I'd been poking around looking for a easy evening Deer, when hello I stumbled on some fresh Pig Rooting, all the Dogs were at home of-course! But I thought I'd bring them back at first light and nail this Poaka (pig) and be home before breakfast, best laid plans and all that. Up at 5 am a little yoga then some coffee and toast, let the Bitches off, then collared them up, into the dingy, then away, just managing to plane, these dogs must be getting fat, I thought, as I looked down at my stomach bulging over my belt, bloody shorts must have shrunk again as well. We hit the beach 15min later, me keeping the dogs close, I planed to walk them into the fresh rooting, nail this Poaka and then home for bacon & eggs, well maybe yogurt and fruit looking at the gut, anyway it was in the bag.  We walked into the rooting and I foolishly let all the bailers go, will I ever learn, they off straight up the ridge, flat out, shit I thought watching the tracker 500m, 600m, witho...

Every time Me and Dave my nephew went hunting in the past Lady luck had deserted us. And so it seemed this morning with Ming bailing a deer early on, then all the dogs chasing it for a couple of miles the pup trail barking all the way, any pigs in the vicinity would have been high tailing it out of the area and so I decided to head for another spot in the dingy, which was now taking on water due to the sea state and over loading. Up we climbed after beaching the dingy, up, up, up, a little sign around a wallow then just before the ridge Ming started bailing, the other two dogs soon turning up with me and Dave close behind, the dogs were struggling with a 100 lb. boar. That we then managed to tip over with Dave sticking the knife in, great, Dave's first Boar and we had broken the HooDoo at last, only problem was we were a long way from the dingy, but after an hour or so we had the boar back at the boat, then a very slow but satisfying trip back home loaded to the gunnels. ...

Weka scattered as we walked across the lawn. On seeing three pig dogs and me walking toward them, these birds that once could fly were now wishing evolution would hurry up and release them to the sky once more. Up ahead was the spot I intended to enter the bush for our hunt today. A group of oystercatchers looked on from the shore as we disappeared into the native bush. We had left the pups Jude and Chi behind today. No time for games or mishaps, this was the start of the shortest day pig hunt, put on by the Seddon Hotel and we were entered. The boat ride here was hardly silky smooth with a sea left over from the dying northwester. Now in the shadow of 500m plus hills the air was just a little katabatic as we walked on through the native bush. I had been here a couple of times before so was starting to get the country scoped out. This area is steep to begin with, consisting of very thick supple jack and kie kie in places, but...

 I'd been having the usual problems with stinking Billy Goats and Red Skins (Deer) lately, bringing a couple of pups on has added to the problems, the Girls though had been catching the odd pig, between dogging deer into the tide and chewing on bloody Goats.  A couple of weeks ago they even found a rear pig, a very grumpy little boar in-fact, this fella wouldn't have weighed 85lb, but he had a bad case of small mans disease and managed to rip Ming and Lu up to the point the scene was looking like a Tarantino movie, mainly maybe because it took my sad old tired ass awhile to get to the punch-up, anyway that was two weeks ago and the darlings had recovered from their wounds, so we were rearing to go friday morning, friday being the start of the Woodburne tavern PIG& deer hunt!   My sister Di and partner had some friends here for a break over the long weekend, they were chilling out after the wine harvest know-less and one of them Jannine had hunted wit...

I was out hunting with a young German Lad recently, half my age this kid Eric was, well as much as people half my age are kids these days. Eric was on a working/holiday for a year or so and helping out for a couple of weeks with his girlfriend down the road at Gary&Barbaras, anyway I meet him at the their place before sun-up, we had with us my old dogs (Bitches) Ming, Lu and Puk (the holder), up through the Mahoe, Manuka, Rangiora and Punga to a wallow I always check out when in the area, Ming was loose and out on the find today, the other two on leads, plenty of Red skins (Deer) around this place, in-fact more deer than pigs around these days. Ming had disappeared a while back, soon she could be heard bailing around the face, not a very convincing bail, and I should have known better than to let the other girls off their leads, soon there could be heard quite a bail going on and when me and Eric turned up Ming&Lu were harassing a huge stinking big Billy G...

It's been a long summer running the Lodge but finally things have started to settle down, the Dogs have been growing fat and the pups Jude & Chi are 13 months old now so time to dust off the boots and run some fat of these lazy pot lickers along with sweating a bit of the poison out of my system. Eric a young German lad was helping out up the track so I was asked to take him out for a hunt, we started walking at day break with the three older Bitches Ming, Lu and Puk dry & hot would describe the morning as we climbed up towards a wallow hole, Ming soon away and could be heard bailing, so I let the other two off their leads to join Ming but something about her bark didn't sound right and we soon came across the dogs harassing a big stinking Billy Goat, great start to the season girls. So I shot the Goat then set about having a frank chat with each of the dogs and off we went, if the dogs grab a Goat it's no dinner for then but if they then find a pig it...