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.