Thread: A dream come true

Day 27

In the afternoon I was at the car park, intending to head into North Opuha. It was raining but the weather forecast predicted the rain to stop soon so I waited.

Studied the intentions book for a while. Wasn't very encouraging as many (most?) hunters hadn't seen any animals.

Then 4 hunters arrived at the car park and headed in so the hut was already full.

The rain did not stop and fog rolled in. I didn't want to get soaking wet without having a hut to dry and without having a chance to see animals in the fog anyway. So I decided to sleep in the car.

Day 28

Got up early and hiked in in fine weather. Reached public land at daylight. Even before reaching the hut I sat down to glass.


At first I spotted the other hunters that were heading for the eastern portion of the block.

Then I spotted a tahr in the highest basin, some 3 km away. One tahr? I counted more and more every minute. Finally I counted 30 tahr and all of them seemed like bulls.
Also spotted 2 or 3 red deer but they were hinds.

Moved on a bit and kept an eye on the tahr, hoping they wouldn't cross the ridge and enter private land. Also kept an eye on the other hunters. 2 of them had climbed the eastern part of the ridge and it seemed well possible that they were heading towards the tahr now. In that case I was going to head elsewhere.
But the hunters moved on to the east. And the tahr bedded.
So I crossed the valley floor, dropped my camp and headed up the mountain.


Was pretty tough in the high tussock. But at 1:30 pm I finally got within range and set up for the shot.


Picked which seemed like the most mature bull (longest mane, biggest body). 324m. Dialled up 3 MOA and let the bullet fly. The tahr dropped after a few meters. Was only 4.5 years old, though. But it had been a great hunt which was way more important.


The other tahr were still there and stayed around for hours. They hardly cared about my presence. Pretty crazy behaviour. I guess that these tahr usually live on private land and that it was pure luck that I found them on public land.
Would have been easy to shoot some more but I only did with the camera.




When heading down the mountain later in the day there was another tahr at 50 m. Bigger than the one I had shot. Watched him for quite a while and let him walk.

I also had a spiker and a decent 6-point stag at 300m. At first I was unsure whether to shoot or not. When I finally decided to shoot the stag disappeared in the creek bed. Then fog rolled in. Later I actually bumped into both deer twice but in the fog I noticed them too late.

Reached the valley floor in the evening. A wallaby hopped off at 5m without giving me a chance. A bit later 2 more wallabies hopped off. One disappeared in the bush. The other one tried to hide some 20m away but its ears remained visible. I climbed a rock. That way the head and neck were visible and which gave me the unexpected opportunity to harvest another species.


Day 29



Didn't do much as I had shot more than enough anyway.
Headed out in the evening.
After having reached the car I learnt that my new flight had been cancelled, too.
Spent the night in the car.

Day 30

When I dropped off the trophies in Pleasant Point the taxidermist was the first to tell me about the shutdown. I had 1.5 days left.

Headed to Christchurch but no way to get a flight.

Ok, then I'm going to self-isolate in the backcountry and spend the time hunting. No safer place for sure. That was my first thought.
After some online research I found out that backcountry activities are prohibited for very understandable reasons.

Day 31

Went back to the Fairlie motel as I hoped that time would pass easier in the countryside.

Day 32

The day that my flight had been scheduled for. Instead it was the first day of the shutdown. Not the best timing for sure.

Now it's day 39 and I'm still here in Fairlie. Definately a nice place to be under the current circumstances.

Thank you, New Zealand, for allowing me to experience this awesome adventure! I hope life in this beautiful country will be back to normal soon.

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Well Written @hunterAT sounds like a great trip . Try to enjoy the extended holiday. 👍

Thanks, actually I was worried if my writeup was fully understandable.

Cool story, thanks. What rifle and caliber did you shoot it with?

Not sure where you staying in Fairlie,but theres a walk way in the willows on true left of river which is 100mtrs out of Fairlie on the Geraldine high way you could go for a walk up a bit,na maybe not, somebody else could be walking up there.How long are you in Fairlie for?

Well done. Thanks for posting.

Fantastic effort and a great result. Good to see someone who is willing to put in the physical effort to realise a dream. Not just through a heap of money at it.
Well done and hopefully you (and everyone else stuck here) gets through this alright.

We’re more than happy to share our country with people like you.
I really enjoyed your story and can’t wait fir part two.

:-)

Originally Posted by Gibo

Cool story, thanks. What rifle and caliber did you shoot it with?

It's a Tikka T3x Lite, custum trigger, 7 mm Rem. Mag., Vortex Viper 4-16x50, Vortex bubble, Harris bipod.

Has 0.4 MOA accurancy at 300m.

Originally Posted by Trout

Not sure where you staying in Fairlie,but theres a walk way in the willows on true left of river which is 100mtrs out of Fairlie on the Geraldine high way you could go for a walk up a bit,na maybe not, somebody else could be walking up there.How long are you in Fairlie for?

Depends on when I get a flight home. A few weeks probably.
I am staying at Mackenzie Motels. Will have a look at that walk if possible, thanks.

Originally Posted by hunterAT

Depends on when I get a flight home. A few weeks probably.
I am staying at Mackenzie Motels. Will have a look at that walk if possible, thanks.

I just live up the road,if you still in Fairlie after the lock up, go for a walk into the North Opuha.Theres the odd animal around there.About a 15k walk for a return day trip.Theres a little hut in there too.

Originally Posted by Trout

I just live up the road,if you still in Fairlie after the lock up, go for a walk into the North Opuha.Theres the odd animal around there.About a 15k walk for a return day trip.Theres a little hut in there too.

Been in there just before the shutdown. Will probably be part 5 of the report.

Day 17

Stayed in Lake Tekapo to relax and clean the gear.

Day 18

Headed towards the Hanmer Springs area to hunt those species I know from home, chamois and red deer.

Started hiking in the afternoon.




Just before dark I spotted 3 chamois way off in the distance.

Day 19



In the morning it was freezing cold. I glassed from camp and spotted a spiker. And the 3 chamois again: 2 young bucks on the opposite mountain, hard to get there. And a slightly bigger buck further in the valley. Seemed like a 4.5-year-old one.

I packed up camp and hiked for another 2km. After setting up camp again I continued glassing. The chamois was nowhere to be seen. But at 4 pm I finally spotted him. It took me about an hour to cut the distance from 900m to 184m. Meanwhile the chamois had bedded down. And he didn't get up anymore...






Was 4.5 years old indeed. Not the biggest buck but my first chamois from the other end of the world.

Day 20

The day was spent around camp without seeing anything but birds.

Day 21

Started hiking very early and reached the head basin at daylight.




Soon a chamois was spotted. Would have been easy to shoot it but it was only a 1.5-year-old buck so I passed up on him.

A while later I spotted 2 more chamois 1km away. They were not too old (seemed like 3.5 years to me), either. But nice bucks anyway. They were moving uphill so it took me 2 hours to catch up with them. When peeking over a knob I had them at 60m, which made for an easy shot. The chamois ran another 10m and tumbled down a cliff. The 2nd one didn't even run off but I felt that one chamois was enough.
Unfortunately my chamois had got stuck at a pretty inaccessible spot in the middle of the cliff. The wise decision would have been to just leave it and not take the considerable risk. But I decided to try at least and after 2 hours of climbing and trying different routes I finally made it. He was older than expected, 5.5 years. Moving the chamois just a little bit made it tumble for another 100m, which helped me to make it down safely.


When hiking towards camp I had another nice chamois at 300m. But I was more than happy with the one I had so I let him walk.
Got back to camp at nightfall.

Day 22

Stayed around camp without seeing any animals.

Originally Posted by Shearer

Fantastic effort and a great result. Good to see someone who is willing to put in the physical effort to realise a dream. Not just through a heap of money at it.
Well done and hopefully you (and everyone else stuck here) gets through this alright.

Thanks. In my opinion it's the physical effort that makes thid kind of hunting so rewarding.

Originally Posted by craigc

We’re more than happy to share our country with people like you.
I really enjoyed your story and can’t wait fir part two.

:-)

Happy to hear that

Day 8

Moved camp a little further upstream. The wind was picking up a lot. Spotted 3 nice bulls in the evening but no way to get there before.

Day 9

Crazily windy in the night. I could hardly sleep as I feared the tent might be teared apart. Rain and storm for most of the day. Had to stay in the tent until the late afternoon. Spotted quite a lot of tahr, including a pretty big bull. Decided to hunt for this one the next day.

Day 10

Hiked upstream in the dark. Just at daylight I heard a tahr's warning call. I looked up and there he was, only a bit more than 200m above me. A big bull for sure. On some rocks I set up for the shot…


...while the tahr was watching me. He didn't go far after the shot. When I got up there he was even bigger than expected. Well over 13 inches and 9.5 years. Absolutely stoked.


Day 11

Decided to hike up to the valley head. The main goal was to see and explore the country but I wouldn't say no to a nice tahr.






Actually I saw a lot of tahr. Passed on some young bulls and made 2 unsuccessful stalks at mature ones.

In the evening I spotted another mob of bulls and got within 270m, climbing through extremely steep terrain that gave some awesome view towards camp.


It was pretty windy but I felt confident about the shot. I picked the biggest bull and let the bullet fly. Even though he dropped at the spot it took me 2 hours to find him as he had slid out of view and dropped into a hole after 20m. He was younger than expected (only 4.5 years). But this day had been the most memorable experience of this trip so far so I didn't mind.


Some Keas arrived while I was looking for the tahr.






When I got back to camp I was absolutely bugged. Had been awake for 22 hours on that day, hiking and hunting most of the time.

Day 12



Spent the day around camp. Spotted only few tahr up high. But they were nice bulls.

Day 13

In the morning not a single tahr was to be seen. Then I headed to a hut in the main valley. Rain and storm were going to hit again so I preferred a hut over a tent. Close to the hut I actually met the first people since I had left civilisation.

Day 14

Rain and storm. In the afternoon the weather improved a bit.


I went for a walk and spotted a mob of 10 tahr. Even though I managed to cut the distance to 290m I decided not to shoot. Meanwhile it was raining so heavily that I could hardly see the tahr in the riflescope. Combined with the wind I didn't feel comfortable with the shot.

Day 15

Better weather. Hiked out towards the border of public land and set up camp at my very first campspot. River levels had already dropped a lot so I felt confident to get back to the car the next day.

Day 16

No more rain in the night. But crazily high rivers as it had rained at the main divide. The lower parts of the valley were actually flooded.


But I made it to the car. Met some local hunters on private land. They said that river levels like this were hardly ever seen at this time of the year.

To be continued...