By Ryan Wohlk
This is a story of a hunt in New Zealand that Ryan Wohlk found and booked on BookYourHunt.com, told in his own words.
My dad and I wanted to have a hunt together that I would consider being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That was to be our first hunt outside the US. I have done some ten guided hunts in other states, but never out of the country.
After a lot of researching and contacting many outfitters in New Zealand, I kept getting the same results: very limited communication. That is, until we messaged Carla from New Zealand Trophy Hunting. She was very responsive and made us feel very confident that if we had any questions or concerns, we could get a hold of her. This is very helpful and puts your mind at ease when thinking about traveling halfway across the world and spending a lot of money on an adventure. Besides, she has a wonderful team of world-class guides.
Chamois in the clouds: my first New Zealand animal
The first two days of our seven-day hunt we spent with Duncan. We started the chamois hunt at daybreak, ascending a moderately steep mountain. The weather was very windy (18-20 mph with 28 mph gusts), very foggy (at the worst, I could only see 5-10 feet in front of me), and it was raining a fine mist, which made the terrain very slippery. We had to take our time, but Duncan knew the landscape and chose the paths that would not risk our safety. For example, he kept us away from shale rocks, and used animal game trails; both rocks and long grass can be very slippery when damp.
Duncan knew the weather was going to clear up around late morning. So, using poor visibility to our benefit, we were able to climb above the chamois, gaining the advantage of upper ground without risking them seeing us. Duncan had scouted this area the previous weeks and knew where the chamois liked to hang out. He encouraged us to have patience as we made it to the top of the mountain, because we would have to wait out the weather, while the clouds and fog were still a huge factor.
Full disclosure: if Duncan is wearing shorts, this doesn’t mean the weather is going to be 85 degrees and sunny. Pack the extra jacket just in case. Nothing like having 4 layers of clothes on and looking over at your guide who is wearing shorts. It makes you feel really tough (not).
About an hour and a half later, the rain started to lessen. We began our descent, stopping at each vantage point to glass with our binoculars. Clouds and pockets of dense fog gave us only a short time to glass a hillside before another cloud blocked the view. When this happened, we would make another descent and wait for another opening in the fog to see.
After several moves down the hill, we saw our first group of chamois. Using the pockets of fog and the landscape, we got into range of a chamois and prepared for the shot. But I could hardly get the chamois in my crosshairs, when another cloud blew in and erased our sight of the animal! As it cleared, it was obvious the buck had retreated into the cover of the thick vegetation and disappeared.
We kept on waiting, and it wasn’t long until another chamois buck, in a completely different spot, came into view. And again, just as I was getting ready for the shot, another cloud came in and I was worried this was going to be another disappearing act. But after 45 seconds or so, the cloud did clear and, although the chamois had moved, he was still in the open. I was laying down and shooting downhill at a steep angle, making the shot less than ideal, but that kind of adds to the hunt since those kinds of shots you are not easily able to practice.
The shot was good and Duncan led the way to my first New Zealand animal – and a hell of a memory for both Dad and me.
Duncan was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot. By the end of the two days, we had a great friendship that really makes the hunt more than just the harvest of the animal, which is exactly what I was looking for.
The one that (almost) got away: My tahr hunt
For the last five days, my dad and I had the pleasure of hunting with Ewie. I can’t say enough about Ewie’s knowledge and all-around professionalism as a guide. Absolutely world-class. During these 5 days, we made a great friendship and it felt more like a group of hunting buddies hanging out than a guide service.
The tahr hunt began with evening scouting, which we had to repeat for several days so that we could find the area they frequently showed themselves. One day, about an hour before dark, a good bull showed himself. I rushed my shot as he headed back into the brush.
The shot was good, although I wasn’t positive about it until we found him, but the tahr are very tough animals. My bull was tearing down the hill like he was in full health. He made for the bushes that were so thick, you could walk across the top and the bush would support your weight. We didn’t find any blood, and it was not clear that I had even hit the animal. As darkness came, we had to back out and leave the search for tomorrow.
First thing the next morning we went looking for the tahr. Thick bushes were so thick, the animal could be laying dead five feet from you and you would never see it. It was nearly impossible to walk either through or over them, and we had to use a network of tahr trails, which meant we had to crawl on hands and knees. After a few hours, Ewie came across the tahr. It had fallen into a small hole in the brush, and Ewie could only see it when he was a couple feet from it.
I did not expect him to look that hard. When I track a whitetail deer, I go on until I run out of blood, then I will grid search the area, before I give up on a wounded animal. Ewie worked that hard and never even had a drop of blood to go off of.
We came back better hunters
Ewie could teach my dad and me a lot about spot and stalk hunting, the game animals we were in pursuit of, and just all-around knowledge of the outdoors. We are primarily deer hunters from Minnesota, and have also hunted bear, waterfowl, upland game birds, and small game such as rabbit, squirrel, and crows. But most of our hunting is done from tree stands, getting there early in the morning and waiting for a deer to walk by. Spot-and-stalk, of course, is completely different.
When you hunt from a tree stand, there’s much less risk of being seen by an animal. Here we had to learn to move slowly and then scan the area in front of us for a good amount of time before continuing on to the next area. Many times we would stop at an area and wait for several minutes, and you wouldn’t even think anything was around. Then all of a sudden we would catch a movement and spot an animal close to where we were, that would easily have spotted us if we just kept on moving without pausing.
Ewie showed us how to move through the landscape using bushes, rocks, tall grass, etc. to conceal ourselves. He pointed out tracks, rubs, scrapes, and other signs of the game, and told us how to use these signs. For example, the fallow deer scrapes are very large and somewhat easy to spot. Most of the time the fallow deer would be hiding not far from the scarpe, so if you see a scrape, chances are you’ll see the buck tucked under a bush nearby. Without this knowledge, I would have easily looked past these things, and we wouldn’t have seen half the fallow bucks we saw.
I was also amazed how much he knew about different types of trees, bushes, and plants. Don’t get me wrong, I like woods, but I have a hard time telling which tree is which, let alone small fun facts about them. Learning these from Ewie added to the trip, and these are the kinds of things you will only learn from a person that makes the outdoors his life.
Lodging, eating, and more
We didn’t stay at a lodge for this trip, we stayed in something like an AirBnB apartment, which I came to love more since we got to have more of a one on one experience with the guide. There was enough room not to feel crowded, but it was also close enough to develop a relationship with Ewie. By the end of the trip we were joking with each other like we’d been friends for a long time.
Ewie literally would have cooked anything we asked for and also offered many times to take us out to different restaurants in the area if we wanted to experience New Zealand dining and made great recommendations to places he liked. But Dad and I feel a spiritual connection to the animals we kill, and eating our harvest means a lot to us. Ewie accommodated that and cooked several delicious game meat dishes. That left a great memory, too, and I’ve been using some of those cooking methods and recipes with my game meat and home ever since.
I loved the scenic views New Zealand had to offer, the people there were very nice, and always polite. It also felt very safe; I felt I could let my kid walk down the street and play at the park without parental supervision, confident they would be safe. I felt more secure than back home, even though I live in a very safe neighborhood. I did not like the touristic areas with little shops and gift stands, but that is not my type of thing no matter where I am. I prefer the outdoors, and would love to go back to New Zealand just to camp given the chance, it’s that beautiful.
Making plans for the future
This trip definitely sparked the idea of exploring other areas, because of all the fun we had on this one. Dad and I have been talking about another trip. Maybe a moose hunt; a caribou hunt is also on our list of big trips. But we might also do a smaller trip to Texas for a hog hunt, or another affordable offer as we save up for the big one. And we’ll be using BookYourHunt.com to find it. I think it is a great resource for anyone looking for a hunt. Sending a deposit to someone across the world is not an easy decision, and having BookYourHunt.com on your side makes you more confident.
And we know what we’ll be looking for: such guides as Duncan and Ewie. Without a guide like that, their personality and humor, our hunt and the experience would not have been as fulfilling and as memorable as it was. This is something to remember when picking an outfitter: it is not only about the animals you harvest (even though we harvested every animal we wanted) but the memories you make with the people you meet. The memories I made with my dad will last my entire lifetime, and I owe it all to Carla and her team. THANK YOU!
