Thar Hunt

Greg was recently invited out on a Thar cull for a week with the Department of Conservation and the local Deerstalkers branch. Thar are Himalayan mountain goats, about twice the size and height of New Zealand goats, and they act more like deer - i.e. they run when you try to sneak up on them.
The bull Thar (i.e. adult males) are a sought after trophy and overseas hunters (and many New Zealand hunters) pay thousands to be flown in to shoot them. Nannies aren't such a trophy, even though the meat is good on the younger ones, and the population is getting out of control and damaging the native alpine plant life. Thar live above 1600m so are above the winter snow line.

The timing wasn't fantastic, as the hunt was right at the same time as we got possession of our new home, but it's the sort of opportunity you just don't turn down!

The helicopter the guys flew in on (and the valley they flew up behind it):

The terrain was quite steep...

With lots of glaciers, which made it very cold at night. The lowest temperature recorded during the week was -14°C, which was a bad frost, even by our standards, especially when you're in a tent on the side of a mountain.

A young bull Thar (Greg's first). Standing, it came up to Greg's shoulder. They grow a lot bigger than this - slightly smaller than the average NZ cow in height.

One of the other members of the hunting party "glassing" (looking through binoculars) for Thar. Most of the Thar shot were 200+ metres away.

And lastly, not a bad view to wake up to out the front door of your tent... even if it was as cold as a Mother-in-law's kiss.

New House!

Finally we have a place we can call our own. It needs a fair bit of work, but both of us can see the potential... even if it is a 10 year plan!

The current tenants have let us take a few pictures even though they were in the middle of packing (and dinner!) so there is a bit of stuff around, but here are a few photos.

The kitchen (from these windows you can see the Remarkables):

The lounge and log burner, taken from the dining room, which is next to the kitchen:

And part of the outside:

The two windows above the deck are the dining room on the left and lounge on the right. Top right is one of the spare bedrooms, with the Master Bedroom just out of shot to the right. The single door downstairs leads to a big under house storage area, and the ranch slider on the right leads into the downstairs lounge with bathroom, 2 bedrooms and laundry all coming off that room. All up 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living areas. It has solar water heating and the yunca woodburner is identical to the one we have here with connections for a wetback. It's not connected at the moment but it's something we'll probably look at - free hot water in summer and winter! Also 2 heat pumps, one upstairs and one downstairs. Overall it appears to be a considerably warmer home than the one we've been living in (double glazing etc). It doesn't have a garage (the garage used to be under the house but has been converted into the semi-self-contained downstairs) but there's plenty of relatively flat land to put one in. That's somewhere in the 10 year plan. We do know a good builder...

The two best things about the house are that we stay within the community we're in now and don't have to give up the dinners with the neighbours, and that the current tenants are leaving behind their vege garden (complete with raspberries, strawberries... and colossal rhubarb plants!).

World Famous in New Zealand!!!

Well..... in Queenstown anyway!

First in the Southland times on Tuesday morning, the three girls from DeerStalkers:

And then on Thursday, both of us in the Mountain Scene:

Just goes to show that if you dress up in blaze orange camo gear and spend a day selling venison burgers wearing reindeer antlers, you attract attention. Who would have thought?

Another New Toy

We finally picked up our new 4WD yesterday so here are the "before" photos.

Our next step will be to start pulling bits of it off and putting other more expensive bits on! We're starting with a snorkel, mud tyres and tow hooks, along with a 2 inch suspension lift and a few other bits and pieces. We promise to post "after" photos!

And for those of you who aren't as excited as we are about an old 4WD to pull to pieces, here's a pretty sunset!

Christmas 2010

The Jarvis clan came down for Christmas this year and we've just spent a very enjoyable couple of weeks with Ken and Barbara, Blair, Susan, Sean and Nyah. Over the time they were here they spent time jet boating (on the Kawarau Jet), luging, biscuiting behind the boat, tramping up at The Remarkables, playing on new playgrounds, flying kites (somewhat unsuccessfully!), Earnslawing, road tripping and lots more.

We didn't take very many photos but here are a few from our trip up the Gondola.

The first photo shows Uncle Greg and Sean trying to overtake Dad (Blair) and Nyah on the luge. Apparently it was a draw because they won one race each.

Sean and Nyah asked to ride down the gondola with Uncle Greg and Aunty Andrea and we got this photo of the two of them on the way down:

And last but not least, a photo of Sean with his first ever trout.

Twas the month before Christmas...

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring..... well, except for Burton the hairy pink nosed reindeer-cat!

Fishing update

Greg's very pleased as he's just had an email requesting a high resolution copy of the photo of his ugly old brown trout to feature as the "cover fish" for the Wakatipu Angler's club magazine. Apparently no one has been doing very well with the fishing lately, the fish have been "off the bite". Unfortunately they forgot to tell Greg.