A NEW ZEALAND HUNTING EXPERIENCE

FEATURE Phillip Andreou

Since I began my hunting journey I have been drawn to New Zealand and this year, in May, I was fortunate to make that a reality for the first but definitely not the last time.

I made the decision to hunt the North Island with Clayton from Ohinerata Hunting with my own rifle and in the company of my brother Steve. My goal was to take a red stag and a fallow buck.

After landing in Wellington and clearing my rifle and gear with the police at the airport, Steve and I picked up our hire car and we were off to Pahiatua for the night, with plans to meet Clayton around lunch time the next day. On meeting Clayton and making introductions we headed to the first hunting area, parking at the farm woolshed before reviewing our safety protocols and a 20-minute quad bike ride to the hut that we planned to stay at for the next two nights.

The quad bike ride had me excited, and the amazing landscape had gotten my hopes up…but I tried to stay calm. After all we're hunting wild animals so there's no telling what the outcome could be.

We arrived at the hut, quickly unloaded the gear from the quad bike trailer, and made plans to go for a hunt for the rest of the afternoon.

Clayton had mentioned a 13-point red stag that frequented our hunting area and showed me a few videos of him during the rut that he managed to capture. He was the target stag if he was still around. That afternoon we saw a number of deer, both reds and fallow, but not the one we were after.

The next morning came around after a sleepless night. We had a quick toast and tea breaky and then set off with plans to glass the same area. As soon as we arrived, we saw a number of red deer – hinds and young stags, but we were looking for that one 13-pointer.

I was set up prone with my rifle rested on my pack while we searched with binoculars. Then the younger stags realised something was up and headed into the scrub, followed by the hinds. But where was our 13? Within seconds, I spotted a stag trying to sneak into the bush down low in the valley. Before I could say “Stag”, Clayton said "That's him! Take him!" He called the range at just shy of 200 metres, perfect. I squeezed the trigger and down the stag went. Clayton patted me on the back. "He's down mate good shooting."

I walked down and, after some searching, there he was! He was in a difficult spot, but that was the last thing on my mind. He was huge! I waved to Clayton and Steve to signal that I found the deer and Steve came down with Clayton’s pup Flynn, soon followed by Clayton on the quad. After photos, caping and butchering, we set off for the hut for a celebratory brunch.

We then decided to head off to give me an extra day hunting fallow deer since we had taken the red stag so early. Clayton invited us to stop by his home where we shared some freshly baked scones courtesy of Clayton’s partner, Trish, and where he boiled out the skull of the stag. That job done, we were off to the fallow deer block with a quick stop on the way to a taxidermist’s to organise the tanning of the red stag’s cape.

A few hours later Clayton, Steve, Flynn and I arrived at the fallow block’s farmhouse pretty late so after some dinner and a shower we hit the hay.

Too excited to get a decent sleep, the morning eventually came around. After quick toast and tea we set off on the quad to check out a few likely spots. We immediately started to see deer, and Flynn was also smelling deer all around. There were also a lot of feral goats, and although not our target it was cool to see them. This was a game rich environment and enough to get any hunter excited.

During the morning we saw some handy bucks but we agreed that they all looked young and with an extra day up our sleeves we continued glassing. Later in the morning we spotted a distant buck that looked impressive so Clayton set up the spotting scope for a better look. We all agreed that this was the one we wanted to pursue.

The buck had bedded so we discussed approaches and settled on a plan. We all walked the ridge we were on to where Clayton, Steve and Flynn could watch as I headed down the hill to a little knob that would have me within about 300 metres of the buck. After slowly making it down the hill to the shooting spot I ranged the buck at 287 metres and gave the guys back up on the ridge the thumbs up that I was ready to shoot.

I yelled to get the buck to stand up and he and a mob of does did so. He then started to croak and chase the does around. This was the first time that I had seen rutting behaviour behaviour so I took it in.

Once the buck had settled down and presented a broadside shot, I squeezed the trigger. The buck jumped as if hit but then ran up hill towards scrub. I reloaded and fired again; a clean miss, then again, again and again, all clean misses. I watched him disappear into the scrub, before making the disappointed and confused walk back to the guys up on the ridge. Clayton had recorded the shot through the spotting scope and it was clear that I had shot high and missed. We called it a morning and headed for the house for a rest and to check that the rifle was shooting straight.

A few shots proved the rifle was not the problem. This was a relief but left a sense of disappointment. I decided to put it behind me and move on. We still had time to hunt and there was plenty of deer around. After all, if you hunt long enough, you're bound to miss eventually, it's the reality of hunting.

That afternoon, we saw a lot of deer, but no bucks worth going after. Over dinner that evening we made plans to get out the next morning in a new area before forecast heavy rain.

I woke up feeling good and we were off. We parked the quad and walked into some slightly thicker country - what I'm more used to and I felt at home. As we were walking, we noticed Flynn indicating that there was a deer close by and sure enough, a buck appeared and only 15 metres away. I decided to take him and took a rest on a nearby tree. There was no missing from that distance and the buck was dead before he hit the ground.

We approached the deer and praised Flynn for his good work. It was my first-ever fallow buck, a handy dark coloured one that was smaller than the buck I had missed the previous morning, but regardless I was one happy hunter.

We took photos and gutted the deer, then I carried him few hundred metres to where we could get the quad for the ride out. Still being very early in the morning we took a ride around the property and glassed a few other deer. It was a fun morning to say the least. We returned to the house where we ate, shared stories and ate some more for the next day and a half.

After we said goodbye, Steve and I packed our meat and trophies and headed to Otaki, a town on the beach, where we spent a few days eating venison and sharing it with an old friend that now lives in Otaki. The neighbours also took some venison and offered fresh fruit in return which I couldn't turn down.

After another week we explored our way back to Wellington. This was an amazing first hunting trip to New Zealand and it is safe to say that I’ll be back sooner rather than later.

I'd like to show some support and thank Clayton at Ohinerata Hunting for the 5-Star service and great hunting experience in New Zealand. I can't recommend him enough.