Stewart Island 2018
The day finally arrived for us (8) to get the final supplies & meet up at bluff the day before departure so we could get away first thing Thursday morning , on arrival we met Shane the skipper of the infamous Mana and Shane the decky once our gear was aboard it was only a short walk to the Eagle Hotel , after a excellent meal of paua pie and kina chips the beers started to flow , word of warning don't get on the piss with fisherman they are as bad as shearers , we set sail at 7 sharp , destination Kellys beach , the crossing was pretty good for most except for the idiot that drunk 3 pints 4 jugs & 1 yagi bomb the night before i hear he spewed his way across the straight what a doosh .
3.5 hours latter we arrived on the beach , awesome spot the hut is on the bush line facing north a nice grass area to pitch a tent and the beech 15M away from the hut door !!
After unloading our gear we set about getting sorted , a couple of the boys baited up the surf casters & 2 of us in for a dive it wasn't long before Tea was sorted with some nice Blue cod fillets and a generous feed of Paua straight off the beech !!
After the dive 4 of us headed up behind the hut for a quick reke , now something id like to mention in this area of the island our high point is 87M for most of the hunt you are pretty much lost so a Gps is a absolute must along with a hi vis beanie both these items or similar were non negotiable for those that wanted to hunt , we found a reasonable track that took us into the block for half a k or so & pretty sure i heard a deer so we were all keen as to hit the hill the next day.
Day 2
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Up early , low tide so a quick dive , feed of bacon & eggs coffee grab the rifle,s and into it me and my Bro going deeper and swinging left & Reg and his dad roders hanging rite , the bush is pretty cool in this neck of the woods more open areas compared to other blocks i had been to , still thick as shit in places but with luck we managed to pic our way ok , with good sign about it wasn't long before i spotted a colour through the fern down in a little gut 50m away i quitley pointed it out to my bro emphasising it needs to be looked at properly , as mentioned earlier its hard to no exactly you are so one must keep your wits about with others in the bush as well , after i figured out which end was which i could see its head neck front shoulder obscured buy a small tree but ribs and ass end in view i lined up the 223 just to the rite of the tree for a heart/lung shot CRACK buck bolted we got down there for a quick search , no deer so i went back to were it had been standing FUCK bloody bullet hit the side of the tree by half an inch !! i didn't see his antlers but he was a reasonable sized animal i was kicking my self for not getting the rest 2 paces in front of me but for fear of spooking him didn't.
Moving on we carried deeper into the block half an hour latter i saw movement in high fern quietly we stalked over to check it out looking looking nothing we went forward 20 meters and the famous white flag was up and waving at us Busted ! i said to bro you go infront we had only gone a short distance and i spotted a hind lying down at the base of a rimu tree i could see her through a small window looking above a shallow gut taking my time i lined up her chest squeezed the trigger the deer gave a huge buck & bolted i stood there listening & heard a slight crash out to the left , we got to the spot she was bedded up & found a good blood trail until it entered the high fern only 10m away after that we couldnt see shit we were basically bent over parting ferns for 45 mins looking over logs lawyer the lot ...lost , Gps,ed our way home , then off for a fish in the wee stabi.
Day 3
Had our morning dive ,rest of the boys had cray pots to check and fish , reg & roders headed out the back of the hut again to explore deeper into the woods , my cuz was with me hopping into the tinny captain sparrow dropped us off up oyster cove , leaving him with one of the handhelds we tested the range they worked great all the way back to the hut in case we needed picked up again i could call him up so turned it off we scurried up a steep bank loaded rifles and into the bush ...20 paces latter cuz go,s look a deer , fuck !! i didnt even see it to busy thinking should i go left or rite of a shit patch infront of us ,the stalking was bloody difficult all day even though a steady wind prevailed in the bay by the time the wind hit the island it was going everywhere so i was constantly tacking left or rite at one point i felt the wind had improved we came upon a nice bit of bush with fresh sign at our feet we quietly stalked along for 100 meters wind shift & Busted again 2 hinds danced off i say danced as they dont crash off like a red they really wave that dam flag almost at a pace you think they are going to stop...but they don't !!
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Day 4
More hunting up the cove this time i was determined to get into an area that looked good but as is often the case actually getting there is a different story , yep we ended almost exactly were we had been the previous day to the point i came accross cuzys boot mark in the creek accompanied by a deer mark rite ontop had to have a little chuckle at that so changing direction found the area i wanted to be in , despite hunting as best we could the wind kept shafting us 0 deer seen.
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Day 5
With S 35 knot winds & ruff seas forcast the following day we got on the Vhf to contact Oban at 5.30pm to receive a pre arraigned message from shane only problem we couldn't get through so after some discussion decided it mite be wise to pre pack a few things in case the Mana turned up but 4 of us got a quick dive in first , by 11pm i was pacing up and down the beech trying to make up my mind if im going hunting or not i then spotted a boat coming around the heads grabbing the bino,s sure enough it was the mana , even though we had a day up our sleeve no one fancied a ruff ride so it was decided to break camp , heading out of the port we swung by one of the Titi Islands to grab a bucket of birds then dredge for some oysters on the way home... Good times.
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