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.
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...
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ReplyDeleteDitto.
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