Kauhanga bay Boar
The first time I ran into the Kauhanga bay Boar I was taking a local Pommie lad Matt out for a hunt, as usually happens when you take someone out pig hunting you can’t find a pig for love nor money, this morning it seemed wasn’t going to be any different!
We'd started hunting on a locals boundary, I’d been to see the fella a few weeks before to clear up any misunderstandings in-case I happened to turn up on his back door dispatching any pigs, and we agreed to split any pork in that event.
But it wasn’t going to be today it seemed, as we sidled away from his place through old pig rooting under the wilding pines, five finger and Manuka. Slowly we checked out the likely spots that had been kind to me in the past, but a couple of hours later with the dogs still hanging around our feet I was ready to give it up and call it a day, but the young pom seemed fresh enough and I was determined not to have him go home thinking I was a complete fraud, or at-least try to walk the legs off him. So I decided to check out one last spot.
Today I only had three bitches with me, Lu my main dog of 7 years, also Kai her 18 month old daughter and Miss a new dog I’d recently purchased from Whanganui, the holder Puk was at home with the new pup.
We slowly climbed up the valley on a power board track and then later ducked off onto an old bridle path that sidled around and down the face through the beach and Rimu, the local conservation trust had kindly set up some pig feeding stations (automatic kill traps) on this track so it held the odd pig from time to time, about a third of the way down on a big beach ridge the dogs started winding up the hill and soon disappeared, we waited, soon they had disappeared off the tracker with now only question marks by their names so we started to climb up around after them to get a signal, but we weren’t quick enough it seemed, by the time we got to the last spot we had a signal they had vanished completely.
I’m scratching my head thinking they must have gone up and over the top ridge through a low saddle into Kauhanga bay, "shit"! I had just been thinking I'd be home in half an hour with my feet up but now we would hardly even make this saddle by then, Matt was looking a bit shattered but not whinging yet and I wasn’t about to tell him the dogs were probably a long way down the other side of the saddle we were climbing for.
The climbing was easy enough, a nice clear beach ridge and we soon found our-self's over the saddle, but still no signal from the dogs, I was starting to doubt my guess at which way the dogs had gone when I picked up some faint barking, we moved down and onto a ridge to hear one of the dogs was bailing hard, probably Kai by the sound of it, so we set off down to the bail on the way down the new bitch Miss had come back to us, not a great start for her!! Lu was most likely trying to hold the pig I thought, while Kai stood bailing, just before we arrived everything went quite, dam!, I could smell the boar and there was a lot of blood around as Lu staggered out of the fern with a couple of nasty holes in her shoulder and neck, she was shattered but would live, after inspecting her I had a look at the tracker and Kai was down by the beach 400m away but then I lost her signal maybe the tracker was wigging out, I was hoping Kai would turn up as we set off wearily for the dingy which was a couple of KM away back over that low saddle, about an hour later as we got closer to the dingy I was getting a bit worried about Kai, thinking I would have to bring the four wheeler back to look for her when she ran down the jetty, she had a deep nasty wound in her flank.
Wound to Kai's flank
So not all the blood at the scene had been Lu’s and Kai had gone after the boar before giving up and back tracking to us, the boar had really nailed her at some stage, she was bloody lucky.
On a cold horrible morning a few weeks later, the dogs now all healed up I found myself in the same area with Lu Kai and Miss again.
I’d been itching to go hunting for days but hadn't had a chance, but I was going this morning hell or high water, high water it was going to be because not long after leaving home it started raining. Much later I found myself climbing a familiar native ridge when the rain really set in.
This is mad, I was thinking as I looked at the tracker, "dam" I thought Lu and Miss were 400m away up in the head of a dark slippery creek I new all too well, Kai had come back to me which was strange she normally stuck with her mother Lu, as we got closer I could hear the dogs bailing over the rain but Kai wouldn’t go to the barking, she always had gone to the bail till now, it was pouring down now, plus it's getting darker as we were basically in the cloud as well, it was very hard to see down into the dark supple-jack laden creek, the dogs had stopped bailing now, I could just make out something that looked like a pig walking up the creek, I wiped the rain out of my eyes to make out the orange on Lu's collar, she was knackered, I had been thinking maybe they had an old billy goat bailed, but on closer inspection Lu was suffering from similar wounds to the ones she got from the boar in Kauhanga bay Boar, Miss even had a hole in her shoulder and hadn't come off the pig this time, home we went in the pouring rain, I was mystified why Kai wouldn't go to the bail, she still hadn’t recovered from the wound in her flank, maybe it was the same boar that had ripped her I thought and she new it, Lu's wounds pointed to that.
After a bit of a lay-up I thought it was about time we had another crack at the Kauhanga bay Boar, but this time I was bringing the holder Puk out of retirement and so we had the full team Lu, Puk, Kai, Miss and even the new pup Jet was tagging along, the Boar didn’t stand a chance I thought! Ha!
Soon we were approaching a wallow in an area where I guessed he might be hanging around, Lu tracked off with Kai and soon I could see them stopped about 200m around the face, I let Puk go and Miss followed, the pup staying with me, on arrival they had a young sow stretched out which I quickly dispatched, no chance of saving her unfortunately, thinking the boar may be close and hoping to get lucky I sent Lu & Kai away, I stood watching them on the tracker as they climbed up a ridge, then they soon were sidling towards that same low saddle into Kauhanga bay, although it was still about 1.5km away, surely they would stop him before then, but unfortunately he (I was assuming it was the boar) had a head start, later, much much later found me dragging my sorry ass through that same saddle the boar had escaped through on our first encounter, I new he was most likely long gone , but had to try and at least get Lu and Kai back because they tend to just keep hunting once on a roll and their trackers may have been flat by morning, I picked them up once through the saddle about 1km down and around the face moving away, it was going to be one of those days. I finally caught up with the dogs with the whistle and after checking them over for damage we started our long walk back up over the saddle to the motor bike and home.
A couple of weeks later my neighbour that lives half a km away called saying she had seen some good sized fresh rooting up behind her house, “how about we go take a look next week” I said, 6am ok, “sure” Keran said "see you then".
It was still dark as we stared moving up into the bush and she was right about the pig rooting, some of it was fresh, so the pig was still possibly about and it looked like it had been done by a sizable animal, could this be the tunnel bay boar I thought, we were about 2km from where I last ran into him so why not, Lu, Kai and Miss had disappeared leaving the pup and Puk the holder who was on a lead with me, I watched the dogs climbing out up into an area I’d found a few boars before, I was just telling Keran how much I liked this ridge when she said "did you hear that", "no" I said, (god I'm getting deaf), "I heard a few barks" she said.
"We had better start after them" I said, I hadn’t been looking at the tracker for a bit when the three dogs ran across in-front of us, what the hell was going on, first I thought they were just coming back, but they just kept running past us through the five finger and Mahoe ridge we were on, the dogs disappeared into the next creek, then a bail up started, lots of savage barking from Lu which meant a large boar, so I let Puk go and we set off in pursuit, the bailing stopped in about the time it would have taken Puk to arrive, the pig must have broke hearing her arrive or getting a taste of her teeth , I said to keran "I’ve gotta run sorry" and dived into the Rangiora clad gully and was struggling through it when I heard them now bailing around a bit further in the next creek, this pig was going to take some stopping, I was falling, slipping and sliding my way around to the dogs when it all went quite again, I took a look at the tracker and they had climbed out of the second creek up and over a sharp ridge, and off the tracker, while Puk was in pursuit there was hope of stopping this pig, I've hardly had a pig get away from her in five years, especially if Lu was there.
The adrenaline was pumping now as I set off as fast as I could move, soon I was approaching the next creek which I new well, it's very steep sided with a lot of waterfalls, I couldn’t hear the dogs but the unit was saying they were only 80m away, I was approaching the lip of the creek when I heard the barking, a huge scrap was going on below the dogs bailing madly, but not one squeal could be heard, thinking the dogs might be getting beat up I fell, slid, stumbled and slid down into the creek worried about my girls, so much for a quite entrance.
I staggered out of the Rangiora to see a large black boar putting up one hell of a fight in what must be about the only flat section of this creek, the boar was shaking the dogs off, charging them and giving as good as he was getting, Puk kept taking the pig front on, this dog is fearless, but she was paying for it though, I was trying to get a clear shot and when I did pull the trigger nothing happened, I must have half cocked the gun in the excitement, the boar was spinning around as Miss worked his balls over, Lu was trying to hold him by the ear, Kai was bailing away, diving in for a nip now and then, this was a young fit boar in his prime, I fed another round in the rifle while Puk was launching a frontal attack on the boar I shot him behind the front leg with one of my new 140 grain .357 loads, he staggered then quickly sank to his knees, the dogs now hoed into him seeking some revenge.
Was this the Tunnel bay boar? I thought so, he fitted the bill being young and in great condition with ripped ears. Checking the dogs over Lu had very similar wounds to the last time he had bet her up, Puk for all her fearlessness wasn’t too badly cut up but it would be antibiotics and a couple of weeks before either of them hunted again.
Back home after a very difficult drag out of this shitty waterfall ridden creek he tipped the scales at 136 lb.
Dragging him out.
Footnote: I took Kai and Miss out for a hunt a week later and Kai found a boar about 70lbs which they stopped and she was fully into the fight when we stopped the tunnel bay boar so fingers crossed she hasn’t got boar shy.
We'd started hunting on a locals boundary, I’d been to see the fella a few weeks before to clear up any misunderstandings in-case I happened to turn up on his back door dispatching any pigs, and we agreed to split any pork in that event.
But it wasn’t going to be today it seemed, as we sidled away from his place through old pig rooting under the wilding pines, five finger and Manuka. Slowly we checked out the likely spots that had been kind to me in the past, but a couple of hours later with the dogs still hanging around our feet I was ready to give it up and call it a day, but the young pom seemed fresh enough and I was determined not to have him go home thinking I was a complete fraud, or at-least try to walk the legs off him. So I decided to check out one last spot.
Today I only had three bitches with me, Lu my main dog of 7 years, also Kai her 18 month old daughter and Miss a new dog I’d recently purchased from Whanganui, the holder Puk was at home with the new pup.
We slowly climbed up the valley on a power board track and then later ducked off onto an old bridle path that sidled around and down the face through the beach and Rimu, the local conservation trust had kindly set up some pig feeding stations (automatic kill traps) on this track so it held the odd pig from time to time, about a third of the way down on a big beach ridge the dogs started winding up the hill and soon disappeared, we waited, soon they had disappeared off the tracker with now only question marks by their names so we started to climb up around after them to get a signal, but we weren’t quick enough it seemed, by the time we got to the last spot we had a signal they had vanished completely.
I’m scratching my head thinking they must have gone up and over the top ridge through a low saddle into Kauhanga bay, "shit"! I had just been thinking I'd be home in half an hour with my feet up but now we would hardly even make this saddle by then, Matt was looking a bit shattered but not whinging yet and I wasn’t about to tell him the dogs were probably a long way down the other side of the saddle we were climbing for.
The climbing was easy enough, a nice clear beach ridge and we soon found our-self's over the saddle, but still no signal from the dogs, I was starting to doubt my guess at which way the dogs had gone when I picked up some faint barking, we moved down and onto a ridge to hear one of the dogs was bailing hard, probably Kai by the sound of it, so we set off down to the bail on the way down the new bitch Miss had come back to us, not a great start for her!! Lu was most likely trying to hold the pig I thought, while Kai stood bailing, just before we arrived everything went quite, dam!, I could smell the boar and there was a lot of blood around as Lu staggered out of the fern with a couple of nasty holes in her shoulder and neck, she was shattered but would live, after inspecting her I had a look at the tracker and Kai was down by the beach 400m away but then I lost her signal maybe the tracker was wigging out, I was hoping Kai would turn up as we set off wearily for the dingy which was a couple of KM away back over that low saddle, about an hour later as we got closer to the dingy I was getting a bit worried about Kai, thinking I would have to bring the four wheeler back to look for her when she ran down the jetty, she had a deep nasty wound in her flank.
Wound to Kai's flank
So not all the blood at the scene had been Lu’s and Kai had gone after the boar before giving up and back tracking to us, the boar had really nailed her at some stage, she was bloody lucky.
On a cold horrible morning a few weeks later, the dogs now all healed up I found myself in the same area with Lu Kai and Miss again.
I’d been itching to go hunting for days but hadn't had a chance, but I was going this morning hell or high water, high water it was going to be because not long after leaving home it started raining. Much later I found myself climbing a familiar native ridge when the rain really set in.
This is mad, I was thinking as I looked at the tracker, "dam" I thought Lu and Miss were 400m away up in the head of a dark slippery creek I new all too well, Kai had come back to me which was strange she normally stuck with her mother Lu, as we got closer I could hear the dogs bailing over the rain but Kai wouldn’t go to the barking, she always had gone to the bail till now, it was pouring down now, plus it's getting darker as we were basically in the cloud as well, it was very hard to see down into the dark supple-jack laden creek, the dogs had stopped bailing now, I could just make out something that looked like a pig walking up the creek, I wiped the rain out of my eyes to make out the orange on Lu's collar, she was knackered, I had been thinking maybe they had an old billy goat bailed, but on closer inspection Lu was suffering from similar wounds to the ones she got from the boar in Kauhanga bay Boar, Miss even had a hole in her shoulder and hadn't come off the pig this time, home we went in the pouring rain, I was mystified why Kai wouldn't go to the bail, she still hadn’t recovered from the wound in her flank, maybe it was the same boar that had ripped her I thought and she new it, Lu's wounds pointed to that.
After a bit of a lay-up I thought it was about time we had another crack at the Kauhanga bay Boar, but this time I was bringing the holder Puk out of retirement and so we had the full team Lu, Puk, Kai, Miss and even the new pup Jet was tagging along, the Boar didn’t stand a chance I thought! Ha!
Soon we were approaching a wallow in an area where I guessed he might be hanging around, Lu tracked off with Kai and soon I could see them stopped about 200m around the face, I let Puk go and Miss followed, the pup staying with me, on arrival they had a young sow stretched out which I quickly dispatched, no chance of saving her unfortunately, thinking the boar may be close and hoping to get lucky I sent Lu & Kai away, I stood watching them on the tracker as they climbed up a ridge, then they soon were sidling towards that same low saddle into Kauhanga bay, although it was still about 1.5km away, surely they would stop him before then, but unfortunately he (I was assuming it was the boar) had a head start, later, much much later found me dragging my sorry ass through that same saddle the boar had escaped through on our first encounter, I new he was most likely long gone , but had to try and at least get Lu and Kai back because they tend to just keep hunting once on a roll and their trackers may have been flat by morning, I picked them up once through the saddle about 1km down and around the face moving away, it was going to be one of those days. I finally caught up with the dogs with the whistle and after checking them over for damage we started our long walk back up over the saddle to the motor bike and home.
A couple of weeks later my neighbour that lives half a km away called saying she had seen some good sized fresh rooting up behind her house, “how about we go take a look next week” I said, 6am ok, “sure” Keran said "see you then".
It was still dark as we stared moving up into the bush and she was right about the pig rooting, some of it was fresh, so the pig was still possibly about and it looked like it had been done by a sizable animal, could this be the tunnel bay boar I thought, we were about 2km from where I last ran into him so why not, Lu, Kai and Miss had disappeared leaving the pup and Puk the holder who was on a lead with me, I watched the dogs climbing out up into an area I’d found a few boars before, I was just telling Keran how much I liked this ridge when she said "did you hear that", "no" I said, (god I'm getting deaf), "I heard a few barks" she said.
"We had better start after them" I said, I hadn’t been looking at the tracker for a bit when the three dogs ran across in-front of us, what the hell was going on, first I thought they were just coming back, but they just kept running past us through the five finger and Mahoe ridge we were on, the dogs disappeared into the next creek, then a bail up started, lots of savage barking from Lu which meant a large boar, so I let Puk go and we set off in pursuit, the bailing stopped in about the time it would have taken Puk to arrive, the pig must have broke hearing her arrive or getting a taste of her teeth , I said to keran "I’ve gotta run sorry" and dived into the Rangiora clad gully and was struggling through it when I heard them now bailing around a bit further in the next creek, this pig was going to take some stopping, I was falling, slipping and sliding my way around to the dogs when it all went quite again, I took a look at the tracker and they had climbed out of the second creek up and over a sharp ridge, and off the tracker, while Puk was in pursuit there was hope of stopping this pig, I've hardly had a pig get away from her in five years, especially if Lu was there.
The adrenaline was pumping now as I set off as fast as I could move, soon I was approaching the next creek which I new well, it's very steep sided with a lot of waterfalls, I couldn’t hear the dogs but the unit was saying they were only 80m away, I was approaching the lip of the creek when I heard the barking, a huge scrap was going on below the dogs bailing madly, but not one squeal could be heard, thinking the dogs might be getting beat up I fell, slid, stumbled and slid down into the creek worried about my girls, so much for a quite entrance.
I staggered out of the Rangiora to see a large black boar putting up one hell of a fight in what must be about the only flat section of this creek, the boar was shaking the dogs off, charging them and giving as good as he was getting, Puk kept taking the pig front on, this dog is fearless, but she was paying for it though, I was trying to get a clear shot and when I did pull the trigger nothing happened, I must have half cocked the gun in the excitement, the boar was spinning around as Miss worked his balls over, Lu was trying to hold him by the ear, Kai was bailing away, diving in for a nip now and then, this was a young fit boar in his prime, I fed another round in the rifle while Puk was launching a frontal attack on the boar I shot him behind the front leg with one of my new 140 grain .357 loads, he staggered then quickly sank to his knees, the dogs now hoed into him seeking some revenge.
Was this the Tunnel bay boar? I thought so, he fitted the bill being young and in great condition with ripped ears. Checking the dogs over Lu had very similar wounds to the last time he had bet her up, Puk for all her fearlessness wasn’t too badly cut up but it would be antibiotics and a couple of weeks before either of them hunted again.
Back home after a very difficult drag out of this shitty waterfall ridden creek he tipped the scales at 136 lb.
Footnote: I took Kai and Miss out for a hunt a week later and Kai found a boar about 70lbs which they stopped and she was fully into the fight when we stopped the tunnel bay boar so fingers crossed she hasn’t got boar shy.
Kauhanga bay Boar
