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.

Legend

Excellent trip.

man you surely have done the hard yards and deserve all the sucess you have achieved..... hope you have got taxidermist all lined up to clean skulls etc for the trip home????SWedish mate used O'Roukes at pleasant point a couple of years ago and the service was great,led to no hassels at customs etc.

Epic trip great pics

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

man you surely have done the hard yards and deserve all the sucess you have achieved..... hope you have got taxidermist all lined up to clean skulls etc for the trip home????SWedish mate used O'Roukes at pleasant point a couple of years ago and the service was great,led to no hassels at customs etc.

Yeah, my choice was O'Rourke, too. Went there twice to drop off the skulls.

What a great report thanks for posting!

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

Another great read,thanks ago.

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.

Made my day- a great write up and well deserved success. Geez , I recognise some of the country that you are covering and I can't wait for lockdown to end... hopefully the 23rd of ....April!

You have definitely made the most of your visit to NZ. Several of your photos have shown areas I know, from a fantastic perspective. Thanks again for sharing your trip with us.

Nice stag AT,you are a fit bugger allrigth.Iv hunted around there a bit,theres are few deer around,if you spend the time.