Big Game Hunting New Zealand Sep/Oct 2015

G N TI N U H South Island ADVENTURES WRITTEN BY - BLAKE CLINCH T he clouds darkened, as the rain threatened to cut our afternoon hunt in the Pureoras short. Sidling high up through the face with the dog in the lead, we weaved through the supplejack hoping to get a wind coming around the face. We had already bumped a hind and yearling early on, along with a sow a little later. With only half an hour of light left we pushed on around the face knowing there wasn’t much time left but the sign was promising so I was hopeful of another encounter. Cresting the final spur before turning and heading home, the dogs nose rose up into the air and she trotted up the hill sucking in the air coming down the spur. I gave her some time but was confident an animal wasn’t far away. Following suit, I cruised along behind her climbing up the spur. We’d gone about 80m up the spur when we started angling around the face. Her body language signalled we were very close. Our pace slowed as the eyes and ears were working overtime in the fading light. As I climbed an old fallen log I noticed the dog knew something was there so I put the brakes on and waited patiently. After a few minutes I heard sticks snapping ahead of us as the intensity levels started growing I heard rustling in the pepperwoods. Another few minutes passed and a deer finally emerged into a small pepperwood clearing completely unaware of me standing only 8m away. It was an even 8 pointer and a respectable head for the area. He began feeding and over the next minute or so I got to watch him pick away and engulf the vegetation that was hanging off a ponga. This was an awesome start to my winter hunting! After about 5 minutes he finally 26 BGHNZ Issue 8 7 Sep/Oct Jul/Aug 2015 www.bghnz.co.nz www.bghnz.co.nz got our wind and disappeared into the evening gloom. I managed to see a few pigs the next day and find another silly stag but unfortunately he stopped in a bad position for filming. I’ve always found winter a good time for hunting with less hunters in the hills and the animals seem to move more throughout the day. The only issue I find is the cold and having wet boots as I am a fan of neither. My job was finishing in the North Island for a few months so I headed south for work and adventure. After a day’s driving I arrived in Christchurch and spent a couple nights based there as a massive snow dump fell over the south island. The next day I drove further south to meet up with a mate Darren to try our luck getting up the Ahuriri river that night. It was dark by the time we made the Ahuriri road and the snow was about a foot deep. We tried our luck but managed to get the ute stuck in the snow so camped in the truck for the night. After getting pulled out in morning we spent the next two days checking out the station Darren was working on seeing a variety of species, including my first wallaby. That brought an end to the first weekend. A young red yearling left for another day 27 BGHNZ Issue 8 Sep/Oct 2015

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