It
was the 5th of August 2000 and I was on a Boeing 737 as it lifted off
the runway from Auckland bound for New Caledonia. Seated in row 12a was
Bill Carswell, winner of the HUNTECH "Win A Rusa Hunt"
to New Caledonia. Sitting with him was Steve Richards of HUNTECH, Mike
Freeman of Kiwi Safaris and myself. The adventure had begun, Steve, Mike
and I had been dreaming about this for a year while Bill’s name had
only been drawn as the winner a few weeks previously. Bill had filled
in the lucky coupon at “Hunting & Fishing” Palmerston North
after purchasing a Two man Bivvy some months before.
On arrival at Tontouta Airport we were met by Darryl Giles, a guide for
“Jamie Bell Safaris” who took us to Noumea where we overnighted.
It was close to 1pm as we entered the driveway of the property we were
to hunt. It was siesta time and we found Falco, another of Jamie’s
helpers asleep in his little cabin. He said we would meet Jamie later
on in the day, so in the meantime we set off with Darryl to have a look
around and sight in the rifles. It wasn’t long before we were seeing
Rusa deer, every gully seemed to hold deer and this was just the middle
of the day. Some animals were out feeding whilst others were laying up
in the scrub. With five of us glassing it wasn’t long before a good
stag was seen. We watched him for some time before we suggested Bill should
stalk him, he was in a difficult position but the hunt was on. Mike and
I watched through the spotting scope while Bill, Steve and Darryl closed
in. The problem with so many deer about the place is that it makes hunting
a particular animal very difficult, and that’s what happened. They
were about 150 meters from the stag when they were sprung by the hinds.
The stag was alerted and the game was over; for now.
We proceeded with the task of sighting in the rifles, Jamie provides rifles
as it can be difficult taking them into New Caledonia depending on the
caliber. We discussed plans for the hunt over dinner that night and after
an exciting day we were all pretty pleased to see our pillows and get
a good night’s sleep.
The sky behind the distant mountains was starting to lighten, as Bill,
Mike, Darryl and Steve climbed into the van to head off for the first
full day’s hunt. They headed out towards the coast and wanted to
be in position before first light. Darryl cut the vehicle headlights and
they continued along the ridge on foot. They reached a prominent hill
and sat down waiting for it to became light enough to glass the country
below. Bill would have the first shot this morning if a chance presented
itself.
As the sun rose, more and more deer became visible. They had spotted a
good-looking stag the previous evening, way across on the edge of a stream
and were hoping to see him again. From their position the deer could be
seen everywhere they glassed. It was near the peak of the rut and many
stags could be heard roaring and chasing hot hinds about. They glassed
for about an hour without spotting any stags of particular note. Several
stags had been roaring from the bushy ridge below since first light, but
couldn’t be seen. The deer were gradually moving out of this bush
across a flat and disappearing into another area of forest where they
would bed down for the day.
A big black stag appeared from the trees, and looked to have promise.
Steve had gone over the knob to look into the next valley, so Darryl crawled
off to get him. Back checking through their spotting scopes it was decided
to try to get the stag. A plan was devised to circle around above some
bush out of sight, then to crawl down a gully to get near enough to get
a shot. Avoiding other deer and not spooking any is the main problem when
stalking these Rusa. The stag’s attention was focused on a hot hind,
but hundreds more sets of eyes were always looking for danger. The stag
started to head back up towards a patch of bush, so they decided to try
and make it to a line of scrub to get a rest and a shot. Suddenly the
stag was gone. They glassed back up to Mike on the hill, looking for direction
to where the stag had gone. From Mike’s arm waving the stag was just
over the ridge. Quickly they cut down into the gully and up the other
side.
Suddenly a big stag and several hinds busted out of the bush and ran up
onto the next ridge. He was a good stag but not the big black one seen
previously. They decided to leave him and chase the first one. Twenty
minutes had passed since they had last seen the stag, so they stalked
up onto the next ridge. Below them the bush ran down to the tidal mud
flats which formed the head of a bay. There, moving across the flats was
the big black stag. The range finder was quickly produced and it was decided
Bill would have a shot. As the shot echoed around the hills, the stag
ran up onto the ridge and disappeared onto a prominent headland. They
watched for some time to see if he would emerge from cover, but to no
avail. It was decided Mike would keep watch while the others went to see
if there was any sign of a hit, even though the stag appeared to be unharmed.
Half an hour later when they emerged from the bush, Mike was frantically
gesturing across the mud flats. Evidently they had spooked a heap of deer
off the headland. They had run across the open mudflats and onto a scrubby
ridge. Mike was signaling that there were several good stags in the group.
Moving to a vantage point, they could see most of the deer feeding over
the top of the ridge and there were at least three trophy stags. The deer
would be moving towards the forest to lay up for the day, so Darryl and
Steve decided to move quickly to try and cut them off. The boys ran out
across the open flat, angling towards the large open area which the deer
would cross to reach the forest. As they reached the flat most of the
deer had already reached the edge of the flat and were grabbing their
last mouthfuls before retiring for the day. A big stag could be seen walking
purposefully towards the forest and was suddenly swallowed up by the trees.
Another good stag appeared from a hollow, and Bill took it with a well-placed
250 metre shot.
They ran jubilantly to the stag to find he was a beautiful 33 inch long
and even trophy. Mike arrived and reckoned he had just witnessed one of
the most exciting hunts imaginable. His turn would come the next morning.
Falco would have the task of dressing out what was to be the first of
several trophies.
With five more days of hunting to go we all hunted hard, stalking in on
stags that either outsmarted us or succumbed to the bullet. We all took
excellent trophies, mine
a heavy black bush stag, and Steve,s was a
beautiful classic 33 inch head. The hunting in New Calendonia with
Jamie Bell is simply magic, probably the best free range deer hunting
available in the World.
By Friday afternoon we all had trophies, Darryl suggested taking us all
down to the wharf on the property to
see the sea snakes. The property backs on to the sea and with this
in mind I had brought a small rod with me in case we got the chance to
have a fish. Darryl had a rod and a few spinners so off we went. Sure
enough there were sea snakes all right, yellow and black and deadly. Darryl
caught one and we all took pictures and then proceeded to try the fishing.
We all had a rod and one of Darryl’s salt water lures and were enjoying
the warm sun when Darryl got a hit, boy, did this fish strip some line!
It took Darryl 20 minutes to get the fish near the wharf, with no gaff
or net it was all hands to the wheel, I climbed down the wharf on to a
tyre at the water edge while the fish was eased in. After several attempts
I was able to grab the fish by the tail much to the howls of laughter
and advice from Steve and Bill who were filming the whole show.
Somehow we landed the fish, a
28lb spanish mackerelwith a vicious set of teeth. Darryl had gone
from panic to ecstasy. By the time we had finished we had caught several
trevally including a beautiful golden trevally which was over 5lb, caught
by Bill.
Having the fishing adds another perspective to what Jamie Bell does. If
a hunt ends early then he will put the boat in the water and take you
out for a fish. We didn’t have enough time for the boat; we didn’t
need it.
As we turned the van into the sunset to head back to the farmhouse, we
looked with sadness at a friendly seagull who turned his head as if to
say farewell, the hunt was over and it was back to the real world tomorrow.
To see more pictures on the hunt click on links on the page