asaxon
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“P”s in New Zealand: Paradise ducks, Peacocks, Peahens, Pukekos, Possums, Pro-from-Dover, Pigs, and Piss me off fishing.
The Admiral and I were in New Zealand for a family wedding. Afterward, we headed to Rotorua, near from whence the Admiral hails. Figured to do a bit of fishing and hunting with RD who lives there.
The first day we went to a local lake to jig for trout with flies and to have a swim in the volcanic hot pools at the lake’s edge. After trying a few spots, RD’s line gets tapped and right after that, the Admiral’s line goes taut. The fish takes out line and shakes it’s head like a yellowtail. RD says, “that’s a good fish - the smaller ones come up and jump while the bigger ones hunker down.” Sure enough, 5 minutes later the Admiral boats a gorgeous 10 lb. rainbow (photo 1). RD tries to take credit by claiming he pulled his line out of the way so it would go to the Admiral’s. Right! After the appropriate celebration and a soak in the hot pools, I manage to land a 3 lb rainbow. A great day except when we get back to the house, the Admiral proceeds to put my fish into the mouth of her fish (photo 2) – Piss me off!
We then get a couple days of heavy rain after which RD and I decide to try to stalk peafowl aka Peacocks and Peahens while the Admiral is off doing some genealogy research and visiting the “cuzzy bros”. Peafowl are an invasive species in NZ so open season all year and no license required. Simply put, stalking peacocks is like stalking wild Tom turkeys. They hang around in “mobs”, (NZ for flocks) so there are always eyes looking everywhere. They spot you from half a mile and then run away. On top of that, there is a very large grass feeding NZ field duck, the Paradise duck, (photo 3) which are incredibly vigilant. These buggers see you from a mile away, send out alarm calls to everything in the area and remained focused on you and alarming until you are out of sight. Thus hunter’s nickname for them of “Bloody Parries”.
The wind is blowing quite hard on the back end of the storm but what the heck. We go out to some lovely farmland with stands of bush and trees between incredibly green pastures. We are armed with a 17 HMR with a silencer and a 3x9 scope and a 12 gauge shotgun. Shoot them at up to 120 yards with the 17 HMR (photo 4)and if we flush one, use the shotgun. The first thing we see and visa-versa is a pair of “Bloody Parries. Alarm and finally 20 min later, we get away from them.
After hiking all about and having several more encounters with “bloody parries”, RD peeks around a hillside and immediately jumps back – “Andy, there is a hen bird just round the corner some 30 yards up the hillside and there should be others with her.” So I go back and cut over the ridge to where the bird should be. I carefully peak over the edge and what do I see, two large purple birds – Pukekos (photo 5), aka NZ Swamp Hens.
I am very puzzled. RD is a top gun bird hunter. He saw a Pukeko? They don’t even come close to a peafowl. As I stare, I see two gorgeous mature peacocks come running out from under the hill, no more than 40 yards away. I put the scope on them and watch them scamper away followed by some hens and juvenile males. Why did I let them run away? I got “Cock Fever!” I FORGOT that RD said to shoot them in the body so I am busy trying to aim at their tiny bobbing heads (as if I had a shotgun with turkeys at home) and could see I would never make that head shot. Dummy! Apparently, RD had just glimpsed the peahen and had not seen the Pukekos or he would have mentioned them. The whole thing is what they call in NZ a “Cock Up” so I did not get a peacock down.
After that, we had several more sightings of various peafowl but in spite of our long circuits to try to sneak up on them, the birds always had seen us and were gone when we got to where it would be close enough to shoot. Finally, we get to about 130 yards from a pair of nice peacocks standing by a fence line but there is no way to close the distance – the country is all open. So I decide to try the shot – unfortunately, the wind is blowing a gale. Not only was the tiny 17HMR bullet going to drop at the distance but more importantly, the wind was probably going to push it 8 inches or more in some unknown direction. I put the cross hairs on the chest of a gorgeous peacock and pull the trigger; “crack” (17 HMR with silencer). The cock fluffs his feathers, looks around puzzled and walks about a bit. I send two more rounds downrange, now aiming a bit higher and “upwind”, but same thing happens. Then the two cocks simply disappear over the hill. (photo 6) As the day is getting late, we walk between to fences that are 12 feet apart along a ridge top only to see a cock and hen in front of us. But of course they have seen us. RD hands me the shotgun and says “run at them, they may have trouble taking off because they are so close to the fences.” I do my imitation of running and see the cock fly off. We walk along some more and lo and behold, we find the hen bird trapped in a narrow gap between the fence and an open gate. As I go to close the gate to let her out, she bares a set of wicked looking fangs and flies right at me in attack mode I had to shot in self-defense (photo7) and still she managed to scratch my arm before dying. WTF! Only then does RD lets me in on a very well-kept secret – these are vampire peafowl. There is a NZ government conspiracy to keep these dangerous critters a secret for if the truth ever got out, it would kill the Tourist industry that keeps NZ the economy humming. That is my story and I am sticking to it! And if you read to the end of part 2, you will see the proof.
The Admiral and I were in New Zealand for a family wedding. Afterward, we headed to Rotorua, near from whence the Admiral hails. Figured to do a bit of fishing and hunting with RD who lives there.
The first day we went to a local lake to jig for trout with flies and to have a swim in the volcanic hot pools at the lake’s edge. After trying a few spots, RD’s line gets tapped and right after that, the Admiral’s line goes taut. The fish takes out line and shakes it’s head like a yellowtail. RD says, “that’s a good fish - the smaller ones come up and jump while the bigger ones hunker down.” Sure enough, 5 minutes later the Admiral boats a gorgeous 10 lb. rainbow (photo 1). RD tries to take credit by claiming he pulled his line out of the way so it would go to the Admiral’s. Right! After the appropriate celebration and a soak in the hot pools, I manage to land a 3 lb rainbow. A great day except when we get back to the house, the Admiral proceeds to put my fish into the mouth of her fish (photo 2) – Piss me off!
We then get a couple days of heavy rain after which RD and I decide to try to stalk peafowl aka Peacocks and Peahens while the Admiral is off doing some genealogy research and visiting the “cuzzy bros”. Peafowl are an invasive species in NZ so open season all year and no license required. Simply put, stalking peacocks is like stalking wild Tom turkeys. They hang around in “mobs”, (NZ for flocks) so there are always eyes looking everywhere. They spot you from half a mile and then run away. On top of that, there is a very large grass feeding NZ field duck, the Paradise duck, (photo 3) which are incredibly vigilant. These buggers see you from a mile away, send out alarm calls to everything in the area and remained focused on you and alarming until you are out of sight. Thus hunter’s nickname for them of “Bloody Parries”.
The wind is blowing quite hard on the back end of the storm but what the heck. We go out to some lovely farmland with stands of bush and trees between incredibly green pastures. We are armed with a 17 HMR with a silencer and a 3x9 scope and a 12 gauge shotgun. Shoot them at up to 120 yards with the 17 HMR (photo 4)and if we flush one, use the shotgun. The first thing we see and visa-versa is a pair of “Bloody Parries. Alarm and finally 20 min later, we get away from them.
After hiking all about and having several more encounters with “bloody parries”, RD peeks around a hillside and immediately jumps back – “Andy, there is a hen bird just round the corner some 30 yards up the hillside and there should be others with her.” So I go back and cut over the ridge to where the bird should be. I carefully peak over the edge and what do I see, two large purple birds – Pukekos (photo 5), aka NZ Swamp Hens.
I am very puzzled. RD is a top gun bird hunter. He saw a Pukeko? They don’t even come close to a peafowl. As I stare, I see two gorgeous mature peacocks come running out from under the hill, no more than 40 yards away. I put the scope on them and watch them scamper away followed by some hens and juvenile males. Why did I let them run away? I got “Cock Fever!” I FORGOT that RD said to shoot them in the body so I am busy trying to aim at their tiny bobbing heads (as if I had a shotgun with turkeys at home) and could see I would never make that head shot. Dummy! Apparently, RD had just glimpsed the peahen and had not seen the Pukekos or he would have mentioned them. The whole thing is what they call in NZ a “Cock Up” so I did not get a peacock down.
After that, we had several more sightings of various peafowl but in spite of our long circuits to try to sneak up on them, the birds always had seen us and were gone when we got to where it would be close enough to shoot. Finally, we get to about 130 yards from a pair of nice peacocks standing by a fence line but there is no way to close the distance – the country is all open. So I decide to try the shot – unfortunately, the wind is blowing a gale. Not only was the tiny 17HMR bullet going to drop at the distance but more importantly, the wind was probably going to push it 8 inches or more in some unknown direction. I put the cross hairs on the chest of a gorgeous peacock and pull the trigger; “crack” (17 HMR with silencer). The cock fluffs his feathers, looks around puzzled and walks about a bit. I send two more rounds downrange, now aiming a bit higher and “upwind”, but same thing happens. Then the two cocks simply disappear over the hill. (photo 6) As the day is getting late, we walk between to fences that are 12 feet apart along a ridge top only to see a cock and hen in front of us. But of course they have seen us. RD hands me the shotgun and says “run at them, they may have trouble taking off because they are so close to the fences.” I do my imitation of running and see the cock fly off. We walk along some more and lo and behold, we find the hen bird trapped in a narrow gap between the fence and an open gate. As I go to close the gate to let her out, she bares a set of wicked looking fangs and flies right at me in attack mode I had to shot in self-defense (photo7) and still she managed to scratch my arm before dying. WTF! Only then does RD lets me in on a very well-kept secret – these are vampire peafowl. There is a NZ government conspiracy to keep these dangerous critters a secret for if the truth ever got out, it would kill the Tourist industry that keeps NZ the economy humming. That is my story and I am sticking to it! And if you read to the end of part 2, you will see the proof.
Continued on Part 2
