Just returned from a 4 week vacation, and a few days hunting, trip to New Zealand. Me and the wife flew into the north island and spent about 10 days exploring that island. We then flew down to Christchurch where we spent the next 16 days exploring that island. We were there 2 years ago for a stag hunt and fell in love with NZ. This trip we wanted to visit the North Island and hunt a tahr while revisiting the South Island hence the reason why we spent the month of June over there.
I had an amazing hunt 2 years ago with Owen Throwbridge who owns The Hype Of The Hunt. No need to shop around for a new outfitter and signed up for a tahr hunt shortly after my 2024 hunt with him. I wanted to do a spot in stock style hunt versus helicopter or helicopter in and stay in the backcountry for a few days and that’s just what we did.
We arrived at the lodge on a Sunday evening and already knew that Monday was gonna be a no go due to heavy rain that was expected in the Timaru area. Fortunately, the rest of the week was looking good so the first day of hunting was gonna be on Tuesday and the weather gods were in our favor. It was a late winter there in NZ and there really wasn’t any snow on the top of the mountain. Well, the storm that rolled through on Monday change that and when we arrived to the hunting location Tuesday morning, you were surprised to see a lot of fresh snow up high.
My guide‘s name was Baz and I met him 6 years ago along with Owen in Kyrgyzstan on an Ibex hunt. A mutual friend of ours had set up a lunch and that’s how we met. Baz was a hoot to have lunch with back then and he did not disappoint for fun on this hunt. He had scoped out this group of free ranging tahr high up in this valley weeks before I showed up. Fortunately, for me, none of the hunters that hunted before me really wanted to hike up that high. Baz was excited that I was game for the hiking adventure because he had never been up that high in this particular valley so it was new for him too. Him and Owen spent some time strategizing the best way to approach this group of tahr that had a couple real nice bulls in it so we had a game plan lined up.
We drove about an hour and a half from the lodge and then unloaded the quad. It was a couple mile drive on the buggy to the base of the valley that had a stream flowing through it. On our way to the base of the valley, we stopped and laid eyes on the tahr. They had not moved since Baz had last seen them a few weeks earlier. They were a little bit lower on the mountain do the snow, but they were just enjoying their home high upon the mountain tops.
We hopped back in the buggy and continued as far as we could until it was time to get the hiking sticks out. We were off on our adventure by 8:15 AM. The skies were clear and the sun was coming out. Over the next four hours we slowly made our way up the approximately 2 1/2 miles to where we could pull out the bios and spot the animals. Fortunately, I had been working out and was ready for the challenge. I didn’t have to carry much as I just had a small backpack with a change of clothes. I’m also not the fastest but we took our time and picked our way up the valley next to the stream being concealed the entire way from our quarry.
We were getting close to the ridge-line we needed to be at to peek over and start looking at the animals. Changed my shirt out, cause I was sweating pretty good and then started our final ascent. All of a sudden Baz told me to stop and I looked up only to see 2 nanny’s staring at us. They were only about 50 yards away and came out of nowhere. I was thinking to myself this is a horrible way to blow this stock after all this time and elevation gain. We just stayed motionless and they actually started getting a little bit closer to us, but eventually turned around and went the other way.
We got to peek over the ridge line and spotted the group of tahr. There was probably about 25 animals altogether spread out, enjoying the sun and feeding. There was a clear leader in this group and he was a very impressive bull that Baz had identified as the one we wanted to take. Unfortunately, we were still a little bit too far away, so we backed down the way we came a little bit and walked farther up the mountain to get to a different vantage point. We then crested the ridge line and closed the distance to about 300 yards.
This is when the rodeo started. They had no idea we were there so we had time to set up but due to the steepness of the hillside and where we decided to set up, it was not very conducive for getting the bipod on steady ground. I was struggling to get the gun steady while not sliding down the mountain side. Every time I would get my feet set the gun would move or every time I got the gun set my feet removed. Baz really didn’t know this was going on as he was watching the bull through the binos and was starting to get a little bit anxious with me not taking a shot. He finally realized what was going on on my side and said let’s move up a little bit farther and get a better position. At that point, I felt I finally got a good set up and said I can take the shot from here. That was a mistake.
The bull was all by himself broadside, and as I began to squeeze the trigger, the gun slid a little bit and actually fired slightly before my finger fully squeeze the trigger. Basically the gun, by moving , pulled it into my finger as I was squeezing, so of course it was a complete miss. At least that’s what I think happened as Baz never saw where the bullet hit on the rocks.
I cycled the bolt and was working on acquiring the bull again in the scope. Fortunately, he had only moved about 20 yards on top of a rock and stood there, staring back at what had just happened. Somehow, I was able to get a better position with the bipod and had him quartering pretty hard towards me. I lined up right above his shoulder aiming for the off back leg and let the second shot fly. Again, the gun slid once it fired, but I heard the thump of the bullet impacting. Baz hopped up and started hollering you rolled him, you rolled him.
Nerves really took over at this point and I felt sick to my stomach and my hands were freezing as I taken my gloves off on this final stalk and it was darn cold up there. I was just over the top happy with the accomplishment we had done getting up the mountain and taking this amazing animal and it was all hitting me at once. After a few minutes I finally was able to calm down enough to throw on some more layers and start to enjoy the moment.
We walked a few hundred yards and laid our hands on an absolutely amazing animal. He was definitely the king of the mountain with an amazing coat. He was 12 1/2 inches long and we aged him at 7 1/2 years old. The shot was 325 yards taken with a 7MM rem mag that I have borrowed from Owen. We took our time taking pictures and getting the cape cooled off while we had lunch pretty close to the top of the mountain.
Baz did the heavy lifting on this journey. He carried an extremely heavy packed down the mountain. It took us another couple and a half hours to do. It was harder for me going down because in some areas the snow was now more frozen and it was ices up pretty good. It was almost crampon type condition so we just had to take it slow, but Baz managed it like it was nothing. We made it down to the buggy around 5:30 PM.
Altogether the round-trip up the mountain and back was just shy of 4 1/2 miles and we had an elevation gain of 2600 feet. We were blessed with beautiful weather and getting the tahr early enough in the day that we weren’t getting off the mountain in the dark.
The next day we prepped the cape and salted it as my plans were to bring the skull cap and cape back home with me as luggage on the plane. It stayed at the lodge for the next several weeks while I was visiting the rest of the island with my wife and enjoying everything that South Island had to offer. Flew home and had no problems getting the cape back into the US and through customs. It’s now at the taxidermist and I’m still on a bit of a high from this amazing experience.
I had an amazing hunt 2 years ago with Owen Throwbridge who owns The Hype Of The Hunt. No need to shop around for a new outfitter and signed up for a tahr hunt shortly after my 2024 hunt with him. I wanted to do a spot in stock style hunt versus helicopter or helicopter in and stay in the backcountry for a few days and that’s just what we did.
We arrived at the lodge on a Sunday evening and already knew that Monday was gonna be a no go due to heavy rain that was expected in the Timaru area. Fortunately, the rest of the week was looking good so the first day of hunting was gonna be on Tuesday and the weather gods were in our favor. It was a late winter there in NZ and there really wasn’t any snow on the top of the mountain. Well, the storm that rolled through on Monday change that and when we arrived to the hunting location Tuesday morning, you were surprised to see a lot of fresh snow up high.
My guide‘s name was Baz and I met him 6 years ago along with Owen in Kyrgyzstan on an Ibex hunt. A mutual friend of ours had set up a lunch and that’s how we met. Baz was a hoot to have lunch with back then and he did not disappoint for fun on this hunt. He had scoped out this group of free ranging tahr high up in this valley weeks before I showed up. Fortunately, for me, none of the hunters that hunted before me really wanted to hike up that high. Baz was excited that I was game for the hiking adventure because he had never been up that high in this particular valley so it was new for him too. Him and Owen spent some time strategizing the best way to approach this group of tahr that had a couple real nice bulls in it so we had a game plan lined up.
We drove about an hour and a half from the lodge and then unloaded the quad. It was a couple mile drive on the buggy to the base of the valley that had a stream flowing through it. On our way to the base of the valley, we stopped and laid eyes on the tahr. They had not moved since Baz had last seen them a few weeks earlier. They were a little bit lower on the mountain do the snow, but they were just enjoying their home high upon the mountain tops.
We hopped back in the buggy and continued as far as we could until it was time to get the hiking sticks out. We were off on our adventure by 8:15 AM. The skies were clear and the sun was coming out. Over the next four hours we slowly made our way up the approximately 2 1/2 miles to where we could pull out the bios and spot the animals. Fortunately, I had been working out and was ready for the challenge. I didn’t have to carry much as I just had a small backpack with a change of clothes. I’m also not the fastest but we took our time and picked our way up the valley next to the stream being concealed the entire way from our quarry.
We were getting close to the ridge-line we needed to be at to peek over and start looking at the animals. Changed my shirt out, cause I was sweating pretty good and then started our final ascent. All of a sudden Baz told me to stop and I looked up only to see 2 nanny’s staring at us. They were only about 50 yards away and came out of nowhere. I was thinking to myself this is a horrible way to blow this stock after all this time and elevation gain. We just stayed motionless and they actually started getting a little bit closer to us, but eventually turned around and went the other way.
We got to peek over the ridge line and spotted the group of tahr. There was probably about 25 animals altogether spread out, enjoying the sun and feeding. There was a clear leader in this group and he was a very impressive bull that Baz had identified as the one we wanted to take. Unfortunately, we were still a little bit too far away, so we backed down the way we came a little bit and walked farther up the mountain to get to a different vantage point. We then crested the ridge line and closed the distance to about 300 yards.
This is when the rodeo started. They had no idea we were there so we had time to set up but due to the steepness of the hillside and where we decided to set up, it was not very conducive for getting the bipod on steady ground. I was struggling to get the gun steady while not sliding down the mountain side. Every time I would get my feet set the gun would move or every time I got the gun set my feet removed. Baz really didn’t know this was going on as he was watching the bull through the binos and was starting to get a little bit anxious with me not taking a shot. He finally realized what was going on on my side and said let’s move up a little bit farther and get a better position. At that point, I felt I finally got a good set up and said I can take the shot from here. That was a mistake.
The bull was all by himself broadside, and as I began to squeeze the trigger, the gun slid a little bit and actually fired slightly before my finger fully squeeze the trigger. Basically the gun, by moving , pulled it into my finger as I was squeezing, so of course it was a complete miss. At least that’s what I think happened as Baz never saw where the bullet hit on the rocks.
I cycled the bolt and was working on acquiring the bull again in the scope. Fortunately, he had only moved about 20 yards on top of a rock and stood there, staring back at what had just happened. Somehow, I was able to get a better position with the bipod and had him quartering pretty hard towards me. I lined up right above his shoulder aiming for the off back leg and let the second shot fly. Again, the gun slid once it fired, but I heard the thump of the bullet impacting. Baz hopped up and started hollering you rolled him, you rolled him.
Nerves really took over at this point and I felt sick to my stomach and my hands were freezing as I taken my gloves off on this final stalk and it was darn cold up there. I was just over the top happy with the accomplishment we had done getting up the mountain and taking this amazing animal and it was all hitting me at once. After a few minutes I finally was able to calm down enough to throw on some more layers and start to enjoy the moment.
We walked a few hundred yards and laid our hands on an absolutely amazing animal. He was definitely the king of the mountain with an amazing coat. He was 12 1/2 inches long and we aged him at 7 1/2 years old. The shot was 325 yards taken with a 7MM rem mag that I have borrowed from Owen. We took our time taking pictures and getting the cape cooled off while we had lunch pretty close to the top of the mountain.
Baz did the heavy lifting on this journey. He carried an extremely heavy packed down the mountain. It took us another couple and a half hours to do. It was harder for me going down because in some areas the snow was now more frozen and it was ices up pretty good. It was almost crampon type condition so we just had to take it slow, but Baz managed it like it was nothing. We made it down to the buggy around 5:30 PM.
Altogether the round-trip up the mountain and back was just shy of 4 1/2 miles and we had an elevation gain of 2600 feet. We were blessed with beautiful weather and getting the tahr early enough in the day that we weren’t getting off the mountain in the dark.
The next day we prepped the cape and salted it as my plans were to bring the skull cap and cape back home with me as luggage on the plane. It stayed at the lodge for the next several weeks while I was visiting the rest of the island with my wife and enjoying everything that South Island had to offer. Flew home and had no problems getting the cape back into the US and through customs. It’s now at the taxidermist and I’m still on a bit of a high from this amazing experience.
