One month off, bags packed and the hunger for adventure as I boarded the plane from Melbourne to New Zealand or what us kiwis commonly call "God's Own". Over two years of living abroad I was eager to once again get out amongst the beautiful  back country of New Zealand

Gear checked and double checked I headed off to Lake Waikaremoana to chase the Red stags in Te Urewera National Park. With the boat in the water and camp setup we headed off in search of roaring stags. Eight great days spent down at the lake resulted in three stags hitting the deck. The stags we found to be very cagey with little roaring action. A number of hinds and spikers were filmed and left for another day.









Roared this six pointer into around 30 metres


Hind feeding with another spiker and hind nearby


Big day on the hill


Mate shot this 8 pointer


Bone for the trip


Back home to clean up the gear before the next planed trip to the central plateau where a last minute call from a mate came through. "hey, we just had a guy pull out from our trip down to Dusky Sound for a hunting, fishing and diving trip, would you like to come?" well after thinking this through for all of 5 seconds I quickly replied "Shit yea! count me in!"
Flights were booked and I was soon on my way down to Queenstown.

The next seven days were absolutely amazing! From Te Anua we were flown in by well known pilot Hanibal Hayes into Dusky sound, where we then spent the next six days in absolute outdoor heaven fishing, hunting, diving and spearing.

Unfortunately no deer were encountered on the trip but the marine life more than made up for this. We managed to get six days of great weather where we feasted on fish, crayfish, paua and mussels. We spent the majority of time in Dusky sounds before cruising up the coast into Doubful Sound and out via Lake Manapouri. This was an incredible trip with a great crew on an extremely professionally run boat by Fiordland Expeditions.

Flight in






Home for the next six days








My mate landed this Groper after just 15 minutes aboard






















Paradise













A great crew




My favourite deer to hunt have always been Sika so what better way to finish off my month in God's Own by a final trip into the Kawekas.

Down to Helisika where the gear was weighed and loaded and were soon dropped off into out block for the next five days.  The next five days were very tough hunting with no single calls heard for our time in the block. We ended up shooting two stags and a spiker with the spiker and one of the stags being in poor condition. 

The ride in








An impressive spiker


Dad's 8 pointer




My 4 pointer - just as I stepped over to check out the animal I stood on a wasp nest resulting in stings to the legs - blood wasps! 





Ready to bone out






One month in God's Own has come and gone and the adventures and stories will stay with me for a very long time. We as New Zealander's have an amazing resource and opportunity with what we have on offer in the back country of New Zealand. Well its back to Melbourne for me where my next adventure is going to be chasing the Sambar over here in Victoria.

Until next time...
Menzies 

Awesome work!

nice   

Good read and fantastic photos.

Those bloody wasps are everywhere now.  Never seen wasps in the Tararua's before, but I've already been stung twice this year in the Atiwhakatu and Mitre Flats areas.

Awesome pictures and by the looks of it what a memorable ,diverse trip.
I coudnt agree more NZ is a great wee place, and if you do put  the effort it you will be rewarded!

now thats living bro!
what an awesome and diverse month of outdoor fun you have had.
have hunted that sika block, some nice country in there ay.
cheers for the report, enjoyed it especially the great photos

Kaweka_Neil wrote on May 7^th, 2013 at 9:33am:


Thanks neil nothing changed then

Now that's how you spend a month !!   

COOL ADVENTURE

Good effort getting out there and doing it, thanks for sharing.

Targetsikastags wrote on May 9^th, 2013 at 6:24pm:


Hey mate a mixture of cameras from Dslr to little point and shoot waterproof Nikon