It was a long weekend for Otago Anniversary Day so we decided to head out and test our new camping equipment in the middle of nowhere. We had already pitched the tent etc at home to make sure it all worked, and happy that everything was in working order we headed off. There are a number of open hunting areas in this area. We AREN'T going to tell you which one we were in, just in case someone is searching the internet for key words.... i.e. deer and where we live.
Anyway, after studying the maps we decided on a particular area. The access in was quite challenging, including an ascent and descent of an alpine pass. In total we climbed over 700 vertical metres on the first day and almost the same on the second day. To say we're tired would possibly be an understatement, but we had an absolute ball. Technically speaking it actually WAS a walk in the park (Mt Aspiring National Park).... but figuratively, not really!!
We saw a wide range of wildlife, including a rifleman, a number of robins, a mother hawk with her baby, kea... the list goes on. But that's not the wildlife you want to hear about now, Dave, is it??
We didn't have a gun with us as we are still in the process of getting our firearms licences - but we managed to "shoot" a deer or two anyway:
These deer walked out of the bush about 60m away from where we had set the tent up and were cooking dinner. They were walking around quite happily out in the open for almost an hour, even with cooking noise just across the river. When we woke up this morning two more came out of the bush, making a total of 6 deer spotted within shooting distance. 5 were Whitetail Deer and one was a Red Deer. Eat your heart out, Dave! You can probably understand why we'd rather not say exactly where we were!
So without giving too much away, here are a few photos taken on the way.
The river which we camped beside:
A stunning waterfall - thankfully we didn't have to get our feet too wet on the river crossings:
And last but not least, the picture below shows not only a great glacier but also how rugged the countryside was. We both feel a great sense of achievement considering we starting off just above lake level!
3 comments:
Wow! Who needs to stalk them, just pitch a tent and wait for them to come to you!
Looks like a fabulous walk - I'm very jealous :-)
What an awesome and challenging couple of days for you both. You certainly know how to make things happen!! So happy for you.
Yes it is important when out in the 'wild' to leave only footprints and take only photos. But still, it would be nice to be able to er, help the native vegetation by removing a deer to two...
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