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the journey of two Canadian
I'm making this post as a thank you to this community, but also to help other travelers who have as many questions as I did.
First of all, I would never call my trip a vacation.
An adventure, even an experience... but certainly not a vacation!
But even more importantly, this whole adventure wouldn't have been a success story without the help of a forum member! I won't give his name to avoid being bothered by any new members without his approbation.
I'll start with the important points on the checklist before getting to the story!
Although NZ is a Commonwealth country, there is a visa. Essentially a tourist tax, no what, who, how, or why... give us $100 and you can come whenever you want for two years;
For those like me whose driver's license isn't in English, it's required to have an official translation (I hadn't thought of that one);
The application for a temporary firearm permit went really smoothly without any hitches. A few questions about how and where, but I really overthought and overstressed this point for no reason;
Transporting weapons between airports and countries... technically, the situation is quite simple and straightforward, but the reality is that no one knows what to do! You'll systematically waste hours at every airport... Canada and New Zealand, endless races between sections of the airport, counters, and people. Plan at least 3 hours per airport.
Well, let the story begin! Upon our arrival, the 17-hour time difference and driving on the left went relatively smoothly, and the next day we headed towards Mount Eyre, not without first discussing with our forum member which entrance to take, how high to sleep, and what routes to plan.
We thought we'd go further than that before hiking... but we quickly realized that our rental vehicle wasn't suitable for the black dotted road on the NZTopo50S app map. 4-wheeler group destroyed the road before and even more after us.
So we started with a hike of several kilometers to reach the first peak where we'd set up camp.
Three nights in this section, two campsites, more than 40 kilometers of walking with 30 kg on our backs. The views were completely magnificent, and the hunters we met were super friendly!
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But the reality was that we saw absolutely nothing! Not even a chamois...
Traces everywhere, but nothing in sight. We left the area and went back to see our super member.
Demoralized and a little sore, he confirmed the same thing as the other people we met in the area. It's impossible we hadn't seen anything!
So we got a lesson in spotting!
Right from his parking lot, he spotted 5 Chamois 1.4 km away in a few seconds... What a humbling experience we had at that moment!
We simply didn't have the eye for this kind of spotting...
We had to abandon our North American habits; we weren't looking within our usual shooting distance, and a little further. All my searches in the 300 to 800 meter range were useless. We spent a good night at the hotel and then headed back to the Remarkables.
Now that our inability to spot them got corrected... We were starting to see them and understand them! Females, males, and some beautiful Roar shows await us. But time flies, and now we have to choose and take action.
Definitely not a trophy for you, but the second largest we've ever seen, and we had to move.
We were tightly planned for our departure!
Wednesday morning, that's when it had to happen, and it did!
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Once done, no time for emotion, we had to get the meat out in time to leave it with the butcher before he closed at 5 p.m. We weren't that close to the vehicle, and the vehicle wasn't that close to the butcher!
I discovered the limits of my shoes: 6 km, 600 m of elevation in less than 2 hours with over 45 kg on my back... the shoes gave up, and my shoulders would be sore for a few days. All that was left was to prepare the skull and convert it into a "hunting trophy" to meet import requirements. Once again, our super member allowed us to use his facilities to prepare this.
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We finished preparing for our departure late, but everything arrived on time!
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I'll spare you the airport adventures, customs, and check-in issues.
But in the end, we hiked more than 70 km, heavily loaded, but we brought back meat and antler! (but damn, self-sufficient camping is unpleasant.)
