Adventure in the valley of the Big Cats
An unavoidable ˝ day at work meant a delayed start to our long weekend. Still by mid afternoon Friday my nephew, Craytail and I were on the trail. The plan was to head up the valley with a view to making the hut just on dark. We had tents ‘just in case’, but this time of year especially, this old man prefers the comfort of a hut. The weather forecast was pretty average- rain throughout Friday and continuing into Saturday morning only to return again on Sunday afternoon, they weren’t talking big volumes though so we’d decided to risk it.
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We started out in what turned out to be a very light drizzle. Along the track at pretty regular points we kept coming across predator sh*t. Pretty large droppings held together by fur, feathers and bone fragments. They were way bigger than a stoat’s so we speculated about wild cats or a dog. As we progressed and came across more and more of the stuff the stories grew, we were pretty certain that the ‘South Canterbury Panther’ had moved north. Before long any creaking timber in the lightly gusting wind was evidence that we were being stalked. I told Cray that if we saw any turds containing deer bone then I was heading home.
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We had weighty packs with plenty of warm clothes, tents and extra food in case the predicted rain proved enough to keep us on the wrong side of a river. But with the panther on our trail and the promise of a hut ahead we kept up the pace
We were in tramping rather than stalking mode but when the trail emerged from the bush to cross the open river flats we both stopped in our tracks. About 50m ahead we spied the butt of a deer. It was grazing away from us along the bush edge. With slow deliberate movements I dropped to one knee and eased my pack off. Even as I was setting up for the shot the animal disappeared behind a bend in the bushline.
It was early evening, about an hour before dark and the temperature was dropping quickly, I reasoned that the animal was intent on feeding back into the shelter of the bush for the night. I decided to follow it leaving Cray looking on. The deer itself was hidden from me, but I cautiously edged forward eyeing the section of bush where it had gone. While the wind was generally in my favour I did feel a couple of gusts from my back as I closed the gap. I have to admit I snapped a couple of twigs during the stalk, but I choose to blame the wind for the fact I never saw that deer again. Cray briefly glimpsed the animal when it took off up a minor watercourse as I approached, he seemed less convinced about my ‘wind theory’.
Failure, but we were both buzzing with our encounter as we hauled on the packs again. This exciting interlude had cost us valuable daylight though. Before long we were forced to don our headlamps and our pace slowed as we stumbled through the bush and along the river bed. The weather deteriorated as night came on with constant light rain. It was with some relief after an hour and a half and a couple of minor navigation embarrassments [like walking right past the hut] that we finally threw open the cabin door. We rewarded ourselves with a mug of warming soup and changed out of our wet clothes. While we prepared and scoffed back the main meal we planned our hunt for tomorrow and then hit the sack.
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Next morning we had a lazy start with coffee and porridge, well I had a lazy start Cray was amped and ready to go by sun up. I was pretty confident that with the low temperatures and all the snow about here in the upper valley that the deer would be in their winter feeding pattern. We got underway not long after 9am and crossed the river [that did a better job of waking me than the coffee had!]. It was raining off and on but only lightly and rivers were still running clear and hadn’t risen.
We saw heaps of sign in the snow that covered the river flats, in some places it looked like a herd of caribou had migrated through. But snow can fool you like that, chances are it was just one or two animals with all their movements of the last week recorded.
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Our route had us in the bush on the warmer side of the valley sidling 10-20m above a Red Beech – Broadleaf terrace. The Broadleaf was well browsed and the leaf litter hovered up. The relatively open nature of the bush gave us a good view over the terrace below as we slowly progressed. Cray was on point today as I had had my chance yesterday. He’s been at this hunting game less than a year but is very keen and picking it up really quickly. He stalked along like a pro – alert for sign, walking a few paces and pausing to observe. I followed four or five meters behind.
After a couple of hours we had a hushed conversation about what to do next. Cray had a point when he argued that we should return to a snow free section of forest that we had passed through earlier, as this was a more favourable bedding area. I thought that there should still be some deer out actively feeding and we should remain in the broadleaf. I also wanted to keep going so as to recce a clearing about a K away. We agreed to check out the clearing and then return to explore the potential bedding zone.
Not five minutes after continuing Cray stopped stock still. At the same time I spied a hind below us ghosting through the forest pausing briefly here and there to take in a mouthful. Cray had a better view than me as he followed her progress between the trees. At the point he fired I’d lost sight of the animal. But then she exploded out from behind the obstructing trees and paused, confused, looking backwards. Cray fired again and this time she went down. We were both a bit dazed about the speed of events and it took a while for me to realize Crays first shot wasn’t a miss or a non lethal hit, but that there had been two animals and he’d shot both! Time for the big smiles and handshakes, Cray was stoked. Plenty of venison to full up both of our freezers.
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We butchered the animals and carried our spoils back to the hut for a lazy afternoon of relaxing with the hut book and magazines for company. With a many coursed lunch that took as through to tea time. Actually it wasn’t quiet that relaxing we really had to work at keeping the fire going as the bigger logs all seemed pretty fire resistant. Every five minutes we were at the hearth trying to blow life back into the flames or adding more wood.
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The morning dawned fine but the blue sky soon gave way to patchy high cloud. Still it was nice to be without the rain and drizzle for a change. We packed up straight after breakfast, Cray had time on his hands as I slowly got my sh*t together, and so set about replacing the firewood and sweeping out the hut.
We started our trek in good spirits and with plenty of energy [our spirits remained high throughout the walk out but the energy did decline after a few hours].We enjoyed walking in better weather, the cloud was high enough now to expose some fantastic vistas with all the surrounding snowy peaks revealed. Traversing along the lip of a bush covered terrace over looking the river Cray pointed out a deer on the other side. The six point stag was grazing into the wind at the base of the hill. We already had our quota of veni so we took a lengthy break just to watch the stag and snap off a few photo’s. This was the icing on the cake for such a great and productive trip.
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Closer to the road end we were slowing down considerably under our heavy loads, we rounded a bend and spotted yet another animal – but this time it was a [disappointingly small] wild tabby. We both thumbed rounds into our rifles but lost sight of it before we could fire. A final river crossing had us back loading our gear into my mighty hunting wagon before speeding off in search of a pie and a milkshake.
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This had been my best trip in years with multiple animal sightings and a good haul of meat. Winter trips can certainly be very rewarding with day time feeding deer and less people around.
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