Thread: trip report from all over

well i'm home with a load of laundry on, truck unpacked (yet to clean rifles and put all the toys away) and a good nights sleep

the trip started off going via @dannyb to chrono the load i am using and double check the 308 was pointed the right way and still went bang.



trundle down and picked up @silent_scope for a few nights chasing tahr around the back of lake Ohau. the drive in was rather annoying after losing the track and spending two hours bouncing up the riverbed over head sized rocks and boulders at 5km/h. tahr were seen but up to high, got withen 900 yards of a couple of decent bulls but ran out of light to get any closer and get a shot off. came back the next morning and the little buggers were even higher! had a great encounter with half a dozen kea at close range (as in 2 foot away trying to get into my pack) thee @DPT chassis are so good even the kea want a piece after seeing a vehicle on the other side of the riverbed we tried to get across and i managed to put the truck right were it shouldnt be.... as in up to the winch bar in wet (bloody cold) riverbed gravel, had to dig the gravel out of the socket to plug the winch remote in!. with the disadvantage of winchs only designed to pull you forwards. so out with the spare tyre and winch rope around the side of the truck and see what happens.... bit of damage to the plastic on the winch bar and the steel that holds the fairlead (rollers) assembly on made some progress before the tyre came lose as we were scratching out heads a vehciel showed up with a quick pull we were free (would still be there i think)

whilst on this trip my garmin inreach decided to play silly bugggers. said messages were being sent but wasnt receiving any replies, managed to get the weather update so it was working. messages were received 5days later..... will be following this issue up with them

another day on the hills looking for a bit of venison, decided to walk past a pair of pigs and try further up, saw a few chamoai but no deer (discovered some fresh bootprints which may explain things) on our return the pigs had moved on so no luck there.

next section of my gallivanting involved a drive (about this time i wasnt liking the mud tyres on the old 80series ) to alexandra on reports i had heard of a goat problem. had a friend come up from invercargill and join me, first day we cleaned up about 20 and saw at least 150... took a few legs and backstreaks off the nannies. second day another dozen or so and another 50 odd running off. of course if we both had our ARs we would have done a bit better.

then off to Kurow to meet up with @Harryg who took me onto a private station where we saw plenty of animals. the same problem with the tahr though, just to high up. could probably managed to get at a few of them after dedicating a few hours of solid uphill grind. suspect with the snow 2 weeks ago they all came down, now its melted they have moved back up.

following this was a late night blasting the hares with @dannyb have a feeling the cz 455 is in rather a need for a clean after shooting a group and it has expanded to around 1.5" at 100yards rather than the usual group that my thumb will cover.

all in all a good trip, plenty of animals seen but sadly the chilly bins are only full of goat and hare rather than tahr and vension!

Was awesome to catch up with you @223nut glad we could put something in the Chilli bin even if it wasn't venni or tahr. I see you found the camera too some great pics mate

Originally Posted by dannyb

Was awesome to catch up with you @223nut glad we could put something in the Chilli bin even if it wasn't venni or tahr. I see you found the camera too some great pics mate

cheers, slow cooker is ordered for the hare legs since i havent replaced it since it was a victim of the earthquake and never got replaced!

@223nut Was a bit frustrating seeing as many deer as we did but that hunting. But hope you had a good day. I was surprised my knee's held up for the whole day

Looks like a bloody good tiki tour anyway. Beats time spent doing lesser things

Good stuff James.
Was this trip after the night we met up with you at Pengys?

Sounds like a good trip no matter what.

Originally Posted by Shootm

Good stuff James.
Was this trip after the night we met up with you at Pengys?

nah, i made it home after pengys do and then got packed up for this one. m,ay have been talking about it there though. same truck up to pengys, mud tyres and road users are taking a hammering

@Steve123 a bad day on the hills is still better than a good day in the office

double post... @Harryg i'm sure if we put the time i.e. 2+ hours solid climb in then we would have come home with something. best of luck next time your in there

Man I need to get back into the hills..

Good write-up and thanks for sharing, great adventure.

You might have to use your horses next time you get caught in the river. Good write up and country covered.

some awesome pics, thanks for sharing. Those big hairy goats just love getting into steep bluffy shite dont they.

Nice pic's @223nut! pretty sure we looked at that spot where you got stuck and thought "yeah nah" and went round it! Opposite Red Hut and slightly down stream?

Tahr were definitely up high! we also met a very cheeky kea down in the bush.

Great spot though eh!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing.. Awesome country.

Had the same issue with the inreach while armed tramping with @ Hunty 1 the other weekend.

Originally Posted by 1 deer a year

Thanks for sharing.. Awesome country.

Had the same issue with the inreach while armed tramping with @ Hunty 1 the other weekend.

Hmm what's up with the InReach service ? be very keen to hear what you find out & hopefully they can fix it. The main reason to carry one is for keeping partners/family updated. Not much farkn use if they dont get msg for 4 or 5 days ???