Thread: Too high too early?? Te Puke hut (1500m alt) in the kawekas, 5 - 10th December.

Hey everyone,

We have a party planning to fly to Te Puke hut in early December. Just wondering your opinions on the altitude and time of year.

Will the deer be up that high this early? We have been to Te Puke tops before just after the roar, and the deer seemed to have already pushed way down lower (like to about 1200m, so we were way too high).

Love to hear your thoughts!

Cheers

Ran across a few at the same elevation as the hut in late December, a couple of years back.
Good time to pick up a spiker for the BBQ

They will be following the feed up the altitudinal slope. Normally from third week of November places like Te Puke, Manson, and Otutu start to move. The start of December generally sees the hinds head for deep cover to give birth to this years fawns, however this can be balanced out by the silly spiker season. I have hunted Te Puke many times over the years and I always start sidling from the tops and angle down until I find the fresh sign and the hunt that elevation. Also the sunny sides will be higher than the shady sides until the start of February, when their preferences seem to change to the damp sides where more growth is occurring. Another trick is to be sitting down with your binos at about 2 pm and looking into open beech faces, as it seems many bedded animals stand up and have a stretch and nibble before settling down again until the evening feed time, they have been sitting down for 8 hours or so by 2 pm and that magic hour can be very productive. Good luck, it is a great hunting destination with awesome access to lots of country with the tops and track system.

Should be good. As above start high work down

November last year a couple of mates flew into Te Puke and me and another mate flew to the Omar tops and met up with them a couple of days later, there wasn’t a lot of feed up high but we still saw plenty of animals and took 4 home.

I think the timing of your trip will be spot on 👍

Awesome thanks for the reply!

Do you know the location of the Te Puke Exclosure site?

As above all accurate advise

Originally Posted by Brundybg

Awesome thanks for the reply!

Do you know the location of the Te Puke Exclosure site?

Extracted from DOC website:

Hunters can reach a campsite (known as the ‘Te Puke exclosure’ site) by heading north along a forested ridge to the campsite helipad (2 hours walking time from Te Puke Hut). Many hunting opportunities are available along this route with good results often obtained north of the exclosure area down towards to Mangatainoka Hut.

Know the area well.close hunting south west of hut .Deer seen at the hut around 7.30 pm.Track east of hut worth a try .Check faces on the way back to the hut shots could be long range .When i fly in to Tepuke hut i never hut that area .Theres a much better spot to shoot and see deer . Range from 200 mtrs out to 3km and 1 rock high up to cover it all .

You won't need to go that far, there is a deer exclosure an easy hour north along the Te Puke tops that screams deer.