2015 Tahr Hunting Trip (Willberg River)

"A Fistfull of Tussock"

The Gang: (L-R) Pete, Haas, Grant and Mike

Willberg - Day One (Wednesday)

The Willberg river runs down a valley with steep sides topped by vicious spikey peaks. The campsite (upper campsite) can be seen in the middle of the shot above.

It is extreme tahr country, with huge balls-of-fur trophy tahr frollicking along the inaccessible ridgelines along the tops. Supposedly there are tahr in the scrub downriver too.

On day one Pete and Mike went above the camp and quickly came upon the camp bull on a ridge above the camp.

(Photo actually of another tahr we saw later in the week, but it looked basically like this!)

We messed around a bit too long before taking the shot and by the time we were ready he had wandered around the corner into the gully. "Too much f**king around!!"

Pete and Mike made three approaches up the gully. The first approach along the left ridgeline lead to vertical faces of tussock that eventually became too steep to ascend.

The second approach up the creek bed was cancelled when it lead to steep ice faces and flakey shist rock. We came back down to a more level section for a peaceful spot of lunch.

The third approach up the razor ridge on the right (below where the camp bull was shot at) was ultimately cancelled because it too became a little too treacherous.

Before Mike came back down he realised he was only about 250-300m from the top ridgeline, where he could see big bulls and nannies. Since he wouldn't be able to retrieve the animal, he decided to take a couple of shots at the nannies and got one before the animals took cover.

Haas and Grant went downstream past magnificient waterfalls ...

... and into the scrub where they did spot a young bull on the other side.

However it being a young bull they decided not to shoot up the valley and scare the other animals to even higher altitudes. So they let it be.

Then the fog came in and all hunters returned to camp for an evening of (Grant's) venison, rice and some of Haas' famous mulled wine: galliano, vanilla bean, cinamon with a base of passionfruit wine, santori whiskey and chardonnay. This evening also provided an opportunity to break out the new tent stove. We decided not to install it inside the tent because it came with a flashing however the kiwicamper tent actually has a fly so there are two layers of material for the chimney to pass through. Instead we put it in the veranda and used a (spare) emergency blanket to put an upwind wall on the veranda. It was very cosy indeed!

Willberg - Day Two (Thursday)

We started off all heading down the river together.

Grant and Pete saw a bull on the ridge at the 2nd creek so headed up to find that. Grant got a shot away at it and they thought they got it but after some heroic climbing to get to where the bull was, the body was not to be found!

Haas & Mike went downstream almost to the confluence. It required some serious fern bashing at one point.

Going back upstream they passed many rock pools that would have made for good swimming, if the water wasn't glacial.

Haas decided to make a quick dash up a gully below the lower campsite while Mike slowly made his way back upriver keeping an eye out for scrub tahr. Ten minutes later Mike spotted a nanny tahr above a cliff on the other side of the river. He rushed to shoot it quickly while it was still above the cliff, with the hope that when shot it would fall down to the riverbed. The tahr tumbled when shot but got stuck on a bush. Mike watched with baited breath as the tahr made a few death twitches that in the end dislodged it from the bush and let it fall down the cliff as hoped!

During this time Haas had gained a lot of altitude up the northern face above Mike. Coming around a ridgeline he spooked a nanny at 30m that dashed away at lightning speed. Coming back down he helped Mike finish dressing the tahr and together they made their way back to camp.

After not finding the bull that morning, Pete & Grant decided to head up the first creek. It became clear that they weren't getting anywhere without ice axes and crampons so they returned to camp to suit up. 

Grant then headed up the northern faces above camp, where he did see a couple of bulls at distance but the extreme nature of the terrain prevented him from getting close enough for a shot. (And if Grant says it was too trecherous then you know it definitely is!)

Pete took his crampons and ice-axe back to the gully he and Mike had attempted the day before. He got further up the gully but the extreme nature of the terrain still stopped him from getting near the top ridgeline.

That night we dined on venison, rice and more delicious mulled wine in front of the fire.

Willberg - Day Three (Friday)

To kick the day off both Pete and Haas were lining up the camp bull from different spots, unaware of each other. Haas got the shot away first and unfortunately missed. With that morning's terrorisation of the camp bull complete, we got busy with the last and most epic day of the hunt.

Pete and Grant headed downriver. They spotted a bull 250m up the mountain on a bluff. Pete nailed it with his .270. The bull took the shot, then stood back up and looked like it was ready to walk away. Pete slammed him with another shot from the .270 and he did not get up. Grant left Pete to do his retrieval and headed downriver to the confluence. Pete spent three hours climbing vertical faces, putting his life in the hands of fistfulls of tussock and clambering finally up to where his trophy lay.

While there Pete came upon more animals and dropped another 2-3 nannies. He would have got 5-6, maybe another bull, but his brand new Forbes .270 misfired three times!

Returning down the cliffs with the extra meat and skin in his bag was even more challenging and as Pete hung there with his feet kicking free in the air, his entire weight suspended from one bunch of tussock, it occurred to him that the terrain was possibly a bit too extreme.

Haas & Mike went up the second creek and found themselves on a ridgeline that provided access almost to the tops. It required chipping steps into ice at some sections, clambering up tussock walls in others. Each section was individually manageable but as they gained more and more altitude they both felt a cumulative sense of danger "We aren't meant to be here!".

Eventually Mike and Haas reached a snowy flat above the first gully, that was only 150-200m away from the top ridgeline. Big balls-of-fur bull tahr could be seen cavorting along that ridgeline (as usual), marked with red Xs in the picture above. Mike & Haas concluded that no-one was ever going to shoot and retrieve these things so they might as well have a crack at them and do some (free) freelance work for the Department of Conservation. Haas let Mike use his .270. Two bulls and a nanny were culled off the tops. One of the bulls fell 150m down a show chute but was still nowhere near low enough to be retrievable, unfortunately.

Haas & Mike came halfway back down and chilled out for a while on the ridge in the sun. An hour later who should come around the corner but Grant, ascending his fourth mountain for the day! Grant had brought his .300 and his rangefinder and was ready to take out some bulls at distances of up to half a kilometre. Unfortunately at that moment the bull we had been watching on the opposite ridgeline decided to take one of his nannies around the corner.

While we were focused on the tahr's sexual antics 500m away on the opposite ridgeline, four nannies decided to appear around a corner behind us 30m away. By the time that we had decided to have a crack at them, they were 150m away on the opposite side of the gully. Grant slammed one with the .300 before they disappeared around the corner. Mike & Haas could feel the wind buffetting their faces every time he let loose with that cannon of a gun!

That night, despite some consternation from others in the group, Mike added broccoli to the menu for dinner.

The venison stocks were a little low so we topped it up with a few slices of Pete's tahr's back steak. It was fairly obvious when you got a piece of tahr because it hadn't had the time to age and become tender. Despite the toughness, the taste of victory was still sweet!

Willbery - Day Three (Saturday) - Extraction

It snowed overnight.

After packing up we did a little glassing while waiting for the helicopter and spotted some big bulls cavorting way up in the inaccessible ridges.

Then the chopper arrived and took us for a spectactular ride out back to civilisation

Epilogue

Haas and Mike brought the tahr meat to Australia to eat with their parents. This IS possible if you declare it and meet the requirements explained on the Australian government website.

The tahr was seared in a hot pan and then briefly dipped in ice water, then served with ponzu sauce and wasabi.  Yes, that's right - Tahr Tataki!

The two tahr skins were sent to this tannery in Invercargill

As a whole the team is wondering whether there might be a slightly less extreme option for next year... That said, no matter where you go the tahr will always be "right up there!"

One last shot of the Willberg terrain...


Update: VIDEO

2015 Deer, Chamois Trip (Hope River)

All four of us entered the DOC tahr ballot and none of us were allocated a block. Haas chased DOC for the blocks that no-one applied for and sorted the one that had the best stats; the Willberg River block. The original plan had been to spend a week in the Willberg however heavy rain forecast for the west coast kept us out of there until Wednesday morning. Grant organized a chopper into the Hope River area for three days of chamois and deer hunting based at Top Hope Hut, while we waited for the west coast weather to ease.

Hope River - Saturday

We flew in 9am. It was fairly cloudy and we split into three groups for a partial days' hunt.

Haas and I followed the DOC track up river.

It started to rain. You don't hear much about animals being shot in the rain. It's not because hunters just don't go out in the rain, it's because the animals, quite sensibly, hole up somewhere sheltered where you won't see them. We did take the opportunity to test a method of crossing creeks without getting your boots wet, by putting the plastic bags over your feet.

We also stalked a (rainy) clearing so well that a hare popped out 10 metres in front of us and started doing its thing without knowing we were there. Wet and cold we returned to the hut at dusk to find Grant and Pete making good inroads on the extensive whisky supply we had brought with us!

Grant had gone up Foible Creek and shot a deer, taking the backsteaks that became a central component in many of the dinners we had later in the trip.

Pete had climbed for two hours through the bush to the top of the bushline, only to see that it was very windy, rainy and miserable. He came straight back down without seeing any animals at all.

Hope River - Day Two

Haas led the charge on an epic trip around to the western faces above Hot Springs Creek. We left around 8am and spent an hour going upriver,

1.5 hrs climbing through bush,

... to get above the bushline then two hours sidling along through tussock and snow stalking a big buck Chamois we had seen on the ridge.

We had been told to stand up so that the buck would see us, then hide and they would then come closer to investigate. Our instincts got the better of us though and we didn't let him see us. He wandered over the ridge and we followed. We didn't find him around the ridge and just as we were resting and contemplating heading home, Mike spotted a different, smaller Chamois 60m away in the gully and dropped it with shot through the heart.

Retrieval was a little challenging, with a few metres of vertical gully-side to descend and then re-ascend. There was plenty of tussock to use as handholds though. This proved quite tame compared to what was to come later in the week...

Just as we started back, in typical Chamois style, three Chamois popped up out of nowhere in front of Haas but they were moving fast and he didn't have much of a chance to get a good shot away. He had a crack with his .270 though and got them running even faster!

Haas and Mike got back to the bushline just on dark and had a long GPS-lead descent through the bush down to the river, then a long walk in the dark back to the hut.

Grant had made a long trek around Foible creek, seeing deer along the way but leaving them be as he was aiming to find some Chamois that unfortunately proved hard to find.

Pete had the opposite experience to Haas & Mike with a big buck that he spotted 350m away. It had seen him and he had ducked down to stalk around the ridge to get a better shot. When he broke cover a couple of minutes later he found that the buck was only 30m away in front of him. He rushed to get a shot away but didn't realise that at this close angle his muzzle was pointing into the dirt. He shot a big divet out of the side of the mountain with his .270 and the Chamois bolted!

That night Mike had a crack at shooting a possum out of a tree with his .243. Unfortunately the telescopic sight is useless at a distance of 5 metres and he succeeded only in scaring the living shit out of it.  A few dozen epic games of 500 later we retired to our bunks.

Hope River - Day Three

Mike was totally buggered from the previous day's trip so hung around the hut attempting to dry gear on a fire. His stuff still stinks of smoke two weeks and two washes later!

Grant hunted the western faces above Hot Springs creek but didn't see any.

On the way back he visited the hot springs themselves.

Pete went up Foible creek below the spot that he saw the buck the previous day. He saw two hinds in a clearing 20m away that hadn't spotted him. Not needing any venison he just enjoyed watching them feed and frolick for a bit, then moved on to try and find the Chamois, that unfortunately proved elusive for him on that day.

Haas went for the opposite faces above Hot Springs creek and didn't find anything other than impassable bush.

The gang packed up and posed for a photo in front of the hut:

Then the chopper came to pick us up on the dot at 4pm. In the shot below you can see the snowy western faces above Hot Springs Creek in the top right of the image.

We spent a night at Hanmer and then drove over to Hari Hari.

The Hari Hari pub provided its usual warm hospitality, except for when Mike silenced the entire bar by asking for steamed vegetables with his dinner. Haas deboned and cleaned up the chamois meat...

The chopper was scheduled to take us in to the Willberg at 9am on Wednesday

UPDATE
Video available HERE: