Flying High

The results from my latest hunting trip. The first day I started up the mountain after a very nice bull by myself. I managed to get right on top of a bunch of nannies and kids but there was no bull in the group. I turned around, the snow was just to deep and the mountain to steep. In all the hunting and hiking I've done I've never been afraid of falling. But this day I admit I was a little nervous. It was REALLY steep. I made the wise decision and headed back down to the creek bottom. Hiked up the creek and met up with Jim and Jacob. They were watching a decent bull with about 10 nannies not to far up on a ridge. I started up after the bull but got turned around again because of a bluff at the ridge top. There was just no way up. Upon hiking back down to the huts we came across a young bull just up from the creek. After 3 shots he was down. Not sure what my problem was. I'll chalk it up to the first time I had shot the gun! The good part was that he practically landed at our feet. My second New Zealand Tahr. A good one for meat. The second day we all three started up after the bull I went after the day before. It was really slow going and way to steep. But we all three stuck together and made it up. We managed to get within about 300 yds. Jacob made a good second shot and dropped the bull. After surveying the situation we decided it would be to time consuming to get up to him. Let alone dangerous. So that left only one option: Helicopter. We marched back down to the huts and got packed. Hiked back out to the truck. Home about dark. Helicopter arranged for the next morning at daylight. Met the pilot at his house at daylight. My first time in a helicopter. And what better place than New Zealand right. Per Capita New Zealand has more helicopters than any country in the world. Flying in one was one thing I really wanted to do upon coming here. And to get to fly in to where we were hunting was awesome. Long story short we flew in, hovered over the tahr, Jim jumped out and got a rope on it. The chopper hovered back in, Jim hooked the rope underneath got back in and we were off. Flying back home with Tahr slung underneath. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that but being in the chopper made that impossible. All told the flight was 54 minutes. And the scenery amazing.

Winter Wonderland

Winter is upon us here in the Southern Hemisphere. As you can see. The snow made a bit of a challenge on last weeks hunting trip. Just driving in was a chore. As you can see we managed to get stuck. But thankfully with Jim's expert driving and super tough 1983 Toyota Land Cruiser we managed to make it up to the creek we were going to hunt. After a 3 hour hike up the creek we finally made it to the huts. The snow was about knee deep. Hiking up the creek was pretty tough. By the time we made it up to the huts I was soaked from the waist down. Putting on frozen stiff pants in the mornings and solid ice in your boots wasn't the most pleasant thing. But the scenery more than made you forget the cold. As you can see the huts were tiny. And no heat. So long nights in the sleeping bag were the order. In bag about 7:30pm and out about 8am the following mornings. Thank goodness for the new sleeping bag I bought before coming to NZ. It was really neat to see the mountains here covered in so much snow. Unlike Montana they tell me that all this snow with the exception of the very tops of the mountains will melt. It comes and goes all winter. Where in Montana you know that when snow comes at the start of winter it is going to be with you for 5-6 months. The last few days here have been really beautiful. Mid 50's and full sun. Not to bad for winter I'll say!!

Happy Hunting

I'm sure by now you are all wondering why no posts lately. Well I'll tell you. I could have posted pictures of a billion raindrops/snowflakes because that's all I've seen for the past six days till today. One of the biggest snowstorms in two decades just swept across NZ. Some places here on the South Island got a meter and half plus of snow. That's 4.5 feet!! The top of the mountain in the photo is Mount Hutt behind my house and it got that much on top. It is one of the major ski fields in NZ and its neat at night to see the headlights of the snow groomers working way up on the mountain. The skiers will be real happy! They now have a 3 meter snow base. So around 10 feet! Here at the farm we had at the most about 2-3 inches of snow with A LOT of rain. The good news is it is supposed to be sunny for the next 5-7days:-) Enough about the weather. All the dead critters are the result of a big hunting competition that was held this past weekend. I stopped and looked at them today. There was about 30 wild boar, 3 Himalayan Tahr which are the animals in the third photo. And 5 deer. Also a bunch of Hares and Possums in the last photo. The neat thing was that I was in town to get groceries for my own hunting trip starting tomorrow. Am going with the guy who's boat I fished on a couple of weeks ago. Him, me, and one other guy. We're planning on being gone 4 days. And we're after Tahr. Just Google Himalayan Tahr and you'll see good photos of what they look like. They're a type of goat that live on the very tops of the mountains. Should be interesting with all the recent snow. Hopefully you'll see me with one later in the week!!

Feeding

I took this video this morning while I was feeding the small heifers. That's oat baleage I'm feeding. Oats that were baled green and put in bag. If you go all the way back to the early January posts there is a video of us moving this same group out the driveway. They sure grow fast!! I hope this works as my last attempts at videos weren't working.

Down on the Farm

Hey. Sorry it's been awhile. Anyhow I'm back on the farm with the Hendersons here in Methven. Not a lot going on as it is winter now. But with winter here on the farm comes COWS! And a lot of them. They winter dry dairy cows here for neighboring dairy farmers. There are currently 1200 dry cows here plus the 800 heifers we've had. And counting the 80 beef heifers that you see in the last photo there are just shy of 2100 head of cattle on the place.In 6 different groups. They are all grazing on kale, and oats in the paddocks. Plus we feed them all some hay as well everyday. Fences get moved everyday keeping them on fresh feed. As you can see it still is pretty green here. Snow on the mountains but nice down here. Most days have been in the mid-40's. With some days in the 50's. And a good frost most mornings. But really for winter pretty nice. And apparently it will be like this all winter. A real change from Montana. I'm going to be here on the farm for awhile yet. I don't have a plan for the next couple of months. We'll just have to see what happens.