- Details
- Category: Hunting
- Published: Friday, 28 April 2017 00:28
- Written by Greg
Land of the Kiwi
I had always wanted to go hunt New Zealand, so this year when I got the invite...I was all in! We hunted the South Island with Glen Dene, their 15,000 acre property sits between Lake Hawea to the east and Lake Wanaka to the west.
At the airport...the only Kiwi bird we saw :) One of several lodges, this one all to ourselves
Bunch of Arapawa sheep hanging out on the rocky slopes With my Arapawa ram (203 yrds)
It turns out that we had quite an adventure packed into a week's time. We were up before dawn, out hunting during the day and then back to the lodge for dinner. Sometimes we had enough time to come back to the lodge for lunch, but we always made time to relax in the hot tub a night -- which was the remedy for sore/tired leg muscles!
Tempted, but decided against a drop tine stag Unlike the grass muncher, these are the big boys
Not only do the Burdon's host an amazing hunt, Richard and Sarah wine and dine their guests and specialize in the social aspect of the trip. The food and drink were first-rate! We ate like kings at every meal and enjoyed story swapping with Richard, Sarah, Dick, Cheryl, Jack, Furgus, Olivia and Stacey.
Upon arrival, stopped for lunch...vivid fall colors Venison from our hunt, possibly the best I've eaten
I could go on and on, but instead I'll continue to post pics that somewhat tell the story themselves.
Over looking lake Hawea, looking for the chocolate fallow deer Spotted a nice fallow buck, going after him...
Dallas with fallow deer, nice back scratchers Never found the big mature chocolate fallow seen previously
Spotted this rutting fallow buck and put on the stalk His slightly smaller nemesis walked within 50 yrds of us during the stalk, almost mistakenly shot the wrong buck
Couldn't resist trying for huge stag with unreal crown While searching for sheds, found two tahr skulls (no pics)
On last day, came across herd of nanny tahr (197 yrds) Great way to end the hunt, each with a tahr (250 yrds)