Thread: A dream come true

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.