Here is my first report for this forum - hope I've loaded it right!

In New Zealand its the tahr rut and a great time to head into the South Island to try for a trophy tahr. I won a ballot that gave our party permission to take a helicopter into a wilderness area. We had 4 days of perfect weather and plenty of bulls seen. My friends shot a nice bull and a buck chamois too. Both fantastic trophies from one of the most amazing places to hunt in the world (ok, so I'm a little bias!). I shot a nice bull tahr but unfortunately was unable to recover it, very disappointing. Planning is underway for a spring hunt when the bulls move off the high country and into the valleys.

Here are some photos of the trip.

Camp


Looking down at camp from the other side of the valley.


Some difficult country to navigate


Nanny Tahr


Local native mountain parrot - Kea


Nice Bull


Another nice bull


Friends trophy

Welcome to the forum mate. Nice post and congrats on a great trophy

A bull Tahr in the rut, on foot = as good a challenge as any hunt you will find anywhere IMHO.
Thanks for your first report.

Awesome block that. Just not when you have one of the biggest storms of the year come through


What route did you take to cross to the otherside?

That's a lot of snow to content with. I took an ice axe and crampons but didn't go too far into the snow.

We found two routes over the river. - had a heap of advice to help us. One a little up stream from camp just below the water fall. The second route was down stream from camp just below the flat area. Don't know if I explained that very well, I can email you my gps tracking if you'd like.

Good hunting.
You may have to get a tripod to stop the shakes with that old DMC-FZ70.
Of course Bull Tahr can do that to most of us.

quote:

DMC-FZ70.

Agreed, two things on the shopping list for next year. A spotting scope and camera tripod.

Plenty of familiar country there

Yep but the problem then is weight and that is a taboo word for that terrain.
Carrying all the toys can be burdensome.

quote:

Originally posted by anotherkiwi:
That's a lot of snow to content with. I took an ice axe and crampons but didn't go too far into the snow.

We found two routes over the river. - had a heap of advice to help us. One a little up stream from camp just below the water fall. The second route was down stream from camp just below the flat area. Don't know if I explained that very well, I can email you my gps tracking if you'd like.

I know where you mean. It took me a while to find the route above camp for myself, but I had a rather good bull laying on its side somewhere near where your photo is taken.

Some rough as hell country snow or not.
Colorado's Rocky Mountains sure don't hold all the rocks!

Glad you guys made it without broken legs.
Thanks for sharing,
George

Wow! Amazing country and trophies.

I wish I could hunted such country as a young man!

I tried in my early 50s but really struggled.

Yeah nakihunter it's fairly demanding country. I'm a pretty fit 46 year old and can get around fine, just have to pick your routes carefully.