In February I made a trip down to Fiordland for a bit of a hunt and a bit of a hike. The plan was for me to walk the Kepler track then at the end meet my mate and head back up the track to hunt for a few days.
Started on the Kepler track on the 20th for the ascent up to Luxmore hut. It was pretty cloudy up on the tops so not much view, have a look:
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But by the morning it had cleared for some beautiful views over to the Murchison Mountains across South fiord – check it out!
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The second day you summit Mt. Luxmore and is spent mostly on the tops before descending below the bushline and into Iris Burn. Couldn’t have asked for better weather for it, I think the photo’s speak for themselves. My camera died on me just before we made the descent into Iris Burn, so the rest I took on my phone, but they came out alright. Needless to say I was pretty shagged when I got to the hut; I worked out later that night that I had drank about 5 litres of water that day, don’t think I’ve ever had that much before.
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There is a 20min walk you can do behind the Iris burn hut which leads to a waterfall. In the morning I took a stroll up there before donning my pack and heading off. Got to the waterfall and hung around for a bit but with the sandflies biting at any exposed skin, I soon made my way back. About 5 minutes in to the walk I looked across the river to a small tussock clearing and saw a hind feeding, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets! I stopped for a few moments then moved as fast as I could and still be quiet down the track towards the hut – I needed my rifle. Couple hundred metres and I was sprinting! Got to the hut and got my bolt, ammo, knife and rifle. Running out of the hut with my rifle on my back and the warden stops me. Figured she wanted my hunting permit or just to reiterate the rule of no hunting within 500m of a great walk hut (of this, I was aware). I told her I knew the rule and that I was in a bit of a hurry but she told me something I didn’t know, and that was that there was to be no hunting within 500m of the track as well – dagger in my chest! We talked for a bit and I told her I wanted just to go back to look at the deer and she said that she believed me and that she’d hear if I took the shot. I went back and watched the deer for a while and counted my misfortunes. Here’s a photo I took, sorry the quality is so shit, the camera on my phone does not zoom well.
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Funny thing is that the rule of 500m off the track isn’t in print on the hunting permit. Not that it’s a bad rule in an area where the numbers of trampers are so high, but nevertheless, its not there.
Anyway, eventually I made a kissing noise to see the hind’s reaction. She lifted her head and looked in my direction but I stayed still and she carried on eating after a while. I did it again and even waved at her and she didn’t run off. Did it again and she thought it best to leave, but she didn’t run or anything, just a medium canter. At least I gained something from seeing her, I got to see how deer react to noise when they don't have scent, if not a pack full of venison.
Went back to the hut and talked to the DOC officer and she was all good. Gave me a few spots to have a look at and even said that if I couldnt be arsed walking the deer out to the road end (8 hours), I could leave the meat with her. I headed off to Motorau hut with mixed emotions: I had seen my first DOC land deer and even had it in my sights, but the fates opposed me, that first public land Red will have to wait a little longer.
On a side note, it was interesting the different reactions you get when talking to foreigners about hunting in NZ. I kept me rifle covered and inconspicuous nearly at all times, but never missed an opportunity to talk to people about it. An Alaskan guy (who hunts back home) thought it was so cool that you would have a hunters and trampers mixing like this – he also couldn’t believe there was no season or limits in place - I explained why. A group of young German boys said how expensive hunting was back home and couldn’t believe that one free permit could enable me to hunt all over the country. I even had an Israeli guy say that he would carry my pack and the quarry if he could just come hunting with me! Its illegal to hunt in Israel because of the large population and small land area. It all made me very glad to live in this fine country.
Back to the story: I spent the night at Moturau hut – have a look at the sunset.
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The next day I headed to the road end and met up with my mate and then we spent the night at Shallow Bay hut, we were lulled to sleep by a chorus of mosquitos :oh noes:. We went for a short evening stalk in our socks (cornflakes in the beech!) and came across some sign but no luck. Not to worry, the trip is young. The following day we had planned to head back up Iris burn and spend two nights under camp but my mate, who hadn’t been bush really before, was having a fair bit of trouble. His borrowed pack had a waist strap which was far too large for him, so the weight (about 25kg all up) was resting almost solely on his shoulders, which is a recipe for disaster, especially for someone who hadn’t spent much time with pack on back. We decided after about 4 hours we decided to pack it in and head back to Shallow bay. We worked out that we’d cut our time a bit too short by making the long trip because we'd have to spend a whole day to walk back out, and my mate wasn’t really coping. Don’t we do stupid shit when we’re young? :XD: We spent another two nights in the end at shallow bay and hunted the beech forest surrounding. Came across a fair bit of sign but we didn’t get any animals – probably heard us coming.
Had a sweet time taking in the scenery and going hunting; I was very sour to leave. I think next year I’ll try get a summer job down there and spend even more time in the hills.
Cheers for reading,
Happy hunting
