Last night I learned something interesting… they have Rocky Mountain Elk running wild in New Zealand. These Elk were a gift from Teddy Roosevelt in the early 1900s. That guy sure was the king of big game hunting.

I got dressed in my warm gears which included an 800 down jacket under my silent weave camo top. I guess if I steam up I can always take some gear off. Some snow has fallen on the mountains and I didn’t come all the way down to New Zealand to freeze.

But I suspect it’s nowhere near as cold here as we’re used to up home. The guide said that the wind cuts through you and we’ll be driving around a bit in the truck with the windows open.

My dew point pants are starting to look like they’ve seen better days. I guess they’ve performed pretty well. There’s been a lot of blood spilled on this pair. But I’ll have to think about replacing them.

I also put on a thin pair of socks underneath a big pair of merino crew hunting socks. The thin socks underneath help to prevent  blisters. My pop taught me and I’ve found it works pretty well.

I think that the air outside is still again. The temperature on the dashboard is 4 degrees Celsius. For autumn this is good. Because the sky is full of stars the air will cool even more as we get into the inner valleys. Maybe a frost will have struck the river flats. The car engine starts to work as it climbs over a low pass and crosses into a new watershed.

On the eastern horizon above the silhouette of the mountains the sky has definitely begun to lighten. A dark shape on the road begins to scurry towards safety. It is a brush tailed opossum.

I now associate these early morning starts with the night life of our high country. The burst for cover of a the rabbit, the loping stride of the hare or the defiant stance of a ferret as it rears up tiny, in front of the great mechanical monster. When I was young the night was so full of mystery. Full of strange noises and interesting sights that lay hidden during daylight hours. But now that mystery is strangely gone and has been replaced by a practical knowledge of what goes on under the brush of moonbeams or shafts of starlight that have taken light years to reach us.

The guide says that the weather is not the best. It looks ok outside at the moment but he says that we might get some rain. I’ve just been over to the big window that looks out over the mountains. The sky is blue overhead and I can see that the clouds are moving quite fast. In the distance the peaks are covered in clouds.

Bill has his binoculars and he has spotted some fallow deer. One of them is a nice buck. The group are standing in some brown-grey brush probably a mile or so away. He has done very well to see them. I think he is determined to see a Red Stag from the lodge.

I took a look through his Kahles 8 x 42 binos and they seemed pretty good. The buck wasn’t doing much.

Tom and I’ll head back to our rooms and meet back with the guide in around 30 minutes time. The cook is getting us some lunch which we’ll take with us in the four wheel drive truck. I don’t have to take binos because the guide is going to provide us each with a pair of Swarovskis…I think they are 10x42 SwaroVision. I’ve got a pair of Swarovskis at home with the rangefinder built in. Pretty damn good binoculars.

One subject that never escapes me is speculation on the reasons why anyone such as myself likes to hunt. Many urban folks have a simplistic view of the sport and can’t understand how anyone can shoot an animal for enjoyment. These folks imagine that hunters sneak around the mountains looking for animals which, once found are shot. This is largely true but is surely an over simplification.

Much has been written about the meaning of hunting both for the hunter and for the animal being hunted. Perhaps the most important premise to consider is that anyone who kills an animal has become involved in an essential natural processes…that of the struggle between life and death. The hunter predator relationship is one of the most important in the natural world even though one partner dies.

This relationship drives natural selection and the evolution of the species. It also a critical element in the on-going survival of ecosystems which all need a balance between the hunter and the hunted. In modern society we can easily divorce ourselves from all contact with the natural world. Therefore in our city world we can sanitise our lives and divorce ourselves from any exposure to the life and death of wild animals. 

This is what I might think about while I look out into the darkness along the roadside and hope I won’t see the wind shaking the vegetation.

The shower was amazing. We're up here in the mountains and it was no different to a shower back home.
These kiwis sure have some great set ups.
I met my son for breakfast. There are two other guys here for hunts. One from Alaska and the other from Texas. We had a great old yarn about hunting in Africa.
We're planning to go there next year. The information coming through is a little confusing about the best places to go.
I dream about the big five combo...the variation in prices is amazing according to which country you go to. Namibia sounds like an exciting place. The whole country has only a few hundred thousand people and yet the country is absolutely massive.Bigger than Texas apparently although I find that hard to believe. There are quite a few hunting lodges but I don't know if you can really get the big five there.
Bill from Texas said he's taken rhino with a dart gun. That sounded absolutely exciting. I don't think that was in Namibia. Black rhino would be the ultimate.
I think I'll go to Africa and suss it out first before we fork out big money.
Breakfast was simple which is fine. We don't eat a big breakfast at home but you should have seen old Bill. He had cooked bacon, eggs and hash browns. I don't think he is going to run out of gas on the hunt today.
We're going after Red Stag today...I really want a good number of points and some reasonably heavy timber.

When I was younger, the most exciting activity that anyone could get me involved in (excluding interacting with girls) was a hunt..The appeal back then wasn't just the killing of an animal, although I didn't realise that to the same extent that I do now.
After 40 years of hunting I have identified many of the components of a hunt. When I am driving early in the morning I think about these things again and again.
The first whiff of a hunt for most people triggers a state of anticipation both in the conscious and the subconscious. This state has a life of its own....the practical steps such as making good preparations so that a chunk of time can be carved out of your life with minimum negative consequences...detract from the foreplay.
For many blokes, no matter what their age, women get in the way. From a woman's point of view, hunting seemed to have very little in its favour... the psychological impact on a women when her partner finds her less attractive than a sweaty scrub-bash can be unhealthy. Today some men are presumably suffering these same psychological problems because the number of women who have taken up hunting has increased enormously off a tiny tiny base. The possible release of emotional feelings by a partner during the preparation phase can be a distraction and even detract from the main event.
As I said, I ponder upon the total hunting package when I am on the road on the way there, as I was on this particular day. This is why when my friend starts talking about other hunts and  reminiscing about an exciting stalk he had ten years ago I try to sound enthusiastic when sometimes I'm thinking about other things.

I've lain here a while thinking about this hunting trip. My son and I did a fair bit of research on New Zealand before we came and we've found it pretty much as we'd expected. The mountains are strangely benign. There ain't no bears to put the hair up on your neck and you'll never see a mountain lion sneaking away. The worst discomfort are little black sand flies but even they are nothing really to worry about. They cause a bit of itching. Not like the ticks I get all over me when I go for a walk through the long grass back home. Maybe the animals here carry ticks but no-one's talked about that yet.
Time to get up I reckon...I'll have a shower and then head on out to the kitchen. My son agreed to meet me there at about 8.00 am. I have a great view of mountains out the window. The day looks fantastic although I can see the clumps of grass are thrashing around in the wind but this lodge is so solid you wouldn't know what the weather was like outside.

Even though its early in the morning I don't feel in the slightest tired. Food doesn't appeal so I'm going to stay satisfied with a big cup of coffee...
I drive around to a friend's place. He is already up and waiting ready to go so we quickly load my vehicle and start the drive.
Ideally I'd like to just lie back and have a snooze but that's impossible. Perhaps it's my personality but I can't be totally relaxed and laid back about these early morning starts.
My friend starts talking about other hunts, reminiscing about an exciting stalk he had ten years ago while I try to sound enthusiastic.
We watch the temperature reading on the dashboard for what's going on outside. Ideally the temperature will go down as we drive further inland because that means the conditions are calm and the sky clear. If the temperature remains the same it means a westerly wind is moving large air masses down from the mountains to the sea...probably not good weather for hunting.
The road follows alongside a large river and I notice trees shaking  in the wind. The air outside is suddenly a few degrees warmer but after a few kilometers the strange wind disappears and the temperature drops again.

Now this is different. I can hear the rattling of someone in the other room. This is not a flash lodge but the bed was comfortable last night. In the night I could hear the strange sound of some kind of bird calling..a slightly annoying sound but I enjoyed it because it was different.
I don't really feel like getting up. My muscles are a little sore and my body is feeling weary. I should have spent more time getting myself into shape.
Boots are good. Camouflage gear is comfortable. The guide is really good. He offered to carry my pack but I am good for that. Even my right arm is a bit sore. The .300 Weatherby Magnum shouldn't make my arm sore...it isn't bad. A hunter has to carry his own musket. That's part of the deal.
If a coffee appeared through the door right now, I would be embarrassed but I wouldn't be complaining.
Should have done more training.

Getting There

The alarm clock, stumble into clothes on the floor, switch on the jug, the first coffee, find the car key, put on a headlamp, chuck everything in the car, turn off the house lights, shut the door, balance the coffee between the seats, put on seatbelt, start the car, ease out of the driveway with coffee in hand. Turn the steering wheel one-handed.