Beth I hear you calling
Well more like, Beth do you hear me calling!, I was wandering down through the Native with that bloody Kiss song playing over and over in my head. "Beth I here you calling but I can't come home right now".
I had been yelling out to Beth since I'd made it back to the ridge and not a sound heard in reply, "shit I hope she's alright" I thought. You see this was Beth's first pig hunt and after picking her up at 6.30 in the tinny, we set off for a likely spot, the boat was a little crowded with me and the four Bitches, Ming, Lu, Puk and Jude having put on a little weight over summer, my shorts had shrunk last year, so I now had a new pair, the only fault with them was the label was a misprint obviously, as I'm a 42 and these said 46. Anyway off we go, the boat struggling onto the plane, in boxing terms, 'we were a bunch of heavy weights'. Now we were early and there was no moon this morning, the gully we were intending to hunt looked as black as the inside of a cow, not that I've been inside many cows, ok Rod that's enough of that, back to the hunting.
I turned the motor off 500m from shore and proceeded to explain, to the lovely Beth, how to use one of these 'now legal' tracking devices, to her credit she seemed to pick it up pretty quickly or she was doing a good job of faking it, I never can tell with women, can you.
Anyway things started to brighten up and we nudged the boat into shore, without to much trouble we got the four fat Bitches + one skinny one off and onto the beach, they waited while I moored the boat on a handy mooring, I had know idea who the mooring belonged to , but then asking to many questions sometimes can just end up making things more complicated than they need to be.
I paddled ashore in the Kayak I'd brought along just for this purpose, then off we went up through some Keikei and Supplejack, we soon burst into the beach forest proper, where the dawn chorus and hum of the wasps meet our ears.
Ming was on the find today, the rest of the dogs on leads, as this spot had a good goat population normally. As we wandered up the left hand side of a creek, Ming didn't seem that keen though, up, up, up we climbed, not a lot of sign around, but shit it's been dry around home this summer and you couldn't blame the pig for keeping his/her nose in the air more than usual. After climbing for a while we pushed through some scrub and Gorse for a bit, then back into the beach to check a couple of wallows, things looked promising around the wallows, but Ming didn't think so, so I decided to take a break, we sat down to have a drink and eat one of those beautiful Gisborne Navel Oranges.
Not long after setting off again, Ming had disappeared and not long after that, as seems to often happen when you sit down or just after, she started to bark, it sounded like a deer bark to me, but then I though "it's one lazy deer", as it's still standing there, so we let the other dogs off as she continued to bail, don't know why I let the holder go and in hindsight it was probably a mistake, anyway the backup was well and truly on it's way, Lu, Puk and Jude tore off, Ming continued to bail as the other dogs closed in, then silence, "bugger" I thought, "maybe it was a deer after all" that had now bolted on hearing the others bearing down on it (me of little faith), if not a deer I was at-least expecting some squealing, looking at the tracker it had all the hall marks of a deer as I watched them all heading down through the native into the regenerating scrub, heading for the water 500m below, then a couple more barks and they seemed to be stopped or were moving bloody slowly, this was either one of santa's fat raindeer or a Boar!, turning to beth I said, "I'm off" , saying "just follow the track on the tracker back to the boat " then saying "if you want, come down to me and the dogs". Yes to much information I know, and yes I hear you, never give a woman two choices, anyway I was off, hoping the holder was ok, she being your basic over achiever.
On the way down I was thinking "you idiot you should have held Puk the holder back and let the bailers tire the pig out", I could hear some bailing now about 200m out and then silence, the pig had broken again know-doubt, being so steep it was easy country for the pig to break-in, but like all hills and everything else in life, all things come to an end eventually and this hill flattened out quickly with a 2m bluff and then chest deep salt water.
Down and around I plunged, at a great pace due to gravity taking hold after a summer of eating and drinking, I could here Jude barking up a storm as I slowed down, thinking I should put a shell in the single shot before I waded into this scrap, as not a squeal had been heard still, moving forward and down the pup Jude came out to meet me (don't you just hate that) soon I could see Ming and Lu being chased around in the fern below a Mahoe by a good sized pissed off Boar, Ming was jumping in for a hold now and then, Lu not offering a lot of help, but was nipping in now and then, then backing off for a bark, but no sign of Puk the holder, the Boar sensing I was close, now bolted down and around the face, the dogs stopped him again and I thought about diving in, but it was so steep that we would have all likely just have rolled down into the sea through the Mamaku's ringing the shore, the water being only about 30m below now, and without a beach kids, just 2m high bluffs straight into chest deep water, so I soon had the gun off my back, I waited for a clear shot, Ming was holding on one ear now, so I waited, the pig shook her off and turned to face me and the barking dogs up hill, I had a clear heart/Lung shot into his chest and took it, Bang! The Boar stood motionless for a couple of seconds, the shot must have taken an organ though, as he then rolled down the hill coming to rest stone dead amongst the Mamaku's 10m from the water.
"Where was Puk" I thought, quickly I had a look at the tracker and she was only 40m away around the hill, so up I went hoping she was ok, the tracker was jumping a bit, but now it said she was near, but where, "Puk" I yelled, "come on Puk" I said, then some rustling and her beautiful big boof head came poking out of the bracken, she was had it though, wobbling and struggling to stand up, I gave her a pat checking her over, lots of hair and skin missing around her chest and shoulders, but basically she was just exhausted, so I left her to cool down and recover, taking care of the pig.
Which after a few pics I just rolled the last 20m down to the top of the bluff, then gutted for pickup later, the dogs now slowly followed me up to the ridge in search of Beth, Lu dragging the chain, because as I found out later she was back snaking on the lungs, which she conveniently spewed up while I was chatting with Beth about the hunt later in the boat.
Anyway I had to climb back up to the ridge and on making the ridge I was soon back onto the track, me and Beth had come up earlier, and this is where I found myself wandering down through the Native with that bloody Kiss song playing over and over in my head. "beth I here you calling but I can't come home right now" I had been yelling out to Beth since I'd made it back to the ridge, and not a sound in reply, "I hope she's alright" I thought, starting to think the worst, and still no reply to my yelling, I was starting to think she may have got lost or was hurt, as I walked out onto the beach I was expecting the worse, but there she was, waiting by the Kayak, we talked about what had happened, then loaded the boat and quickly set off to retrieve the Boar.
The boar once home weighted in at 138lb, which was a good start to the winter season, I was hoping for something a little lighter to kick the hunting off, but maybe this could be the year for the heavy weights.
And for those of you to young to remember 'Clam Rock' here's a youtube video of that song.
