Originally I was going to post up my brothers recent hunt up this river,but I've decided to make it a more general information peice, incase any overseas hunters are considering a do it your self hunt.
The Karangarua catchment runs out to the west coast about 40 minutes drive south of Franz Joseph village. This watershed consist's of the Karangarua, the Copeland,the Regina, the Douglas and the Troyte rivers.All in all some 400 square kilometers. All these rivers hold numbers of Thar,Chamois and Red deer.If you are planning a walk in hunt, there is a carpark on the north side of the Karangarua,where state highway 6 cross's over it.This is the start of the walkway up the Copeland,the first major tributary. There are 2 huts up this river,and there are no legal landing zones for choppers at all.I havn't hunted this river, so will leave it at that. On the south side is another walking track, which leads up the Karangarua proper, and gives you access to all other tributaries.4-6 hrs walk will see you at Cassel Flat hut.From this hut you can hunt all 3 species,with deer and chamois sign almost at the hut door.

This photo looks up cassel flat, too the Tui faces, your easiest chance of seeing a shootable Thar is on these.The faces are 40 minutes past the hut,on the main track up valley,They rise a 1000 meters though, so Thar at the top are probably out of range.If your patent, there is a good chance of a shot at around 3-400. The trick is to wait untill your bull is on a sheer peice,then hit him hard,I like a shot to the base of the neck,withany luck he'll slide to the bottom.Keep an eye out close around you too animals will walk out of the bush from anywhere.

A chamois Doe and Kid at the base of the faces.
Other options are to tent up Bunker, Niblick or Curly creeks.Curly is probably the easiest, and allows access to the heads of the other two.

This is a 15 month animal, taken for camp meat up Curly creek.
From Cassel you can cross the river via a cage and pulley to head up either the Regina or Douglas.The Regina is a small tributary, and takes about 4-5 hour to reach good camping towards its headwaters, most of it is untracked and its abit like entering a lost world as you have to drop through caves made from boulders the size of two storie houses covered in massive trees and moss. I've only been up there once, but what i saw, country wise, makes me keen to explore more. Its not a big valley though, so go quiet as it would be easy to disturb the whole thing.

This photo shows the Regina at left and the Douglas at right with Conical hill in the middle. There is a track that starts up the Regina before crossing through the saddle behind Conical and onto the tops of the Douglas.You can shoot Thar and Chamois right the way along this route, but if you are heading for the Douglas, then your best option is to fly to Horace Walker hut,a designated landing zone.
The Douglas is a spot that is popular, but always seems to have animals. The hut is at the confluence of two Glacier feed streams. The easiest spot to pick up an animal is atop the morainne wall about 30 minutes walk northeast of the hut. A track leads from the river, up a small creek and onto this area of flats and clearings.Keep an eye out for Chamois.

This buck was shot at first light, right on the first clearing at 60 yards. We could hear it feeding but had to wait for enough light to see it.

This next photo is looking downstream, Conical hill can be seen in the v of the valley, the bottom clearing is where the hut is and the Morraine wall is visable center right with the clearing the Chamois was on.Thar can be found all over this valley, but a good place to look is the face's in the left of picture.

Upstream you come to the Douglas Glacier Lake,Although you can walk up the true right, its easier to fly in a small inflatable.With a few hours of bush bashing you can climb up to the country between the Gladiator and the Pommel. there are a couple of tracks, but they are hard to find, common sense helps, look for a logical route,somone else will have seen it too.

This peice of country is prime Thar habitat, Take a tent and be ready on first light and the last 2 hrs.
The final option is to fly to Cristmas flat hut at the head of the Karangarua. This gives you the option to hunt the Troyte as well, which is what my brother and his mate did in june.
The forecast for the week was bad, so they left supplies at the hut and flycmped on the front country of the Troyte about 4 hrs walk from the hut.

Once there camp was set they started to glass, soon spotting a good bull which they stalked to within 120 yrds of. A neck shot and he was down.


This bull was 11 years old with horns of around 12 inchs,making Simons first Thar a pretty good Trophy. The next morning the storm arrived, so they headed back to the hut to sit it out. they then headed down valley to Lame duck flat,allow 3-4 hours for this walk, but take it slow as there are animals all around.

A bonus on the way, my brother with a Red stag.

A Chamois buck shot up one of the side creeks.
There are however a few places where you might feel the cold a bit.
The rest of the trip consisted of moving around this valley on flycamps and sheltering from the fronts that came through. All up they spent 6 days hunting, saw 40 Thar and shot two, one of which they couldn't recover, and 8 chamois of which they shot 1.
If there are two things I would suggest you should take, the most important would be a Mountain radio. these can be hired from the Mountain radio service at $40 dollars a week. and the other is a good quality spotting scope. let your eyes do most of the climbing for you.consider a hunt for a bull a 2 day event,you spot him the first day, watch him and work out how to intercept him, and go for it the next day. Be prepared to camp up there for a night or two. That way you shouldn't have to do more than 4 hrs climbing at any given time.And finally if you think a certain peice is beyond your abilitys,dont do it. Even if you have shot a trophy and hes lying 10 feet out of reach. its not worth your life for a head.
Finally a few scenic photos.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll56/shankspony_photos/Tharhuntmikes47.jpg

Happy hunting, and if your considering a hunt down here,give one of us Kiwis a PM we'll be glad to offer any advice or help we can.

Gidday Shanks,

A good bit of advise and an easily followed set of instructions on hunting some fantastic country.

One piece of advise I would give is if it is raining be prepared to be wadimg up a river as the track actually runs knee deep in water for about one third of the way up to Cassel Flats hut. Only if it is raining mind but rather freaky if you are not expecting it.

Otherwise enjoy one of the "open secret" hunting places on the Coast.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

Your report brings back memories of a Chamois hunt seventeen years ago up the Regina with Dave McClunie.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Your report brings back memories of a Chamois hunt seventeen years ago up the Regina with Dave McClunie.

Its an interesting peice of country, how did you get on?

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Your report brings back memories of a Chamois hunt seventeen years ago up the Regina with Dave McClunie.

Legendary guide old Dave Mac
The Karangarua has some of the best bulls in the south Island and you can land at the huts as shanks said.
This is one of my favourite areas but the weather is hell.

Awesome report shanks, great pics, I've looked up there driving up & down the coast on occasions & wished that I'd made the time years ago, maybe with kids growing up it could happen yet. A very easy place to get "weathered" in though
Dave Mac, lovely guy & really genuine. I've stopped off in Hokitika a couple of times to say gidday to him.
Steve
PS Shanks, did you choose that user name for any special reason?

Inspiring...

dan

quote:

Originally posted by woodmanDan:
Inspiring...

dan

And making those heli hopping septics look like frign sheilas,a well done Sir for some true sport as depicted in your essay cobber.

Pick your weather walking into Cassell flat the side creeks can come up pretty bad, and you end up trapped between two of them and an unfavourable night out can ensue...

The hut in the top pix Cassel flat hut...in the early days the Internal affairs camp there was the one the supply plane pilot deliberately dropped a free drop package down the chimney on a low pass. (Ex bomber pilot)

Its a great place.

Very, very impressive! Thanks for posting this report on your alpine adventure.

Some day I'll be up those mountains as well!

Just a really good post shanks. Would answer a lot of our US friends queries about fairchase and self guided alpine hunting. Thanks for sharing

Thanks guys,it should be representative of what to expect from a guided hunt on the public land of the west coast. Perhaps someone with more experience of the east coast can post something regarding that, as it can be quite different over there.

Great pics and information shankspony!
Some well deserved trophies there!
It's a great place to be when the sun is shining!
You didn't mention the big patches of onga onga (tree nettle) on the overgrown section of track from Christmas flat down to Lame Duck!

Hi N,J,C The track down the valley has been freshly cut. There is also meant to be a new hut on Lame Duck flat. The foundations have been built, but the chopper that was flying the hut in, ran into difficulty and dropped it. Most of it can be seen high in the branch's of a Rimu Tree.