Thread: Block 5

On the 15th of August last year I recieved a txt from @veitnamcam it was titled...

'Nelson lakes ungulate control'

A local initiative from doc where hunters would be flown into blocks in the national park where landings are usually prohibited to help control animal numbers.

You interested he said. Yep I'm keen was the reply. Cam quickly secured a 2nd period roar block and arranged a crew.

For various reasons the crew changed a few times before departure and even Cam himself wasn't able to make it due to work commitments. However a huge thank you must go to you for getting the ball rolling, your not missing the next one!!

DAY 1

Rob from muchision heli tours offered to fly us in one day early which we jumped at given the forecast later in the week. The 5 of us met in murchision on the 16th and a plan was hatched, everything weighed (630kgs) so 20kgs under



The weather was excellant and it was a great flight in. First stop was to deposit @stingray and @Munsey onto the tops (hill forty @Shearer)



I was keen to deliver the last nights condiments to the hut and then make use of the track into the upper west matakitaki basin so @ROKTOY, Kev and I were dropped at Bob's.



It was pack streight on for me and beat the feet. This track had been cleared of the infamous wind fall by doc 1 month earlier so the going was good.

Camp was made at 4pm well above the bushline but with a bit of drizzle and clag about no animals were seen by me.



At the 7pm radio check in with the guys on the ridge above it was decided that we should stay in radio contact tomorrow as they felt like they were in a good position to spot an animal in my neck of the woods.

I was absolutely stoked to be up here and had trouble sleeping that first night !!

I will let the other guys chime in here with their first day experiences and then I'll be back with DAY 2.

Hopefully that way it will be easier for you to read at work Cam We may even keep you entertained for a few days












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looks like neat country.

Cool, looking forward to further instalments .

By good luck or very generous folks , I found myself and @Munsey in the tops on Mt 40, the pilot dropped our gear got us out and lifted away.

All went very quiet, I looked around and realised I was a long way from home and in very serious country! @Munsey was amped ..we found a fold in the ridge the would shelter us from the wind , and a Tarn that hadn't seen deer walk through or wallow in it.
Set up camp and had a brew .

Then headed for the sunny side of our block , glassing gutters and valleys we watched @kukuwai make his way up the valley floor below us, we looked and looked and searched for a animal to hunt him in on. No luck

430 radio coms between the the teams saw every one away down up or about ...

Bed time folks few photos of day 1 to follow ..

I look forward to further instalments!

Way to leave me hanging guys...

Oh a mini series! get em boys!

Nice photos bro !!

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Fantastic photo of Hill Forty @stingray.

Sorry folks have a shit of a time loading photos, plus we used a camera a lot of the time that is in ChCh so I'm waiting for a memory stick to arrive!

Anyway
day #2 for us on the tops,
After having an evening glass and a hunt of the bush edges below camp and back down to the ridge we would take down to the valley floor , no animals sighted. We had drizzle on dark then fogged in and went to bed.
Woke day#2 to to clear sky's and frozen everything .
After carefully using the lighter to warm the gas canister so we could get a brew going we had breakfast in the moonlight.
Wrapped up on warm gear and headed over to the southern side to glass there for the dawn. Sitting in the frost with socks on our hands glassing glassing glassing , finally with the sun hitting the bush edge we saw our first deer a scruffy 6/7 ? Stag and a hind they were over in the next catchment and in half an hour feed out of sight.

Back to camp fuelled up and started climbing / sidling up towards the top , radio check at 9 had us talking with @kukuwai in the valley below, he had seen a good chamois working its way up in our direction , whilst our glassing of all the basins and gutters above him had produced nothing. Check in at 1230 was agreed. The other party of @ROKTOY and Kev were way down the river and out of range.

So with info on the animal possibly heading our way we made steady progress to the head of the ridge / range. Still very little sign and nothing fresh, we dug in and pushed for the top only to find fresh track ahead of us . The top we ran out of tussock and now we're standing in shale and rock, looking down through the binos into gutters and sheer faces , gave me vertiago and cold sweats!

Glassing again looking for the Chamios we spent a couple of hours checking every nook and cranny in the dark side , moving little by little and glassing everywhere, time wore by and Dean wanted to see if he could find away round the top to the other range.so he headed off round the shale crags , I was well out of my comfort and experience zone so hunkered down and kept watch on the world. A hour later Dean was back shale and gravel turned into icy rock and was impassible. Not only the he had found the Chamios bedding area or scrape the bugger had being above us most likely watching us.

Back off the peaks and glassed our way back to camp , early tea and over to more glassing of faces, radio chat with @kukuwai and team down below. Everyone saying the same a lack of fresh sign.

Ended day two yarning with Dean in the full moon light, one stag gave a couple of roars over on the dark side about 8:30pm , hatched a plan to bust a gut down into the creek below and climb back out the other side to hunt the deer seen in the morning.

Will post photos when possible

Here's Day 2 for me guys.

It started much the same as the guys above, up in the dark. The rain had cleared during the night and the southerly flow that followed had frozen everything.

No trouble with the gas for me being a user of an old school trangia running on meths. My issue was with the boots, frozen solid so the first pot of water went on those



Glassing at daybreak with a coffee located a stag travelling down a distant ridge but was soon lost as it went into the scrub. Second animal was that lone chamios which i am pretty sure was a buck heading uphill in the direction of the lads above.

With the initial thought that the deer would be mobbed up high I travelled upstream into a good katabatic breeze glassing some awesome country as I went.



However even with me glassing from below and the guys looking from above no animals could be found despite the country looking great.



I had managed to find a few wallows shortly after leaving camp but they looked not to have been used for at least a week or two.



The further up I went the less sign I saw. The freshest sign i had seen was close to the bush edge so with the voice of my dad in my head saying "fish your feet first son" I decided to do a U-turn and relocate camp to focus on that area.

The day breeze kicked in so I was lucky enough to have the wind in my favour both ways. More outstanding country was glassed but the lack of deer was hard to fathom.



We discussed at length why it might be that this valley that looked like it should be holding deer wasn't. After all we were in here for ungulate control. This was some of the ideas we had. Id be interested in peoples thoughts here.

1. The deer had fed thru this north facing area and following the feed had moved onto the southern aspects to take advantage of the late flush.

2. They were up higher still. This seemed unlikely as either myself or the guys on the ridge should have still seen them.

3. Being the second party in. The shooting from the first party may have sent them into cover.

Anyway camp was moved and a nice sniper spot was found above camp on the bush edge.



Just on dusk I finally spotted a deer (stag) moving thru the bushes on the bush edge. However with the fading light and scrub always obscuring him no shot was offered.

The radio chatter that night was a little despondent, i remarked "we are doing nothing wrong, we just arnt picking up the animals. We just gota keep trying"

Day 3 tomorrow fellas


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Kev and I spent the afternoon of day one hiking to the far end of our block to check out some grass flats. Arriving a little later than planned we set up camp about 700M away from the clearings, and had a feed before having a quiet night watching the stars, and yarning. We decided to leave the flats to the morning to take advantage of the morning breeze.
The next morning an hour of bush stalking saw us on the edges of the flat just as the sun started to clear the hills and warm the flatland.
We hunkered down and glassed the edges of the clearings and also took the opportunity to glass up into a large basin opposite us that we planned to venture into later on.
Our clearings offered up no prizes, we had struggled to find sign in the bush, everything was old.
Back to camp for breakfast, before breaking camp and heading back towards the main valley floor.
Stopping for a breather were were surprised to hear voice on the track behind us. Bugger, two trampers caught up and stopped for a chat.
They were heading to Bobs Hut for the night before returning back down the valley the next day.
We stopped on the valley floor and sat back on some tussocks and spent an hour or so glassing the valley we had planned to walk into. No animals presented themselves on the faces we could get glass onto.
We decided not to climb into the valley with all our gear, opting instead to drop gear at the hut and walk in light, so as to cover more ground.

loving this tease

Originally Posted by Pengy

loving this tease

Just telling it like it happened mate.
Glad your enjoying it

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