# Back from New Zealand.



## ruger1

Well, my 2008 hunting is off to a great start. We had an excellent trip in New Zealand. Managed to harvest almost all the trophies we were after. Here are a few of the pics.

We started the trip flying out of Duluth, MN around 9 AM. After a couple short lay overs and a lot of flying. We landed in Christchurch NZ 34 hours later. I can't explain how happy I was to be done with that part of our journey.

Once in NZ, we spent a couple days touring the City of Christchurch and immediate areas. We needed to be up in the mountians at camp in 3 days. NZ is a beautiful country. I highly suggest visiting there. However I've talked with people who've spend a month there and they tell me that wasn't enough time.

As you can imagine, the first days at camp were filled with anticipation. We spent a lot of time meeting the guides and camp staff. The head cook, Pete' was a riot. WE got to know him quite well. NZ has it's own culture that I found very interesting. So Pete' took the time to educate me. He had some interest in northern United States as well, so we discussed that a fair bit.

The hunting was all spot and stalk, which I love, so first morning we set off to do some glassing. True to par, we stumbled across the biggest Fallow deer of the hunt first thing on the first morning. We let him walk and never saw him again. It was simply amazing looking over those mountains. Game everywhere.

That afternoon we found a Red Stag that my father simply had to have. So we spent the next 4 hours getting into position. He made a great stalk and got into 160 yards.

The next two days were spent glassing for stag and dealing with adverse weather. We had some party members get stranded by a blizzard and a broken axle up at 10,500 feet. While the storm was bad down by us at 7,500, it was basically life threatening up at 10,500. One of our guides had to go up and help get them off the mountain.

Once things settled down, we came across a stag that my buddy wanted. His stalk was a challenging on that we had to repeat 3 times as the wind would change and bust us. Eventually he made a decent shot and his bull was found hung up in a bush about 100 feet above the canyon floor. That was a real challenge getting him taken apart and off the mountain.

On our way out that evening, a Arapawa Ram that my buddy wanted jump up from under a bush and ran about 50 yards. Stopping to look back was his big mistake.

The next afternoon we found the stag I wanted. It was a simple stalk in the lower hills. We got into position and I made a nice 140 yard shot.

We were excited to harvest my stag, especially since the next morning we had a date with a Tahr on top of the mountain. That hunt was simply exhilarating and scary all at once. I'm to fat and out of shape for rock climbing. While I worked hard and lost 60 pounds for this hunt. Rock climbing and traversing shale fields 2000+ above the basin is not for the out of shape or faint of heart. However I'm proud to say I did it, I survived it, and my buddy and I harvested our Tahr up there. Now we had to go process them and get them off the mountain. That was more work then getting up there and getting them. Walking down hill with an animal on your back is HARD WORK.

The next day my buddy and I really wanted to harvest some Paradise Ducks. So we hit a mountain lake and set up a blind. The ducks were there, but didn't cooperate. We managed 2 drake pass shooting. Paradise ducks pair up and go to the fields in pairs to eat green grass shouts.

I had to belly crawl through a moist (not wet) creek bed to get within 20 yards of a feeding pair. I jumped up and took them both on the wing. It was very exciting.

With all those species harvested. I still hadn't found that big Fallow yet and we had 1 day left. So we searched and searched and searched some more. With 3 hours left in the last afternoon, I caught something that seemed unusual on the hillside across from where we were glassing. I got out the spotting scope and low and behold was my Fallow. No wait, it's just his little brother. So after much mental deliberation, I decided he was an outstanding Fallow despite him not being as big as the BIG guy we saw the first morning.

Once I decided to take him, the hunt was one. About 1/2 way up the ravine, the wind gusted and switched. Both the guide and I looked with disgust as we realized where our scent was going. So we both jumped up and ran up the ravine as fast as we could. The Fallow jumped up and trotted up and gave me a 160 yard broadside shot. He stopped to look back. I couldn't get my breathing under control and he busted again. The next time he stopped, I settled the cross hairs on his shoulder, pulled the trigger and heard "Oh S**t, you missed." As the Fallow ran further and stopped a 3rd time, I took a deep breath, held lower than I felt comfortable with (but thought I needed to) and squeezed the trigger. Much to my excitement, he fell where he stood.

That evening there was good food, good drinks, great friends and awesome stories. The next morning some of us boarded a plane for home. Some got a call from their company and were told they'd be staying in NZ for month cause their office had some work for them since they were there. And the rest flew on to Australia for another week of vacation.

All in all we were in NZ for 12 days. Eight of which were spent hunting.

It was a great experience. Except for the fact that when we landed in Duluth, we realized that the person who dropped off Dad's truck had locked the keys in the ignition. SO after all that at 11 PM in Duluth, we waited for a lock smith. Then managed to smack a deer with the truck (twice) on the way home. We hit the deer, threw it into a semi, who threw it back into us. Dad's NEW truck did not appreciate that.

Still a great experience.

Red Stag

































Arapawa Ram









Fallow Deer

















Himalayan Tahr

























Sunrise on the mountain
















Also got our Paradise Ducks. Can't wait to see them in the trophy room.


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## franchi

Awesome. Hope to be able to do that someday.


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## jgat

Wow! That is awesome. That is on my to do list one of these years. If you don't mind me asking, how much did the trip run?


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## ruger1

Google Kiwi Safaris. That's who we hunted with on this trip. You should be able to get prices as well as other info from this website. Outstanding group of guys. One of the best hunts of my life.


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## wurgs

Congrats. That looked like an amazing hunt. Those are some beautiful animals. It's a heck of a way to start the season. :beer:


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## jmillercustoms

lucky bastards! ....i guess i shouldnt say lucky you guys probably wanted to do that for a long time!


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## smalls

Wow, looks like an awesome trip.

What trophies were you after that you didn't fill? Chamois?

That tahr is awesome and NZ is on my list of places to hunt in my lifetime. Were you choppered into the hunting area?


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## iwantabuggy

:sniper: Sweet.


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## ruger1

smalls said:


> Wow, looks like an awesome trip.
> 
> What trophies were you after that you didn't fill? Chamois?
> 
> That tahr is awesome and NZ is on my list of places to hunt in my lifetime. Were you choppered into the hunting area?


I harvested every animal I wanted except a black swan. A chamois really doesn't do much for me. I did get to photo one. That's was more than what I expected.

We did the Tahr on foot. Wanted to do it the right way. Helicopter just makes it shooting, not hunting (in my opinion).


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## ruger1

All of the New Zealand mounts.

Red Stag

























Fallow Deer

























Paradise Ducks (Hen with white head). About the size of snow geese.

























Himalayan Tahr


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