Thread: A dream come true

I really enjoyed your report and photos.
How are you getting on with getting home?

Originally Posted by jakewire

I really enjoyed your report and photos.
How are you getting on with getting home?

They are intending to get all Europeans back home within the next 2 weeks.

Thanks for your kind words, everybody

Day 23

In the morning it was snowing. I packed up camp and hiked out.


Then I headed into another valley that seemed better for deer. Heaps of canada geese in there.

Set up camp and spent the last hour of daylight glassing.


Spotted 2 spikers, 1 hind and 1 fawn.

Day 24

Woke up to a chilly morning. Frozen boots.
Climbed to a saddle and glassed.


While doing so I recieved a message on my Garmin Inreach: my flight back home had been cancelled. This meant I would have to hike out early to book a new flight.

Finally I spotted a deer that moved into one of the highest basins way off in the distance. A pretty decent stag! I had too little food and water with me to make that hike now. So I returned to camp and got what I needed. Then I hiked up the backside of the basin.


It was 3 pm when I reached the ridge and peeked into the basin. No animals were to be seen.
I continued along the ridge and finally spotted a deer. A spiker. But next to him there was another one. The stag. Both were bedded in the tussock. It was 330m but there was such a strong wind up here that I didn't feel comfortable to shoot. So I moved around the basin behind the ridge. That took me 45 minutes but finally I cut the distance to 160m. The stag was still bedded and all I could see was his head. Suddenly he got up and looked straight at me. After the shot he ran off some 30m and stopped. Seemed like he would drop any moment but I put another bullet in him just to be sure.


View back towards chamois country


Got back to camp in the night.

Day 25



Stayed around camp in the morning. Hiked out in the afternoon and got back to the car before dark.
Headed south. Halfway to Christchurch I slept in the car for a few hours.

Day 26

Went to the airport in the morning. It actually took me 7 hours to book a new flight back home.
Then I continued south as I had a few days left. When driving through Fairlie I found a nice motel and stayed there for the night.