Big Game Hunting New Zealand Sep/Oct 2015 | Page 12

Dan Roff and B with their Otago
pigs

the essentials of
keeping feed and
water to stock were
a far greater concern
than the holiday
plans of a bunch of
hunters. We pulled
out of these spots
and organised some
less snow effected
properties at last
minute. We still had
somewhere to go
but it was going to
be bloody cold!
We had a couple
of teams of
hunters; I was
with Sparky, Chief
and local shearing
contractor Grant Murdoch; while Rex
Mitchell had brought down a couple of his
sons and their friends. A few other locals
tagged along for parts of the trip so it really was
a festival of pig hunting including plenty of late
night refreshments at the pub.
The dogs were released from the ute box and
their paws landed straight into snow! They
rarked around in big circles excited about
what adventures would come out of the hills
up ahead. I had a young pup along and it was
great seeing her reaction to running on snow
for the first time, it seems we all love shredding
a bit of powder.

“The prints led into a sunny
scrubby hill face”
Once the dogs had finished their morning
ablutions and the collars fitted it was time for
the serious business of looking for pigs. Our
main problem was that we couldn’t find any!
We could find red stags easily enough, but they
weren’t on the hit list. We walked and walked
trying to focus on the sunny faces where the
sno ܁