After that (since it was around midnight), we started heading home, we did run into a few more bunnies and a hare on the way back, but we only came back with 1 extra.
The next morning, we left for the Mukamuka around 9am, first stopping off in Carterton just incase we needed anything.
It was around 11am when we finally got to the split in the river on the muka muka, and we decided where we were going to camp, and then turned the truck around, in doing so, I managed to put a stick right through the side of the rear tyre. The tyre was totally poked (no pun intended), and set to changing the tyre right away. Thankfully the truck had a jack, and a spare tyre that was in good order (maybe it shouldn't have been luck!). Because of the substrate of the river, and the position of the truck, we had to raise the jack using a huge boulder, and then dig out underneath the wheel. Finally after 45 minutes, we got the spare on, and we started on our hunting trip!
About 100 paces later we were at camp!
After a few minutes setting up the tent, and carrying up the gas bottle and 2 burner stove (yes we were roughing it), we sat down and enjoyed a nice brew of tea, whilst we came up with a plan of attack.
Our first reccy was up the river, and after an hour or so of walking, we decided to turn back as the sides were just getting steeper and steeper, and it wasn't good hunting territory. Once we got back to camp Matt thought he heard a bleet of a sheep or goat, and a short while later we had come to the consensus that it was infact a kid goat and it's mother, plus maybe 1 other. Because we had just walked right down the middle of the river bed, we figured we would give them about 20 minutes to settle back down, and then we would go and find them, so we brewed up another tea. Wouldn't you know it, they buggered off (and it wasn't the smell of the tea etc as the wind was in our favor). Oh well
Whilst we were out looking for the goats, we found fresh (that morning) deer sign beside the river, and it was pretty obvious where it was coming and going to, so we sat down and waited, and waited, but just before dark we decided that a cooking in the light might be better than not, so we headed back to camp.
For tea that evening we had vension (not fresh), rice, onion and carrots. Actually quite tasty, and washed it down with on Glenfiddich.
After dishes etc, it was time for dessert, roasted marsh mellows with more whisky, so we sat on the bank of the river, and made a nice fire, and proceeded to roast the marshmallows. The strangest thing happened though, around 11pm, I heard some rustling of stones just below us, and as I reached for the torch, two people and a dog appeared! They were just walking out..
Anyway, around midnight we headed back to the tent, and tried to get some sleep (the tent is a few inches short for me!).
Sunday morning I got up around 6am, and was out hunting by 6:30, meanwhile Matt was still asleep. Didn't see anything, but I thought I did hear some rustling in the bushes.
After breakfast, Matt and I headed up the hill to see what we could see. On the way up we found some very fresh deer sign (poo), and hoof prints and goat poo. We carried on going up until the bush got too dense to continue. Half way up we stopped to catch our breath, and just as we were, a NZ falcon (endangered species, classified as "Nationally vulnerable") flew below us up the valley. It was very cool to see the falcon, made the trip all worthwhile.
Anyway, since this is long overdue, I'll wrap it up with we didn't catch anything, but we had a good time.
