SC Living Outdoors
Well-known member
I never did a write up on this.
Back in March my wife and I went to NZ for a couple weeks. Well, I went for 2 weeks, my wife came for a week. The first week was on the North Island doing all the touristy stuff. I told her we could do whatever she wanted (within reason, lol). We had a great time. We hiked all over, went to the beach, Hobbiton, we saw glow worms (which were awesome), lava tubes, red woods, hot springs etc. On one excursion we met a retired couple from TX that were super nice. The husband is a hunter and he invited me to come hunt axis deer with him this winter. It was a fun trip and we had a good time.
After a week she left to fly home and I flew to the South Island to hunt with my friend for a week. The goal was to get a chamois and a red stag. Unfortunately, the weather was not our friend. It was rough. We had storms and high winds that kept us from being able to take the helicopter into the area we were hoping to hunt. The plan before arriving was we would hunt for 7 days, but we were able to have 3.5 days of hunting. We ended up driving into some areas and we hunted hard, putting on alot of miles and elevation. In the end I ended up killing a cool unique 8x5 stag (that was missing part of a front leg), but we couldn't find a chamois. The evening I killed my stag a crazy windstorm blew in with winds above gale force. It was wild, but we all survived. The last day we climbed up into some nasty stuff with a ton of chamois sign, but ended up getting cliffed out. I'll head back over in a year or 2 to give the chamois a try again and hopefully the weather cooperates.
I hunted hard in NZ, but I didn't love how I felt on that trip physically while I was there. I have some really awesome hunts planned for this fall and I don't want anything holding me back. Since getting home I've lost 40lbs and I've been trimming weight in my pack all summer by upgrading gear and redoing the rifle I built with weight in mind. Im in the best shape I've been in in the last 6+ years with my lightest pack I've ever had. I'll share my fall/winter hunts along the way and hopefully they live up to my expectations.
I'm really happy my wife was able to come with me to see NZ. Below are some pics from our trip.
Back in March my wife and I went to NZ for a couple weeks. Well, I went for 2 weeks, my wife came for a week. The first week was on the North Island doing all the touristy stuff. I told her we could do whatever she wanted (within reason, lol). We had a great time. We hiked all over, went to the beach, Hobbiton, we saw glow worms (which were awesome), lava tubes, red woods, hot springs etc. On one excursion we met a retired couple from TX that were super nice. The husband is a hunter and he invited me to come hunt axis deer with him this winter. It was a fun trip and we had a good time.
After a week she left to fly home and I flew to the South Island to hunt with my friend for a week. The goal was to get a chamois and a red stag. Unfortunately, the weather was not our friend. It was rough. We had storms and high winds that kept us from being able to take the helicopter into the area we were hoping to hunt. The plan before arriving was we would hunt for 7 days, but we were able to have 3.5 days of hunting. We ended up driving into some areas and we hunted hard, putting on alot of miles and elevation. In the end I ended up killing a cool unique 8x5 stag (that was missing part of a front leg), but we couldn't find a chamois. The evening I killed my stag a crazy windstorm blew in with winds above gale force. It was wild, but we all survived. The last day we climbed up into some nasty stuff with a ton of chamois sign, but ended up getting cliffed out. I'll head back over in a year or 2 to give the chamois a try again and hopefully the weather cooperates.
I hunted hard in NZ, but I didn't love how I felt on that trip physically while I was there. I have some really awesome hunts planned for this fall and I don't want anything holding me back. Since getting home I've lost 40lbs and I've been trimming weight in my pack all summer by upgrading gear and redoing the rifle I built with weight in mind. Im in the best shape I've been in in the last 6+ years with my lightest pack I've ever had. I'll share my fall/winter hunts along the way and hopefully they live up to my expectations.
I'm really happy my wife was able to come with me to see NZ. Below are some pics from our trip.
