So we were back on John's place culling peafowl. It had been a couple of years since Blair and I had been there. We have harvested a lot of peafowl over the years from this property.
This time it was Caleb and I for two nights. I met him at Matawai as he had been already hunting goats and deer all day. His mate dropped him off with his gear and took home a nice red hind and some goats. A few minutes later, Caleb remembered he left his boots in his mate's truck. It was too late to ring him as he was already out of coverage in the gorge. At least he had his crocs!
The first evening was very windy. We met John and Bill and mates playing tennis and got a briefing. We started to drive up and and neither one of us saw the hot wire across the entrance to the first paddock. It is the same one that has been there forever but I forgot until we touched it with the front of the truck. I backed up but it hooked on the bumper. I got out of the truck to remove it and bang! Straight up in the air I went. My leg touched the truck as I got out. Caleb thought this was hilarious. John farms bulls so his hot wires are hot.
We drove up the hill to have a listen before dark and shot our first big peacock on the way up. It was a good start. We had a pretty good walk and covered a bit of ground. We left birds hanging as we shot them. We were using my Ruger 10/22 with a Pard thermal scope and and extendable bipod for accurate shots. Caleb used his Pulsar monocular thermal to find roosting peafowl. We tried to get to an area further out but we were blocked by an angry bull. He came to greet us from a hundred metres away and was in no mood to let us pass. We went elsewhere.
We wound up with 44 peafowl and four possums for the night. If Caleb's feet were sore from walking a few kilometres in crocs, he did not complain. Caleb slept in the truck and I slept under the stars, for all of about two hours. Calling peacocks woke me up before first light.
Well, I had an early start processing birds and that was a good thing since we did not finish until about 2:30 that afternoon. I plucked all of the feather products off and moved to the next stash of birds. Caleb took his 22-250 and did some stalking then followed behind and butchered all of the peafowl. He got another four big peacocks during the day.
We were pretty shattered at this point and I was in desperate need for a shower to prevent any little, black tick bites and remove the copious amounts of insect repellant on my skin. Luckily, I planned ahead this time and booked a motel room in Gisborne. We got there and had a shower then a well-needed siesta. This was definitely an upgrade from our normal rough-sleeping routine.
We got kebab salads for tea and headed back for a listen just before dark. We covered the area near John's house. I was closing a gate when I touched another hot wire. It was a terrible shock to the system and Caleb could not stop laughing. We shot and hung 36 more birds. We even got a feral cat which is such a bonus! We do see a lot of them but they do not hang around. These feral cats are the most serious predators that we have in NZ. They are everywhere!
We went back to the motel and had a few hours sleep and a shower. By six AM we were up and on our way back to collect the birds to take home.
We loaded up the birds and headed back to Whakatane for me to do some more work. Caleb got to go home and sleep more before going to work. I think he was whining about having sore feet. I think he will never forget his boots again.
It was a busy time for me literally just finishing up with all the birds and deer shot the week before in Mangamahu.
I would not have it any other way. This shit makes me feel alive! What a life...