for 4 days and try and find a deer for my son to bowl over as he still has had no luck. So packs full of food and usuals we walk in 4 hrs to one of our local huts.
On arrival my lad immediately buggers off to go check his favorite spot , and the rest of us chat with a couple already at the hut and get the introductions out of the way.
Lad arrives back couple hours later , plenty of sign although not the freshest and no animals sighted. So the missus gets taken by my daughter to her favorite spot where she got the goats last trip and they also disappear for a couple of hours , and just after they leave my son buggers off again in a different direction and I am left to babysit our gear....thanks guys....
So come bedtime all have returned with no sightings.
Next morning much the same.... everyone wanders off and leave me to babysit our stuff....
Now the hut is like grand central station and by lunchtime six or seven groups and solo trampers have stopped by. Most are doing the trail from the top all the way down to the bottom of the country or just the South island section and have been on the trails for months.
What we find most worrying is the amount of young females traveling solo . And the lack of appropriate gear being carried by some of them. There were several who we couldn't help think were rescue chopper pick-up just waiting to happen. And a large chunk of them had no plb either......
But anyway.... so the lad and daughter dive into the bush that afternoon , I have still to go for a wander , and come back telling a story of animals sighted. They had parked up overlooking my lads favorite spot and sighted a small deer they had thought was a fallow. So the lad lines up for the shot and before he takes it a big red hind steps out .... Turns out it was her fawn that they had been lined up on. So once they realize their mistake they watch them until they disappear then returned to the hut to tell the story.
So this is pretty much how the next few days carry on.
At one point we are having a coffee at the hut and chatting with an older lady who is staying the night with us at the hut and I see a dark shadow moving through the bush on the hillside across from us and grab the rifle and take off in hot pursuit. Apparently the lady was cracking up as she noticed I was in my hut slippers as I took off.... unfortunately I didn't so the pursuit did not last long as I got stabbed in the foot and realized what the problem was .... Idiot springs to mind , but she said the image of me tearing off into the bush rifle in hand and fluffy grandad slippers on my feet will be with her for life and we had a good laugh over it.
So the days go by and the only animals sighted are the hind and fawn which we ended up seeing on three separate occasions and let them be.
On the last sighting of the pair the missus was with the lad who ended up getting seperated and the boy gets back and asks where mum is....uumm ... she's with you.
No he says , I left her at the river on her way back here 30 minutes ago..(it's a 1min walk from river to hut) so we quickly spread out for a rescue mission and go in search of the lost mum. 10 minutes later and found her safe and happy after seeing another deer and following it but loosing it then not being able to find the river crossing point again so stopped and waited for us to come looking for her.
So that night, new years eve, we have a couple of shots of bourbon at midnight to celebrate the new year and hit the sack.
At 4 30 new years day I am up and out the door and into the bush alone as the family don't want to get up early.
Ten minutes later I stalk in on a pretty little chocolate brown fallow hind. I watch her for a minute or two to make sure she is alone and take her at around 30 meters with the new tikka 308 bushpig. Yes!! Deer down on the day we were leaving, and first day of the new year and first blood for the new toy on its first trip bush. Talk about starting off the new year with a bang!!
So gut her out and throw her on my back and start making my way out back to the hut and sleeping family and get snagged and bin it , and tear the side of my nose open on the way down.... blood pissing everywhere out of my nose back to the hut where the missus goes into panic mode and does the emergency medical thing and finally stops the bleeding. I have somehow managed to tear all the skin off the side of my nose as I fell , on a branch I guess , but luckily missed my eye . It looks really bad but not deep but takes ages for the bleeding to slow down and we actually find a blood trail from the bush to the hut and it isn't from the deer.
So anyway....
we hit the trail home after deciding to take the deer out whole , minus head , as when trying to bone it out got pissed off with all the sandflies and flies and wasps etc hanging around making life difficult and wanting to keep the skin. And damn that wee deer got heavy after 4 hrs travel ...
So now we have 18 kg of fresh meat in freezer , a beautiful chocolate skin in the bucket tanning and a scab on the entire right side of my nose that will probably be a lifelong scar as a permanent reminder of the new year fallow.
