Recently back from a hunting trip to Stewart Island , which is off the bottom of the South Island of NZ. There are a lot of public and private hunting blocks there , and we had one called North Tikotatahi , on the Eastern side , about halfway down.

There is a population of whitetail deer on the island, and that was the main reason for us going - plus to tick another item off the bucket list.

If I do this right , there should be a pic and a video of a cool starfish that we landed in our cray pot , along with a big conger eel. If I get time I will post a few more pics over the weekend



http://s169.photobucket.com/user/muzza9999/media/076_zps76a73e14.mp4.html?sort=3&o=0

EDIT - ok , that didnt work too well. Bear with me folks , having ten left thumbs is not always an asset....

Try again ... ;-)

heres the top of the starfish - its called a brittlestar , apparently.



Heres a pic of the conger eel . Went very well in the smoker , thanks .


Heres a scenery shot


And in case anyone askes - yes we did get a couple of deer , although they are very wily critturs to hunt



Will post some more pics tomorrow.

Muzza...Nice pics! When we were on the SI in February my wife caught an eel like that off the wharf at Jackson's Bay on the west coast...those buggers have a nasty attitude!

Z

Some thick looking scrub there Muzza. Looks like a good trip.

heres some more pics



found some paua - abalone to non-kiwis
smallest of these was about 160mm long , biggest over 180mm . Legal size is 125mm.







A visit from a seal , not a very friendly seal though



Some of the more open hunting country, Most of it was shoulder-high fern that was near impossible to move through , with fallen logs and debris and vines waiting to catch/trip you at every step.

did you eat the sea urchins? i have seen their roe on sushi bar menus. nice pix...

Some people eat them - or more specifically , maori and pacific islanders eat them . I dont , but the two guys who ate these ones said they were very tasty ...

Prefer the paua myself , pulled from shell , gutted , beaten with the head of an axe to tenderise , sliced thinly then cooked on the bbq with lots of garlic butter. Hard to beat.

And the sand flies were how bad?

surprisingly they werent that bad. I wore shorts except when hunting , although the hunters hut on this block is on a low , narrow neck of sand spit between two bays so there was a breeze most of the time. Hunting from an elevated position - almost stand hunting if you will - was another story . Then you needed full cover and gloves , and a face mask. The little bastards still bit through my mesh gloves , but despite that they were nowhere near as bad as I had expected. Not like South Westland sandflies anyway ;-)

last couple of pics

an artsy , moonlight-over-the-bay type



The paua collection on the 2nd to last day so we could take some home . You are allowed 10 each per day , we took 9 each on the one day so not really plundering the resource at all - and all legal sized or much bigger



and the lads waiting for the boat pickup on the last morning



I have video footage of fish and other interesting stuff but no idea how to post it.

And here is a map of the Island showing the hunting blocks . Ours was block number 22

Good one mate.

Did you have Kiwi walk up to you and sniff your boots? One of the strangest experiences I've ever had when hunting!

We hunted the Ariki (North Lords) in 1996 & South Lords in 2000. We also booked the DOC block up river and moved to a bivy there.

My buck is still among the fern and crap ..... must have walked past it 50 times in the 3 days of searching - but no luck. 3 foot diameter of blood, skin, hair and tissue splattered on the trees and bush!

Instead of bashing the heck out of the abs try just soaking them in milk in the fridge o/night.
then slicing to your preferred thickness to cook

Makes a huge difference to the texture.

If you are desperate hungry , even an hour in milk makes a big difference.

great pics on my bucket list