Arriving at camp was like no
other camp we were used to back in
Australia, it was desolate, the land
scape was rock with small patches
of tussock but underneath that more
rock. It was a harsh place, instantly
we saw tahr running across the face
above us and that’s what we were
here for, one very nice bull was in
the mob but soon enough they had
disappeared over the ridge
hundreds of metres above us, well
out of our range for today. The tahr
might make short work of running
these faces but it was hours of
growling climbing for us to reach
them, and by then they would be
far gone.
Standing there with my mate
Mat and our guide Tom Jones from
Main Divide Outfitters we decided
to leave camp to be set for later. We
were all on the glass scouring thetops and all the scree slides for any
sign of a tahr. After a while we’d
spotted a few nannies and I started
to look around at this magnificent
place we were in, looking up the
valley was like nothing else I had
seen before. Both sides of the valley
towered above us, bluff systems in
the tops, the right side of the valley
was just rock slides as far as the
eye could see and the left side was
a mixture of steep open tussock
patches in between scree slides.
Down the centre of the valley was
just rock and shale with a crystal
clear stream running down from
the snow covered mountains in the
background eventually snaking its
way down into Lake Pukaki.
Tom said let's gear up and go for
a walk up the valley for a glass
around. So after getting some gear
sorted, a bit of food and water and14 | SPORTING SHOOTER _ MAY 2018
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