Ulrike’s first pig hunt, Stick-ability and following simple instructions.
I’d picked Ulrike, or Uli for short up from Picton some days before, she’s from Germany and traveling around NZ for a year, she was coming out to the Lodge woofing for a couple of weeks, only because I’d foolishly opened the lodge for July and August this winter, well know-one else was open Duh!, it’s been a waste of time tho with not enough guests to warrant me doing it next winter.
I’d asked Uli if she wanted to come Pig hunting in the morning and she was keen to experience something new. Up before dawn and soon after a short boat ride we were walking up an old track to where a neighbor had recently seen some fresh pig rooting, we climbed up through some magnificent native bush, old Rimu’s here and there, Matai berries lay everywhere on the Forrest floor, it was a mast year alright. This walk later came to mind one evening while she was telling me a story about a similar climb she'd done down the west coast, but that's another story.
We kept climbing with the dogs showing little interest, Lu was out front on the find today, her five month old pup Kai following along with Udit and Puk the holder at heal for now, towards the top of the track Lu started showing a bit more interest but the dogs couldn’t get on a strong scent, we moved on and were soon walking down an old power board track, I decided to walk out onto a easy looking beach ridge thinking there had to be a pig around here somewhere when the silence was shattered Lu opened up over the ridge amongst the fern, Udit and Puk’s bound off, savage barking could soon be heard and the pig squealed when the holder Puk hit, I turned to Uli asking her to snap some pictures, I think she was a bit surprised by all the noise from the dogs and her heart rate would have been up a little know-doubt this being her first pig hunt, she stumbled after us through the fern taking pics while the dogs struggled with a young boar about 80 to 90 pound who was fighting like a young man, all the dogs were harassing the pig and it was good to see Kai the pup was in there holding as well.
Uli kept clicking away as I dived in trying to tip the boar over, he was having none of it and with the dogs all pulling him down hill I had to let him go and finally got the knife into him on about my third attempt, Uli kept snapping away not realising what a meal I made of sticking the pig.
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Stick-ability and following simple instructions.
I’d taken off for a couple of days and left my woofa May looking after the dogs, what could possibly go wrong, city girl from Soul North Korea left alone in the country with five bitches, yes five for now I have Kai’s sister back, she’s called Gypsy or Gyp for short and Kai just loves having her sister back to play with.
I arrived home after the weekend and soon noticed Puk And Udit were missing! What happened to them I asked May, they betray me she say, what do you mean? They run away two hours ago, great I thought now I’m going to spend the next week looking for runaway Bitches. What is it about the younger generation, they give you that rolly eyed look while your give them simple instructions, that look that says get on with it this is the third time you have repeated that, then a yawn thrown in for good measure, have you got that “don’t let Udit off the chain” Ok Rod.
Two days and nights later my good neighbour Bev called saying she had heard a dog or dogs barking above her house a couple of hours ago, I took a trip to her place and walked around trying to whistle the dogs in, but to no avail, and so when she called the next day saying she could here dogs barking again in the same spot I got up there quick smart, tying up at the jetty I could hear a dog barking, it sounded like Udit not far up the hill across from me, so rather than try and whistle her down, I would let Lu go, with a tracking collar on her of-course and see what would happen, best laid plans and all that, Lu shot across the beach and disappeared into the bush, watching her on the tracker I was thinking she must be lost, the barking was coming from just above the beach and she was heading up around on the next ridge, she was now about 600m away straight up, Udit had stopped barking and I’m wondering whats going on here, maybe Udit was bailing a pig, did Lu stumble onto that pig or another pig, what the hell's going on I thought, I started climbing but was a little under-prepared dressed in some kick around slip-on boots, shorts, singlet and fleece, a blunt three inch pocket knife my only weapon, sort of like going to a gun fight with a water pistol and a set of nail clippers.
Anyway Lu had now stopped and I could hear her bailing about 800m up in a spot I’d got onto the odd boar in the past, what to do, I thought of getting the whistle out but to be honest I’ve always been of the belief that if the dogs are going to put there life’s on the line and catch pigs for me the least I can do it make the maximum effort to get there, plus I now feel it possibly sends the wrong message to the dogs calling them off from a distance, but then this has to be weighed up against having no control I suppose, one thing I will say for my dogs is they have Stick-ability, once on a pig they don’t come off easy, shore I let the sows go where possible, but I catch them first, of-course now I had visions of a large boar who had been toying with the two tired dogs till Lu arrived and now was one pissed off boar, but I’d still only have one fresh dog Lu who will hold anything up to 100lb, but the tricky part was I only had a blunt pocket knife to dispatch the pig, all this is going through my mind as I’m climbing up to the bailing dogs, then the pig broke left around the face heading through a very shitty gully, bugger I though I’d have to drop down to cross this gorgey creek.
Shortly I was through the creek and on the next ridge the dogs had the pig bailed about 300m away, but as I moved closer it broke again, shit this was turning into a mission I looked at the time, 4.30, I’m going to have to call this off about 5pm I thought as I had no torch and it would be dark by 6pm with only the light from the GPS screen to walk by and this was ankle breaking country now believe me and they were heading into leg breaking country full of bluffs and KeiKei, Yay! On I moved around the basin I could see on the tracker Lu was now 800m away in the main creek at the head of the valley, I’d only ever been in this spot once before and was hoping this would be the end of it, on I moved soon finding a track that has recently been opened up, this was easy going but climbing and I had to soon leave it down a ridge into the valley across another track and down into the creek through the supple-jack and rubbish in this dark inhospitable gorge, where I had visions of the dogs bailing a boar who would be having trouble climbing out because of the bluffs and steep going through the other side of the creek, but looking at the tracker this wasn’t to be, Lu was now climbing up through the bluffs into an area I’d never been, shit she was 600m away now and it was after 5pm, I was shagged and thought of getting the whistle out, but pushed on thinking if it got to dark I would find my way out by backtracking on the GPS, I had a quick look through the options on the unit, no torch option could be found, 300m now and I could hear the bailing as I pushed up through another wall of KeiKei, anyone who has come across this stuff will sympathise with me, 5.20 now and almost dark, my eyes were adjusting but getting into a knife fight with a angry boar in the dark was filling me with dread, I’d arrived and couldn’t see dogs or pig just a heaving mass of KeiKei, getting uphill I stumbled/fell down over the heaving KeiKei trying to get a look at the pig, Lu was bailing flat out and I thought I could see her in-front of me but what I though was a dogs backside turned out to be a pigs ass about the size of a dogs, and a pigs ass I was feeling, I couldn’t believe it and was soon standing on a 40lb boar, what an anti climax, thinking then I should let the pig go, but then thinking Lu would most likely take off after it, so I dispatched it with my blunt pocket knife.
It was quite dark now but I could make out Lu and was wondering what had happened when Udit showed up then Puk could be heard panting loudly coming up the hill, what a mystery this couldn’t have been the pig they started on Lu can normally pull up most pigs under 100lb by herself (talking to a neighbor the next day he said he saw a good pig mark in the area after I’d been through that evening) I was thinking the pig must have given them the slip sacrificing one of his kin, cunning old boar maybe, but we will never know, walking out was scary and at one point I was clambering over some KeiKei and looked down to see in the starlight I was out over a bluff with a 10m drop to a rocky ledge below, I scrambled back up on my backside before this stuff gave way in my hands, as it tends to do sometimes, before long we were in the creek and it was getting cold, I’d now lost my fleece and there was no way I going back looking for it, I just needed to reach the last track I’d crossed and then I new I’d find my way home, soon I found the track, muddy, scratched, wet and tired we made our way out by the screen of the tracking unit, the glow worms lighting the way back to the boat, I stumbled into home around 7.30pm feeling sick with exhaustion.
