It's been a long time coming and the day of departure has finally arrived! I'm heading over to New Zealand's South Island for about 10 days with some good friends. Our flight leaves IAH at 9:55pm and it's going to be a long one......14 hours. We land in Queenstown on Thursday and will spend a couple days there to play golf, take a wine tour, do some fine dining, and enjoy a little relaxation. First big activity is a round of golf at Jack's Point Golf Club on Thursday. It's the number #1 course on the South Island and has some incredible views with the Remarkable Mountains and Lake Wakatipu as the back drop. Really looking forward to it!

https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/jacks-point




As far as the hunting goes, we will be going with Gary Herbert. I have stag, tahr, waterfowl, and wallaby on the hit list. Might even do a little fishing.

https://www.nzhuntingsafaris.com/

TikkaShooter said:

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NZ is incredible. Visited the south island 9 years ago. Still kick around the idea of moving there. Nice people, very proud of their wildlife/outdoors. Beautiful country

Enjoy, and post trip report when you get back!

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Visited 20 years ago. Beautiful. Only thing is the liberals and gun laws.

Met my wife there. Brought back the most expensive souvenir possible.

Goodest Poster said:

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Met my wife there. Brought back the most expensive souvenir possible.

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RULE #1

plowboy1065 said:

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Goodest Poster said:

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Met my wife there. Brought back the most expensive souvenir possible.

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RULE #1

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I like seks waaaay too much to follow the rule. But shes still a dime 14 years later.

We made it and the first couple days has been incredible! The weather and scenery are phenomenal. It's been between 50 and 62 degrees so far, but a cold front is moving in tonight, so the temps for the remainder of the trip will be close to 30 - 50 degrees. We are heading to our hunting area in the next few hours, which is about a 2 hours drive northeast to Omarama.






We are staying right on Lake Wakatipu for the two nights we are in Queenstown. Our hotel is right in the entertainment district, so we can walk everywhere.


The city is extremely clean. I haven't seen a single piece of trash on the ground yet. Their entertainment district is great. Tons of shops, restaurants, bars, etc all within 5-6 blocks.



The kiwi….New Zealand's national bird


The expresso martinis were the bomb. We had a few of them while sitting on a rooftop bar over looking the lake. No homo.

Took the Skyline gondola up to the top of the city for some breathtaking views.






We also did the street luge while up top, which was a ton of fun.

The food here is incredible! Bakeries are loaded down will all sorts of pastries, sandwiches, cookies, and more.





The chocolate/cheesecake/gelato shop was solid for dessert. Packed on a couple extra pounds that we will hike off during the upcoming hunt.





We hit up Below Zero Ice Bar last night and that was definitely a unique experience.

Golf at Jack's Point was phenomenal. Easily the most scenic course I've ever played. And might ever play. We had our morning "protein shakes" and took our time soaking in the views during the round.

What an amazing first couple of days!!!!

Made it to camp yesterday afternoon. The drive was absolutely beautiful. Lots of vineyards and orchards. We shot our rifles at the range and did some stag hunting. Saw quite a few, but not one that really got me excited. It's now 5:15am and I'm about to roll out of bed, grab some coffee and breakfast, and then we are hiking to the tops of the mountains to chase tahr for the day.

My room at the lodge for the week…..



Dinner last night was incredible.


A few views from yesterday….

It does look like that, but he's actually just bedded down in that draw. I forgot to mention that my buddy's wife did find a nice stag (470"-ish) and made a great 1-shot kill at 175 yards, so our group is on the board.

Hardest hunt of my life. We followed this bull tahr for 11 hours today and shot him at the highest mountain point on the range. The hiking was extremely steep (steepest I've ever climbed) and he kept following the nannies higher and higher. The picture is actually from a lower point because it was too dangerous/steep for us to go to and take pics from where I shot him. 250 yards off a cliff. Old bull with exceptional horns and mane.

Swinging him out.


The saddle where I shot him….

Holy crap…never seen a chopper remove an animal before…japantiger needs to step up his game

Yeah that looks like it's fairly inexpensive.

Oh boy! Found a monster this afternoon! Rather slow morning and we came back to the lodge for lunch and to regroup. We went back out about 1:00 and we were glassing up the mountain side a few hundred yards at 5-7 stags. Really studying them to see if any of them were what we were like for. All of the sudden, one of the guys said "Look at that big boy that just stood up in the brush." He was 500 yards in front of us in brush that was 6-8' tall. Super thick. We could see him in there, knew he had an exceptional rack, but wasn't sure exactly what all he had. We snuck into 225 yards and waited patiently for 30-45 mins while he fed into a really small opening and we confirmed he was the one. Old stag with great fronts, huge crowns, and a more typical look for a stag without a ton of trash or broken tines. Shot across a ridge and dropped him.

txaggie02 said:

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Is there a good video hosting site that's free? I've got some solid kill shot videos to share, but don't know where to host them.

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Small outfit called YouTube seems to be growing in popularity.

Wodanaz said:

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txaggie02 said:

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Is there a good video hosting site that's free? I've got some solid kill shot videos to share, but don't know where to host them.

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Small outfit called YouTube seems to be growing in popularity.

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Don't waste your time. They will go the way of the iPod.
#TeamZune