Wednesday the 29th we stayed with that gorgeous niece of mine, who has discovered she can make some interesting squeaky noises, very cute!! :) On Thursday we had another nieces 5th Birthday party out in Mayfield and were instructed to buy a present which was either a pony, a fairy princess or a combination of the two :)
Friday morning saw us back up some gear and food, and head into the hills for the weekend in search of some meat for the freezer. The weather wasn't looking good for Saturday but we decided on a wander into the North Opuha hut anyway, a short walk to the hut meant the weather shouldn't be too much of an issue....
Home for the Weekend
We arrived at the hut, dropped our packs and went for a walk to see if we could see any animals, after about half and hour we spotted some Tahr high up the ridge above us, it was 4:30pm, but we decided if we walked quickly we might have a chance to catch them out at the top of the ridge.
We stomped up the tussock ridge for an hour or so, when I spied a nanny tahr casually walking through the tussock about 150m above me. We crawled forward to get a better shot, but must have spooked her as she disappeared into a nearby basin.
We moved further up to the top ridge where we had seen the 1st Tahr but there was nothing there, disappointed and a bit knackered after our 400m climb we stopped for a bite to eat and some picture taking.
View down towards Lake Opuha
Lake Opuha
It was getting cold and late in the day so we started the decent back to the hut, watching as the clouds of the Southerly front were getting closer, as we were descending the ridge Aaron whistled, I turned around to him pointing towards a Bull Tahr across a steep creek - I moved down towards Aaron and he gestured to me to take the shot. The first shot was a bit wayward and went over the Tahr's head, I tried again and this time my aim was on! I had my 2nd ever Tahr, just a little happy!
The other side of this creek is where the Tahr was standing
One tired but happy hunter
We took the back legs and back steaks of the Tahr and re-started our decent to the hut, it was getting pretty dark by this stage and starting to rain, so we headed off at a quick pace.
5-10minutes further down Aaron let out a yell and I looked across to him loading the gun, there were two young Tahr across the creek at the top of a scree slope, he managed to get both and again they landed in the creek making life a bit easier
Aaron's young bull Tahr
We took the back legs of the Tahr and continued our walk to the hut, this time in the dark with the rain setting in. Half an hour later at round 9:30pm we were back at the hut, tired, cold and hungry but with smiles on our faces.
We went to sleep listening to the storm outside, Saturday morning the weather hadn't improved so we lazed around the hut till the afternoon when the sun finally made a re-appearance. We went for a short walk that afternoon and got some glimpses of the fresh snow that was dumped the night before!
Sunday saw us tidying up the meat and packing our significantly heavier packs for the walk out, although our packs were heavy it was a lovely walk out with the sun shining and fresh snow on the hills. I think it is going to be a snowy winter in NZ this year - although we wont be here to enjoy it as we will be chasing summer across the globe :)
Monday the 5th has been spent sorting out the Tahr Meat, including making some Jerky for future adventures, as well as re-stocking and re-packing our gear. The plan is to head off to Wanaka tomorrow-ish and then on to the West Coast next week - I will update the blog when we come back to civilisation from the coast! Cheers.
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