My Roar

As with all other hunters the roar is a much anticipated time for me. Pretty much from the end of March through April I’m spending as much time as I’m allowed out hunting.
It started for me in early April with a day hunt down in Pureora.
I’ve only started hunting this area in the last year or so but I really enjoy it down there.  Its fairly handy to where I live and there's some beautiful forest down there.

Its gets 1080’d regularly but there’s still the odd deer and pig around. Plenty of birdlife too.
I got to the carpark about 8ish and had a yarn to a couple of other guys already there. They were going to be well away from where I was so that was good. I headed on down the track for a bit and then ducked into the bush. There was the odd fresh mark but not a huge amount. Just a few animals moving about. Still the bush was pretty nice with quite a few beautiful big Totaras.



Something you don’t see that much.
Every half hour or so I’d stop and have a roar at a likely area but I heard nothing. Around mid morning I stopped and had a bit of a feed. I got up to leave and though I might as well have a roar.
I let out a bit of a moan and just a few seconds later heard a crunch crunch and shortly after saw a stag looking towards me from over a log, maybe 30 meters away. Crikey that was quick. He must have been right there all along. I looked at him through the scope, he was just a young stag but I’m a meathunter first and foremost so I lined up on his neck and fired.
He dropped straight away. I went over to him and he was still thrashing around a bit so he got another finisher.

I found a suitable handy tree to hang him up and got to work.

There was still plenty of time in the day to carry on but I had more than enough to carry



so I decided to head back to the truck.
I saw the other guys at the car park and they’d had some good success too. A nice 9 pointer.

The following Sunday I headed into Clements for a bit of a recce with my son Oliver.

He’s 7 and getting heaps better at moving through the bush. He’s got a pretty good Sika roar on him too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUzm8Ro3ows

We had a good look around, heard no roars but found a few spots worth a follow up look.
Unfortunately it proved an expensive trip as I got a puncture on the way out and Olly lost one of his gumboots. Oh well thems the breaks.

Next weekend was Easter and the weather was very average. I always have at least one trip into the Whirinaki every roar and I was very keen to get in there.
The Waipunga access I normally use was closed but I was able to get in via Murupara. Kaiangaroa was closed and there was a security guard stationed at the entrance. Luckily I knew the password “I’m going to Minginui” and he let me through.
I got to the carpark and it was empty. The weather forecast was looking OK, and I was hoping the worst had passed through.
I’d been walking a couple of hours when I was greeted with this.


It was a bit of a mission getting round it but I got there. On to camp and there was a fair bit of damage. The bivvy was a bit smashed.
Next day it was raining so I decided to spend some time getting the bivvy sorted. As I was working the whole thing collapsed with a crash. Bugger.

Oh well, I decided a complete rebuild was in order. It took me the best part of the day to build a new one but it turned out alright.

I managed to go for a quick look in the afternoon and managed to get a stag roaring.
I made a plan to come back the next day and have a go.
Next morning I headed up to where I thought the stag was. As I got close to the spot where I was going to try and roar from I saw a spiker eyeballing me. I could probably have shot him but I was only after stags.  He ran off and shortly after I heard a deer barking. Not sure if it was him or not but I figured Mr Stag was well warned by now. I headed off to check out another area. It was nice country but I heard no roars. After a few hours I finally heard a moan. I roared and he answered. Sweet I thought, I’m in.
Then he shut up.
I;m not sure what happened there maybe he caught a whiff or maybe he didn’t want a fight?  I decided to check out a nearby creek with a few clearings on it. I was working my way down and as I came onto one of the larger clearings I saw there was a stag in the middle of it. He looked like a big boy so I lined up his shoulder and fired. He dropped on the spot.




Sweet.
There were no hinds about that I could tell and he seemed to be having a bit of a rest on the clearing. There was a bit of bruising on his arse so I wonder if he’d had a hiding from a bigger stag?
I took as much meat off him as I could well as his head.  As I staggered down towards the track an almighty thunderstorm hit. There was lightning flashes complete with instantaneous claps of thunder. When your in a strom like that you can see why the ancients have gods like Thor. It is pretty awesome and a little bit scary. 
It was well dark by the time I got back to camp and I was  soaking wet and fairly knackered.
Next morning I packed up and headed back to the track.  It took a hell of a lot longer getting out than walking in and negotiating the slipped track on the way out was a tad hairy.
But eventually I got to the truck, really knackered this time.
I weighed my pack when I got home and it was 47 kg with 32kg of meat. No wonder I was buggered.
A few days later Olly and I went into Clements for a look.
The weather was fantastic but the place was pretty busy. Likely spots that I’d checked out a week or so earlier had been visited in our absence.
Olly got a pretty good Sika roar but in spite of his best efforts we couldn’t get onto any stags.

On a plus side we found his lost boot, Chur.
I’m really enjoying hunting with y boy. Every trip he gets a little bit stronger and it’s only a matter of time before we get our first deer together. 




Well that was my roar. Plenty of meat in the freezer and some quality time with my son.
Thanks for reading
MH72 out.

Awesome, 1st entry. 

Wicked. Great write up. Good on you on taking the chance to get into the whiri.

nice time had by all and a bit of bonding time well done