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.

Mate I think you have made more of this opportunity than any other foreign hunter that has visited this forum. Bloody good on you.

Good hunting AT,nice valleys in there.HC and I walked in there one morning,sat down on the porch of that little hut having a coffee.Well 10 minuts later,about 10 big stags stood up in the dry riverbed bush about 200yds way.Well lessons learnt here,allways have yr rifle at yr side,not 6yds away.Thoses big stags just trooted up into the fog which was near the valley floor.We were both loss for words at what we just seen.Enjoy your trophys when you get home.
Well have a good trip home mate,we all enjoyed your hunting storys.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Mate I think you have made more of this opportunity than any other foreign hunter that has visited this forum. Bloody good on you.

I second that
@hunterAT your contributions are much appreciated

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Thanks for a great story, lots of "messages" there to for those who moan about not seeing any game!!

man you surely have made the most of your time here.....AWESOME writeup.... thankyou again for sharing it with us all.

Great read, thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Loved the photo's also, glad you enjoyed our piece of paradise at the bottom of the world and respected it.

Great write up
I sincerely hope you can get home speedily and stay safe when you get there.

All your kind words are much appreciated, thanks!

This trip exceeded my expectations in so many ways.

What an awesome trip report.
Man you covered some ground and got some nice animals.
Well done.

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Your photography is as sharp as your hunting skills, well done you.

You did some huge days there HunterAT, I'm impressed.
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

I have always wanted to do something similar and this lock down shit has just confirmed in my mind that there is no point in waiting for "later"

I'm 26.

Just do it

Did you get home alright mate?
Thanks for your great post

Yes, thankfully I was able to catch Austria's repatriation flight. Anyhow I am already looking forward to return to NZ one day.

Tomorrow is the last day of my home quarantine. Will do some scouting on Saturday. Currently we are a little luckier than you... there's no ban on hunting anymore and deer hunting season will start in 3 weeks.