Havelock Pig Hunt 2015


The Havlock Pig Hunt has been and gone, we have been stopping the odd pig since, but mostly been busy selling Material Girl and finding a new boat, so while it's still fresh in my mind here's how the Annual Havelock Pig Hunt went. 

I awoke Friday morning to 40 Knots of Northerly with driving rain, forecast was, rising to 50 Knots during the day, yay! The dogs poked there heads out of their Kennels wondering what I was doing up at 6.30 in the driving rain, I was thinking about just going back to bed and poking my head under the covers, bugger this I was thinking, but then who knows tomorrow could be worse so I thought, off we went, the boat trip was bumpy and we were soon on the hill slipping and sliding around in the mud, we walked and walked the wind howling now at 50 Knots, until we had ended up in the big native, the dogs could be seen climbing out on the tracker, the KieKie in this area was impossible to get through, I was on my hands and knees crawling up through a tangled mess soaked to the skin now, the dogs just keep climbing, I was hoping they were onto a boar. Soon I broke out of the rimu into beach forest and the going was easier, all of a sudden a boar about 70 pound went bounding by with Puk hot on it's heals, I got hell of a fright and speed off after them, Puk being a holder just latches on so I had a little trouble finding them till the other dogs showed up and started barking, I dispatched the Boar and set off for home, we would have to find something bigger than this to weigh in Sunday.

 Saturday morning broke clear and clam, I had an idea where a boar had been hanging out, Lu was soon away on the scent, next time I looked she was on the ridge 500 meters above, then I heard a distant bark and let Jude go, she went out to about 200 meters and came back, we started climbing, Lu's barking got clearer the closer we got, Jude soon picked up her mate calling for backup and was away, me and Puk kept climbing, Jude's bark could now be heard with Lu's, they were on the move down towards me for once, 200 meters out I let Puk go as the going had got very bluffly, I scrambled up to meet the dogs who were doing there best to hold a stroppy boar around 100 lb , quickly dispatching him and praising my Girls. 
Lu and Puk had a couple of rips to add to the one's from the Seddon pig hunt, but nothing that a couple of weeks R&R wouldn't sort out, we didn't have the winner but a decent boar to weigh in sunday, I regret not taking any pictures this weekend, but here's a couple of the new (Girl Friend) boat called StarQuest,



with a 70 lb sow we picked up on our first hunt off her.

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