Thread: A dream come true

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 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...

Mate you have had a blast.

Loving the photos

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by hunterAT

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...

Bloody awesome!!!!

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.