First Blood!

From Waipawa I continued south until I came past the Tui brewery.  This is a common brand of beer made and drank here in New Zealand and is actually quite a pleasant brew.  I wasn't on time to catch the tour when I had gone by on my way north earlier in my trip but I made sure I was there on time this go round.
The tour was interesting, lots of history behind everything there.  Story has it, the original founder stopped at the nearby creek on his travels North in the early days and brewed himself a cup of tea from the water of the creek.  He reckoned it was the best darn cup of tea he ever had so he thought what any sound, logically thinking man would and started a brewery on the spot.  After many years and change of ownership the owners decided to build a nice new building and started constructing their brick tower with scaffolding and installing their equipment as they went up four stories. It was a gravity fed system, with each floor of the building being a different stage of the brewing process.  It wasn't until they were nearing completion they discovered they had forgotten to design stairs into the building plan! They ended up cutting holes in the floors and using ladders for quite some time.
Heading south again, I camped near Greymouth. No sooner had I set up than it began to pour. All night.  That night was spent inside reading by headlamp, drinking tea, and listening to water rush off the camper!

One of the original Tui Brewery buildings.

The next morning I continued further down to Wellington, stopping at a foam wholesaler and having a proper mattress cut for the van. I have yet to sleep on it but can definitely say it beats the thing camp foamy and thin thermarest on plywood that I was sleeping on.
Once in Wellington, I spent several hours wandering around the National Museum.  It was filled with lots of the local history and had many nice displays and best of all, was free!
Finished at the museum, I headed back north a little ways to van der Werffs again for the weekend.

Kiwi skeleton at the museum. Note the size of the egg in relation to the body size, crazy!

The boys were all out hunting with friends on overnighters so I spent the evening catching up and reading.  The next day I headed to the library for internet access and booked my ferry crossing to the south island for Monday. I wandered up town and got a couple more books from the used book store.  The afternoon really cleared up nicely and I went for a small hike up behind van der Werff's and got a nice view of the valley they live in.  Mr. suggested that we should go for a afternoon/evening hunt up behind the neighbours, so I jumped at the opportunity.

View from behind van der Werffs.

It was the same area I had hunted two weeks before with Hugo and his brother, but it was considerably nicer weather out this time round.  But, unlike last time, we didn't take the Suzuki so we had an extra 45min-hour hike up to where we drove to last time.  We followed the track along the ridge stopping to glass any little open spots on the heavily bushed valley.  We could hear stags roaring from all directions in adjacent properties or places you'd never get to. We spotted a hind and stag fairly quickly. Unfortunately this one was off limits as it was in the valley directly behind the owners house and he was hoping to get an easy one as he is recovering from a fractured pelvis.
Continuing along the ridge, we came around a corner and spotted a young kid goat feeding contentedly on the grass along the track.  We managed to get to within six feet of it before it ran off!
Over a rise later in the track, Mr. van der Werff spotted a hind up ahead and quickly ducked back and asked if I wanted to shoot. He handed me the rifle and I peeked over the hill but by that time she had heard/smelt us and was taking off into the thick bush.
Quietly sneaking to the far corner of the property we didn't see any other animals but could hear stags roaring in the neighbours property.  We stopped from a drink of water and a quick bite.  Mr. van der Werff was halfway through a granola bar when he suddenly spotted a stag back along the fenceline.  It was no monster but we were meat hunting anyways, so I quickly took a rest on a nearby fencepost.  He was facing away from us so I waited until he lifted his head and I settled the crosshairs on his neck just below his head and squeezed off a shot.  The bullet from the .308 covered the some 200 yards in a quick hurry and dropped him directly in his tracks! First animal down in New Zealand! We quickly ran up to him and cut his neck to bleed him.

Nice little management stag! Good one to pull from the herd!

We snapped a couple quick pictures and quickly set to work gutting him and cutting him up to pack out as it was quickly getting dark.  I quickly boned out the loins and front legs and took both back legs off together at the spine. We just had soft day packs along so we put the boned out pieces in Mr. van der Werffs bag and packed out the back legs and head "kiwi-style".  This involves throwing it over your shoulders and holding the hocks and packing it out that way.  It definitely was not the most comfortable as the knee caps were digging into my shoulders the whole way down but it got the job done for the few kilometers back to the car!  Being that the stag was rutting, I stank highly by time we were done the job!
Once we got home, we found out Hugo and his brother Derek had each shot a stag as had his other brother Justin and his friends! All in all a successful weekend!

Now off to the South Island!
~Korey