I filed a brief version of this from Queenstown. I thought I would provide a bit more detail.

We arrived in Auckland in a pouring rain on August 3. My guns were lost. Of 5 flights with Air NZ, they lost bags on 3 of them. I was not happy.

Off we went to Christchurch where the weather was no better. We couldn't fly in our charter. We had to drive. It was a very scenic drive.

We got settled in. I changed cloths and off we went. I borrowed a guides rifle. We stopped and glassed one place. Then we moved off to another. As soon as I got out of the truck, I looked up and could see 3 tahr. The guide was flabbergasted. Said he had never seen them that quickly. On goes my pack and rifle and off we go. Now picture this. I had just gotten there after those LONG flights and here I am starting to climb immediately. Further, my pack was not sitting right. The straps were across my stomach. I could not stop to adjust them. I was huffing and puffing like you can't imagine. It is about impossible to prepare for this when you are from the flat lands about 50 feet above sea level. My only consolation was that the guide was breathing hard as well.

We got to a ledge and stopped. Out come the range finders. 397 yards. I place the borrowed 7 MM across my pack. Boom. I can see the tahr rolling down the mountain.

I have to admit, the climb to get the tahr scared the hell out of me. It was steep with lots of loose rocks. But I did it and I was proud of my self. I am scared shitless of heights. At any rate, he was 12.5 inches! I was happy.

The next day we head out again. We start off looking for stag. I keep glassing the mountains like an idiot and I spot more tahr. One has a mane that made me think about the MGM lion. Off we go after the tahr. About 5 or 6 hours later we are about 500 yards away. I can tell that both horns are broken. I pass.

Well the next day was stag day. We glassed and glassed. Finally we saw 2 bulls. One was a shooter. Off we go. This was virtually an all day chase with the wind blowing about 40 MPH. We finally find them feeding upwind of us. We crawl to a ledge. I shot the bull at about 330 yards in that howling wind. I hit him square on the shoulder. He just stood there shaking. Finally he fell.When we got to him, I looked at his teeth as I thought he was pretty old. I was right. His teeth we were down to virtually nothing.

The next morning we decide to try and shoot paradise ducks. My girlfriend went. Suffice it to say that the ducks won. It was my girlfriend's first lesson that this was hunting and not killing.

We went out that afternoon to look for tahr again. We had not been stopped to glass 5 minutes when I spotted a group of 17 a HELL of a long way away up a mountain. The girlfriend is in tow again. We drop down into this river/stream/ creek whatever it was called and cross it. The tahr can't see us. We climb up the mountain. While it was the longest steepest climb, it also had the best footing. We get to the top and belly crawl to a ledge. I look back at the girlfriend. She is sweating like crazy (so was I). Her eyes were wide. We glassed the tahr. I decided which one. I whacked him with my 300 WinMag at 284 yards. Down he goes. The only thing my girlfriend could say was that she had no idea it was this hard. I just laughed.

We went duck hunting the next morning. I shot about 10 parries. However that afternoon, we shot geese and hammered the hell out of them. It was great fun.

This was fantastic country. Beautiful. Very nice people. I would highly recommend them.

We went off to Queenstown for a week or so of fun. We had a blast doing all sorts of stupid stuff. We also got to meet one of the KIWI AR members, Weathered. He is a nice guy. We had a few drinks with him. it was very educational.

I am a computer idiot. If someone that knows how will send me an e mail address, I will forward pictures. If they can post them, I would appreciate it.

Well done Larry, sounds like you had a ball.

Photos posted for Larry.

Red Stag

Tahr Bull 1


Tahr Bull 2

Good pics , cool hunt!

Glad you had a good time , hopefully it goes some way to undoing the Nunnick saga .

Come back again and hunt some of our other species.

Its not all that far from the vehicle either really

The truck can be seen in the photo of the first tahr. It was a hell of a long way away on the second.

I should have added that this place has a large number of free ranging tahr.

Couple of nice bulls and the stag is pretty good as well. Just a bit curious but do they charge the same amount for duck shooting as they do for the tahr hunt?

I can't really answer that. I paid for the tahr hunt. I had time left. I asked to shoot some paradise ducks to kill time before I went to Queenstown.. The only thing I paid for as it relates to waterfowl was the license.

Goodonya Larry,
Glad you finally got there.

Well done Larry, it lookslike you lost a bit of gravy going by the photo's... haha

Tremendous Red Stag. Great trip.

Good work Larry, glad you had fun.