Thread: Peewoks waitangi weekend wanderings

The plan was made that me and 2 mates would take the monday off before waitangi day so we could have a 4 day weekend to give us plenty of time to mission it down to the ruahines or kaimanawas and get a decent few days of hunting in. As most plans go it soon changed, 4 days became 3 and 3 mates became 2 last minute when one pulled out to spend the weekend doing other boring less important shit.

With a few hours to go before knocking off friday we sussed a plan over text. me and mikey would hit a favourite haunt in the kaimais known to us as the hilton thanks to the well kitted out hut with only a few resident rats (one had been taken out with a pair of secateurs and some agressive stamping by me on a previous trip but thats a different story) after work i grabbed my gear and headed to mikeys and loaded up his beast of an L300 running on 3 cylinders we were on the road by 4.15 and at the carpark by 8.30 thanks to auckland traffic.

After a warm walk across farmland we reached the bush edge and pulled our lights out. i was just using a torch as i usually do as headlights get on my nerves. where we cross into the bush there is a small stream but over the last few days there had been a shitload of rain the the small stream was now a big stream with not much places to cross. i found a good spot and jumped across onto a rock but as i landed a bit of supplejack knocked my torch into the water to accompany eels for the forseeable future. luckily i always carry a spare headlight so i chucked that on and we had a good search for my led lenser which was now doing its best impersonation of a rock but alas my trusty light was now tangaroas new favourite toy. 3 hours later we arrived at our luxury accomadation at 540 odd metres up. thankfully there was no one else there so we got to double matress it (fuckin best thing ever)

The next morning was a lazy one but we mananged to peel oursleves out of our 5 million threadcount sleeping bags and chuck some food in the direction of our mouths. mikey had a plan already "ill head this way and shoot a deer and you fuck off and get me some beers to celebrate" so we parted ways with the plan of meeting back at the hilton later to go out for an evening hunt. the next 8 or so hours was the most uneventful hunting i think ive ever had with the wind somehow magnetising to my ass and following me around all day even when i spun around on myself. by the time i got back to the hut i was buggered and morale was low. mikey had spooked a few deer and almost walked over one then filled his undies when it jumped up in front of him and took off. We cruised off for a quick hunt before dinner and heard one run off about 10m from us in the thick shit but didnt see it so couldve been anything (horse? chicken? unicorn?) it was getting late and my stomach was starting to make noises reminiscent of a 747 so it was back to the hut

Most of the time i travel light and carry the average small light food but this trip i was over it and wanted a real feed so i had carried up a bag of red venny sausages, half a fallow venny salami, a bag of choc thins and 4 cans of gods favorite mangitainoka river water also known as tui. mikey had dehy mashed potatoes and dehy peas and in a stroke of genius had brought a couple sachets of instant gravy. the meal that we smashed together was one of the best dam feeds ive ever had and the sleep that followed was pretty up there too no thanks to the poussums trying to sing us to sleep

Sunday rolled around and it was a tough job to get up out of bed but the thought that my next weekends dinner was walking around not far from me got motivated enough to haul myself up. We made a plan to meet at a certain topographical feature on the map at 12 so got on the track and headed to where we would split. About 8.15 i found a nice looking game trail heading off the track so said adios mikey and meandered along it. Not far along i found a pile of fresh pig shit which was interesting having never seen any pigs in there and only knowing of one being shot around there so had new visions of bacon to keep me going.

I eventually got to a point where the bush started opening up and patches of nice fresh grass were growing to i slowed down a lot and did the old 2 steps then stop look and wait. I looked at my gps and saw i had marked a spot of interest only about 50m from where i was so headed in that direction. The next 20 metres took about 20 minutes to cover and through the trees i started to see the clay pad that i had marked so took one more step to get a better view and straight away saw a deer standing opposite the clearing to me broadside with its head behind a tree it was only about 30m away so i raised the .308 and sent a 150grain sst to meet its lungs. Through my scope i saw the deer jump then when i lowered it i saw a stag running off heading right so i thought that was my deer. I stayed where i was and listened to try hear any crashing away into the bush but it was silent. Pulled my phone out and took a picture of where the deer had been standing when i shot it from where i was then headed over to see what i could find. Straight away there was blood so followed that for 15 metres to find a nice fat 6 point stag curled up just inside the bush edge. It had run directly away from me so the other stag i saw was a different animal. My first deer in a while and my second stag from this area so i was stoked. Pulled the guts out and hung it up in the shade where it was nice and cool then inspected the wound. The bullet had smashed through both lungs leaving a massive hole and rips in the far one but missed the heart so i snatched that for dinner.

After that i cruised over to where i was meeting mikey and hung around. Got bored and went to a look around and not far from where i had been waiting i heard something moving around so pulled out my phone and started videoing hoping to catch a deer on film. It was moving towards me and i started seeing ferns moving around so started getting real excited the saw a blaze orange hat accompanied by mikey wearing it, said 'yo' and he shit himself big time haha got that on camera. Back to the hut for lunch and a fly massacre then it was out again to try secure a deer for mikey but no luck. That night there mustve been a family of possums living just outside the hut and they were screaming half the night. Managed to smoke one with the hut axe when i went out for a leak and then a few minutes after i had jumped back in my fart sack i heard hooves running past just outside the hut.

The next day it was bug out time time we hauled off to the stag and boned it out then slowly made our way down the track. At the bottom of the hill we reached the stream where i lost my torch so we had a search for it. After 15 minutes of reaching blindly into knee deep holes between rocks i gave up "fuck it bro its gone lets go" then mikey says "Wait! whats that between those rocks? i saw something black" i reached down and couldnt believe it when i pulled my my torch! 3 days underwater and i pressed the button and it blinded me. Shot LED lenser for making a fuckin good torch ive dropped it a million times at work and now done my best to drown it but its still going strong. Back at the van my legs were fucked and it was a great feeling dropping the pack loaded up with premium venny. Off to matamata for an ice cream the adventure was finished. Had some backsteak and hindquarter steaks last night and daaaaaam it never gets old. The taste of a good feed that you truly work for beats anything else

This short story turned into a bit of a novel hopefully its written better then my last one and hope you enjoy it

Tasty treats







Exit on far lung






Remains of last stag i shot there

Yep, I enjoyed that story, had a few giggles too

Excellent report , looks like the hard yards paid off with a load of venison, well done. Those SST's do a nice job.

FOMCROFLMAO with your little 'mishaps'.
Great read though @piwakawaka

Enjoyed that, cheers for posting.

Best story ever!

Great yarn!

Post the "yo" video, that made me chuckle