Boulder-dash!

Sorry it's been a wee while since we blogged. You all know what the lead up to Christmas is like for everyone!

In the past few weeks we've been up to a lot:

2 weeks ago Andrea went up to Auckland for the weekend whilst Dave (her brother in law) came down here to go hunting with Greg. Andrea had a great weekend with her family, including taking 2 year old Jeremy to the zoo and a family dinner, and Greg and Dave had a great weekend too. They went down to Haast for a couple of days and although they got close to deer, didn't manage to shoot any. However they spent a day culling goats a bit closer to home and had a ball.

We've also had the most recent street "do" here and had a fantastic evening with the neighbours - we had a cocktail night with fancy canapes and everyone is still talking about it... and when we'll do it again. We had a good turn out with about 30 guests - not bad for a street with only 12 houses in it!

Greg and Chris in the kitchen preparing Martinis (Shaken, not stirred):

Andrea and some of the other "girls" (enjoying our night out of the kitchen!):

This weekend we went away for a bit of a hunt/tramp between Makarora and Haast. The idea was to follow a stream up a bit, but it turned out to be a bit more challenging than we'd thought with some of the boulders the size of trucks. In fact it was often easier to bush bash than walk up the stream, and although it was hard work, we had a lot of fun. Reminding ourselves regularly as we hauled ourselves over yet another large boulder that there are tourists in Queenstown paying good money to go "bouldering" (the sport of climbing large boulders without harnesses - although they are surrounded by mattresses... we were surrounded by... large boulders). Although we didn't shoot anything, we had a deer run across about 10 feet in front of us, far too quickly for us to even think about taking a safe shot. Very frustrating! Especially after a 4 hour climb.

We took a few photos so that you could all appreciate the beauty without the hard work.

Some of the lower part of the stream:

Also the lower stream:

Once we got up a bit higher the stream got decidedly calmer (and clearer):

Although this only looks like a stream, you had to be careful as the water was so exceptionally clear, it only looked knee deep but some parts were over your head.

We got back out relatively unscathed, with the exception of a few decent bruises and a mildly scratched cornea on Andrea's eye, which ended up with a trip to A&E this morning (don't worry, she's fine).

In other news, Andrea has a new job which she'll be starting in early December. Greg's work is still going well, but he's very busy and looking forward to Christmas when he'll get a long break and a chance to catch up with his family who are all coming to stay with us.

Roll on Christmas!

Goats.... and snow

We left bright and early... well not really bright, and not particularly early... this morning to head into a hunting area near here. It requires us to apply for a special permit, which Greg was able to get for Friday (today) and Saturday.

Halfway to the hunting area the steady rain turned to hail, then sleet, and finally snow. Thankfully it had mostly stopped by the time we started walking. We explored a couple of valleys without seeing anything, and then climbed to a high ridge to look over into a third valley where we spotted a herd of wild goats. Unfortunately we were unable to get to them from where we were due to a 600m vertical cliff so we had to walk all the way down the valley and then back up the next one to get to them. But we did finally get to them and were able to sneak up and do a spot of pest control. Andrea took the first shot and dropped a smelly old billy without it blinking an eyelid. Greg then took over, which was just as well, because just after he'd got the second one, two others decided to charge us. Quite scary! Unfortunately for them, Greg still had 2 rounds in his magazine....

A final goat was rounded up after taking off up a nearby ridge and also neatly dispatched.

The highlight of the trip back to the car was coming across a late crop of alpine strawberries. They are tiny (the size of large peas) but have about as much flavour as a whole large one.

And of course, we have photographic proof of both the dusting of snow on the hills:

And Andrea's smelly old billy goat:

Greg's birthday present

Greg went through to Haast on Friday with a friend to go hunting and sea-run salmon fishing. The salmon fishing didn't go so well - they landed a few trout but the salmon weren't playing ball. The hunting, however............

Goat Curry, anyone?

We've been shooting a few goats quite close to home but up until tonight, they have mainly been old billy goats, which aren't any good for eating.



We'd just finished dinner tonight (Friday) when the phone rang and our friend Rex from up the road phoned to say he'd had a call from a local farmer who had come home to discover a number of young wild goats in his back paddock. By a number, we were expecting maybe 10. We arrived at the paddock to discover a large herd of 30 to 40 goats. In about 30 seconds flat Greg and Rex dispatched nine of them, much to the delight of the farmer.



We loaded up the back of Rex's truck and headed off to salvage the meat, and we currently have a fridge full of hind legs (all about the size of a small lamb roast). Unfortunately we were unable to track down the wild fallow deer that's been hanging around, but maybe next time.... There was certainly lots of sign around!

So, Goat curry for dinner tomorrow night.... and probably every second night for about the next 3 or 4 weeks! Good thing Andrea's found a whole heap of goat recipes to try out!

Here 'Tis!

Up on the ridge! Now you can all understand how it can be a little difficult to firstly spot the deer and secondly get to them to take a clean safe shot. This one was particularly clever - he spotted us in one direction and once we'd gone through the valley a bit further and turned back to look he'd come over the ridge to watch us go. The second we turned around he scampered back over the ridge and down into an inaccessible gully. They're not stupid!

Hunting Trip

We've just got back from a couple of days hunting in an undisclosed location (not wanting to give away our secrets to internet surfers!) and had quite a bit of fun. We saw deer, Chamois, Tahr and LOADS of wild goats. These are not your average North Island Goat, with some of them getting up to 200 lbs with horns a foot long. From our experience the smell increases with weight and size of horns too! They can get quite aggressive and aren't scared of rushing you (if they see you) in an attempt to make you miss your shot. Definitely not for the faint hearted! It was our first "successful" hunting trip together (Greg's shot things by himself or with mates) - all up we shot 6 goats, and Andrea even shot one of them (after stalking it for about 20 mins and creeping over ridges in the long grass). Perfect head shot, not that she's gloating. Not bad for the second ever round she's fired though!

The walk in was quite spectacular, with about half the "track" being a stream. River crossings were more numerous than sections with dry feet. Typically of this area, it's an old gold mining area with relics littered around all over the place. We both kept our eyes down on the river crossings in the hope of finding a nugget but no such luck.

We came across this dam, which had a pipe coming off the side of it to an old shed with a wheel and generator still inside the shed. The gear was all made in Thames (Coromandel) in the 1800s which was quite interesting, due to the fact it weighed literally tonnes, being solid steel and copper. We've got no idea how they got it in there, in the middle of nowhere, with no helicopters or even roads in those days! The poor horses must have been exhausted.

We've decided Greg probably needs to get a camo pack.... you'll see why from the photo below. Deer might be colour blind but we're not so sure about everything else.

And lastly, here's why we're finding it a bit more difficult to get onto the deer. They are still very much up on the tops and haven't started coming down into the valleys yet. This is due to the snow melting and there being a lot of new growth up on the tops. Because the valleys are so steep-sided, the sun isn't getting down into the bottom as much yet so there's actually more fresh grass up high than down low. And in most of the areas we hunt in, getting up to the tops is virtually impossible (due to sheer cliffs) - even if we could shoot one from the valley we'd never find a way up to retrieve the body.

There's a deer in this photo. Good luck to you all in finding it! We'll post a zoomed in photo showing it's location in a couple of days.......