Thursday, 2 June 2016

2016 Tahr Hunting Trip (Prelude)

Mike flew straight in from London to Gisborne to meet up with his brother Haas and make final preparations for the trip down south.  First the home-made hooch supplies were reviewed:
Hooch, from left to right: Malbec from grapes crushed by Monica's feet (bucket in background); apple & cinnamon infused chardonnay grappa; George Wilson peach schnapps; apple plum schnapps with macerated apples, walnuts, cloves, french oak; apply plum schnapps uncut (70%); grape brandy; chardonnay grappa uncut (70%)

These ingredients, and more, were combined to produce two flagons of exceptional mulled wine..  While the mulled wine simmered we feasted on venison stew and pondered the large red blobs on the rain radar for the West Coast

We also harvested Haas' homemade bill-tong from the drying chamber
Bill-tong: special mix (left) - toasted corriander, paprika, black pepper, garlic, blasamic; traditional bill-tong (middle); pork skin for scarchings - not ready yet (right)

Haas had also been busy creating canvas walls for the veranda of the communal tent so that we could keep as much of the stove heat in as possible.  The orange flue jack can be seen in the roof:
Disaster was narrowly averted the next morning when Tom was repacking the back of the truck - the canvas sheets were hot!  He'd been advised to use linseed oil to make the canvas waterproof but it turns out that linseed oil soaked rags are a serious fire hazard - the oxidation of the linseed oil is an exothermic reaction and the rags can spontaneously combust!  We packed the canvas sheets in two plastic bags so that they were sealed away from the air and they stayed cool.

Having picked Pete up we drove first to Taupo to stop at Sika Country Taxidermy and drop off a fallow head of his.  They had an impressive showroom of busts and skins:

Interestingly we ended up talking to them about peacock taxidermy.  Generally it's only possible to have the tail feathers bunched and pointing down, although they did hear about one taxidermist that had done the tail up by inserting wires individually into each tail feather to prevent them from slumping.  Also, when you've shot your peacock, you can scalp the tail off so that you have two pieces that will fit in a freezer.

The taxidermist also showed us a 15" bull head.  The new "super trophy" standard.

On the drive down we discussed many topics, including the usual haul of million dollar ideas: "Fun Bags", Bitcoin Mining, Scratch & Sniff Magazines, Soap-based businesses ("Good Clean Fun"), etc...

Before we knew it we were cruising through the rain in the West Coast...
.. and then ensconced at the delightful Pine Grove accommodation south of Fox Glacier.  Dave the proprietor was extremely hospitable and we spent two nights there waiting for the rain to abate and killing time by eating parma ham, drinking Speights, watching "Wipeout" on the telly and playing 500.

We weren't sure what the scores were for the various bids in 500 so we just kept track of who won what and the scores have only been calculated now in retrospect.  It turns out that we played exactly two games, with Pete & Mike winning both.  The second game was an absolute nail biter with Pete & Mike getting to 470 after just two hands (7 no trumps and masere) then spending 3 hands just shy of 500 before losing a hand of 7 diamonds to come down to 290.  Then in the next hand a win of 7 no trumps just took them to 510 to win the game!

We also had a discussion about pee bottles.  Mike had read about this in Ranulph Feines' autobiography 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know' as an essential item for arctic & antarctic expedition.  It made sense that if you need to take a leak in the middle of the night and the outside environment is  subzero/windy/wet, it would be a big bonus to not have to kit up and go outside. Mike had a pee bottle already, and Pete was interested in joining the pee bottle club.  There were questions of size (both girth and volume), and technique.   Pete acquired one the next day at the supermarket.  Grant and Haas thought it was a bit weird but during the following week Haas commandeered a used pasta sauce jar to use as one too, so there must be something in it...

The accommodation sported some classic kiwi fixtures,
And a special feature in the master bedroom that Haas was staying in.
Mirror, mirror, on the ... ceiling?!

No comments:

Post a Comment