Early last month on a "family" holiday in the South Island I cunningly arranged to leave wifey and child and go on a wallaby hunt with Mr TrackersNZ Tim Buma.

Setting of from Methven , we drove for two hours to waimate , famous in Tims words for being the inbreeding capital of the South island , where your brother is your cousin is your uncle ...

We located the guy who was to give us directions - werent able to go to Tims usual wallaby spot due to the farmers sheep still lambing and not wanting to be disturbed .

Got the directions , headed off into the aptly named Hunter Hills just as the heavy cloud cover settled to well below the hill tops . Since we planned to hunt in and spotlight out it didnt look too promising....

Drove on up the access road - two large radio repeater towers in there so the road was pretty good - though the gorse and scrub and up into the very wet cloud. on the hilltop the terrain was pretty bare - semi alpine tussock and little rocky outcrops, with the hillsides being very steep in places . Lots of wallaby sign , chewed succulent stems and crap everywhere but not a wobblery to be seen . very wet by now but we were there so kept on going .

Then , 50 meters away in the mist were two wallabies making tracks away from us so out of the 4wd and after them . wallabies arent stupid all the time and all we got was very wet , but at least the little sods were there .

Further on down the track past the second radio tower the road got very rough in places , Not much traffic so not much maintainance . Deep washouts in places made a test for Tims off road skills .

Suddenly , away in the mist just visivle on a rocky otcrop was a wallaby . As luck would have it , it was on my side of the vehicle , so I did the civilised thing and poked the gun out the window, used the wingmirror as a rest and shot mr wally with my 223.

Retreived the body for the obligatory photo shots - bit hard in poor light and misty rain . This was a buck wallaby, about a metre high , weighed in at about 25-30 kgs . Very pretty with soft reddish grey fur and wicked claws on fore and hind legs .





These guys are pretty heavy to hold up by the tail for long , and Tim isnt the worlds fastest photographer at times....

So onwards we went , the track getting wose and wetter , down into a side valley on a narrow and fairly washed out section of track that was getting mushy underfoot .. decided to return as it was getting dubious, so turned around and proceeded to get blocked by a deep rut. Out with the shovel and rocks and filled the hole enough to get through with much lurching and skidding .

On up the track without too much drama till Tim spies a wallaby hunched down in the tussock so he out with the pump-action 12 ga and buckshot and blasts the wallaby . Certainly stopped it in its tracks , but had to administer the cou-de-gras with the .22. Buckshot isnt all its cracked up to be ...

Back along the road to a spot that was interesting getting in - washed out and rutted and a very steep drop down the hill as well . time for more digging and rock carrying , and lots of saying bugger. After several refills of rock and more digging we managed to get through without rolling down the hill , a couple of times when the truck had been teetering on the edge I was thinking how far it was to walk home..

Back to the good road , down the hill , out of the thicker cloud and we could use the lighta little easier . saw another wallaby in the gorse below the road so did the decent thing and shot him too. Interesting to see how the gorse bushes had been grazed up as high as the wallabies can reach , giving them a topiary look .

That was the last wallaby we saw , so headed down the hill and set off for home .A good afternoon/evening outing despite getting wet , and even eating at Burger King wasnt that bad . Thanks Tim, we should do that again some time.

Looks like great fun. Thanks for posting.

What do you mount - the ears or the tail?

quote:

even eating at Burger King wasnt that bad

muzza,

I would have knocked a hind leg off of one of those wallaby and eaten it before I went to Burger King

Hog Killer

Personally I would have eaten the wallabies toenails in preferance to BK or Maccas , but you dont have much choice late at night in provincial towns in NZ....

Good to see the Australian residents in NZ getting a hammering.

No worries there John.

I see it was another bad weekend for aussie sporting teams - all of the sporting codes playing NZ got beaten - again.....

Seems every aussie immigrant to this country gets pest status mighty quick.
Wallaby
Possum
Whitetail Spider
Spur Winged Plover
Black Swan
etc...etc...

BTW: Muzza great shot on that first Wallaby.
Good weather and we would have caned them.

Question, please: are black swan huntable?

TIA

Yes they are.Most of the north island the daily limit is 1 bird per day and 5 in the south island.There is a cull every year where i live and about 2000 are shot in one day

I know this will sound a bit crazy.

We have a Kiwi teaching here at our school and he is a good bloke plus a bloody good teacher. I hope my 18 year old has him again next year.

I took him to Field and Game (Sporting Clays to wanks, sorry Yanks) and he loved it and shot a 7 and and 11 which isn't too bad for a new kid (ahh, he's 29)

Took him out varminting yesterday and he shot a rabbit at about 200 yards with the 22-250, and was very happy.

What I didn't get and why I am posting. He reckons that there are no wallabys in NZ. He reckons they are non native.

I was going to argue the toss as I thought they were but thought I could be wrong.

Did he mean there were no wallabies in down town Christchurch?

Imagine: 29 and never touched a gun?

Good bloke.

Muzza, if you are like him, your ARE a good bloke.

I take back all I have ever said about Kiwis.

Not quite. There are a few tools I know ------

No wallabys in New Zealand??? shit i must have been shooting small kangroos

There are four different versions of wallabies here , Mr Townboy teacher must have led a sheltered existance till now .

But then you dont see many of them in student bars and nightclubs , so that may explain it...?