Of the original 6 on the ballot form only 3 were able to go for varying reasons, myself from West Australia David from ChCh and Lars from Denmark so we had a couple of extras Mike from West Australia and Rahui from Auckland, so the first task was organising for all of us to get to Te Anau, so Mike and I drove from ChCh with most of the gear and the rest flew to Queenstown and shuttle bussed to Te Anau. We flew with Fiordland Helicopters again ( we used them last year as well top service) so it was 2 trips.



The plan was to set up a base camp mid valley and work from that, so 3 of us, Lars, Mike and I were to be dropped off above Twin Falls Creek on the coppers way out and take a couple of days to hunt our way back. The site for the drop off in hind site which is a marvellous thing probably wasn’t the best choice as it left us a big climb back out the next day, we should of used the ridge as the camp site as it had a small tarn there, and we wouldn’t have disturbed the basin.


There had been deer in here but nothing fresher than a couple of weeks, it looked like they had moved out over the small saddle into Twin Falls Creek. After setting up camp Lars and I climbed up onto the dividing ridge but no fresh sign at all, the small lake above Twin Falls creek screamed deer but none were seen, and there was no fresh sign around the lake at all when we got there the next day







So next day it was pack up and over to the lake, it was quite a climb back out and Mike wasn’t feeling too good as he had picked up a chest infection so the going was tough and it was a bloody hot day which didn’t help.





Looking towards the head of the Stillwater from dividing ridge



Ridge between basin and Twin falls creek catchment



We spent the night at the lake and down to twin Falls Creek the next day, Mike by this stage wasn’t well and we had concerns about this as the mountain radio was in base camp. We didn’t encounter any large bluffs on the way down but it was still quite steep in places with thick cover and NO deer sign which is a worry as if the deer haven’t been there, is there no way down, but I think it was just low deer numbers.

Looking back at the ridge between camps



Next night was about mid way in Twin Falls Creek, unfortunately Mike had lost his ten on the way down as he had had it strapped to his pack so it was a night under a small ground sheet for him, but the weather gods were kind that night with just a bit of drizzle. There was a small amount of sign but nothing was seen and no roaring heard. Next day it was down Twin Falls Creek and back to base camp Mike’s health was the issue now.



Twin Creek falls



Base camp




After a day in base camp and a couple of trips up river for a look, a bit of sign and some pretty good rubbing around but no roaring it was decided to go for a fly camp down river to the knob and maybe a look into Madman Stream, The trip down river wasn’t bad except for the dense pepper wood on the river bank and deep feeder creeks you had to cross. Had one stag roaring between camp and Twin Falls creek but David and Lars passed it as it came into check my roars out, I heard it but could see it in the tight shit then it did the old sneak away bit giving a couple of roars as it went. There was a tricky bit below were Twin falls Creek comes in were you have to negotiate some large boulders on the true right through defile and rapids just above the Ethane saddle area that was pretty tough going. Again there was no roaring and only a small amount of sign mid valley and looked to be deer travelling. Through a lot of the mid valley the river is wide and deep with no crossings and the valley then falls away from the high river bank into swampy country. There were no trout in the upper section of the valley due to the defile and rapids at the knob.

Looking back a twin falls from down valley before the gorgy bit



Big clearing lower valley, some sign but no deer seen although the party after us got some good pics and film of a spiker on it




Lars and I after setting up camp at the knob went for a walk to try and get a look into Madman creek, but we picked the wrong side and ended up in some shitty steep stuff and ran out of time so headed back to camp. Lars had carried his fly rod down river so had a few casts to see if there were any fish but no there weren’t while we weer doing this David had heard a roar so gave a few back, and as Lars and I were approaching the camp a stag was quite vocal coming up river, a few more roars from myself while the other two grabbed the shooting sticks a stag appeared down the clearing. As we needed meat David dealt with it as Lars couldn’t see it, it looked to have a little Wap in it and was aged at about 3 years and was about 70 meters from camp David shot it from in front of his tent ( that’s obviously were the saying camp meat comes from)



Next Day it was back up valley which was about 10 hours hard slog. Again no roaring heard through the mid part


Back at camp we found out the stag below camp had given Rahui and Mike a bit of late night roring quite close to camp to stir them up. While dinner was being served a stag started to roar across river on a clearing, after a bit of prompting Lars declined dinner at that stage and hot footed it across to have a look at it, it returned my roars off and on and seemed a bit spooky. ( turned out you could hear people talking in camp quite clearly from the clearing). Just before the light disappeared there were two shots and some pretty excited wooping and yelling from the Dane across the river. He had sneaked out to the clearing and a nice creamy stag was walking up the clearing so a shot from the 308 and a second when it ran ( which never connected), it went about 30 meters and was down. It was a nice even 10 pointer for the trophy wall back in Denmark, showed a fair amount of wapiti blood by it’s coloration and was roughly aged at 3 years by it’s jaw back in Te Anau. Now before the decriers start Lars had come a long way for this adventure and this was only his second red type stag ( the first shot with us in the Drake River a couple of years ago) and as Red deer hunting in Denmark for trophy animals is a rich mans sport this was a deer of a lifetime.





After a rest the next day myself and Rahui went up river for a fly camp, the weather forecast wasn’t the best for the next couple of days so we would make decisions on the time away by the way it looked. There wasn’t much fresh sign above camp in the areas we had already been and only a little past that, we camped just before the forks in the headwaters that night, again no roars were heard although there were a couple of wallows where we camped.

Looking up river towards the top forks, lots of boulder hopping



Next morning we headed up the true left fork, there was a bit of sign but no roaring, early afternoon with the weather threatening we decide to head for camp pack up and head back. Got one stag to give a couple of roars above base camp where we had see some good rubbing but he then shut up.
On arriving back at camp we found Lars and Mike had flown back out that morning as Mike still wasn’t getting any better. With the weather forecast getting worse we contacted Jonathan at Fiordland choppers about a pick up, as usual when they got back to us we had an hour to pack the camp up but the chopper arrived in less than that as usual, mad rush. The flight out was back up valley and over into the Wapiti River in pretty clagged in conditions so not much was seen.

Not a lot of deer were seen and only heard 4 roar of which 2 were shot and it looked like deer numbers weren’t high but the trophy potential is there we will be back.

Hoyl shit! Now that's a hunt! great pictures. How was Mike?
Peter.

3 courses of antibiotics and he was ok

Wazza, help me out a bit with the geography. North Island, South Island etc.
Thanks, Peter.

lower west cost of the South Island

Thanks, Wazza, another question. When is a good time of year for red stag? It was unclear to me when this hunt took place. Was it recently?
Peter

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
Wazza, help me out a bit with the geography. North Island, South Island etc.
Thanks, Peter.

See the sat map in dogcats request for foot hunting info

Thanks Weathered. I can see how it got it's name!
Peter.

Its a neat valley aye. I was in there in January, not many deer round then either although there are those motorways in the peperwood. Thanks for the awesome Fiordland post! Much needed fix.

Are you back in there next season Tussock?

Gidday Guys

I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of deer is due to the WAR operations which have broken out this passed 12 - 18 months. Many thousands of deer have been shot from helos.

What with that and DOC dropping 1080 like it was a lolly scramble I am surprised there is anything alive in the bush.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

The machines will only do more and more with the venison price the way it is, they'll be creaming it

unless the wap blocks are poached there is only the wapiti foundation controller taking reds and inferior wap type animals out of them with an observer with every flight, some blocks at times just don't seem to hold many deer while others do, some good heads are comming out of these blocks, both deer we shot were aged at 3 years so the potential is there.