Hunting
A midwinter surprise
Jonny Christie goes hunting in the snow and offers some advice for safe , enjoyable winter hunting
When I was younger I had this American computer game called Big Game Hunter . On the screen you could shoot bears , moose , deer , cougars and all sorts . It gave me that hunting fix until the weekend would roll around and I could go hunting for real . The game let you track animals or sit in a stand and you could even follow an animal ’ s footprints in the snow until you caught up with it .
“… I had never seen really fresh prints in the snow .”
I ’ m used to seeing fresh sign when out hunting but I had never seen really fresh prints in the snow . Usually they ’ re old , round hollows that have been there for days . I had always wanted to follow prints in the snow , and catch up to an animal just like in big game hunter .
My girlfriend Georgi and I don ’ t normally get the same time off work but there was this one July weekend that we did , and we planned this trip weeks in advance . As the date came closer , the weather forecast became worse . Up until the day we left there were extreme weather warnings : torrential rain , thunderstorms and snow .
But the final day was looking good . We didn ’ t have the same time off again for months so this was our only chance . The spot where we were planning to go required no major
Jonny enjoying stretching his legs on the second night during a short break in the weather
river crossings so we thought we ’ d just go for it and sit the weather out if need be , as we had a few days up our sleeves .
With the food shopping done and packs packed we headed off and in
There ’ s not much colour in the bush during a snowfall . It ’ s mostly black and white but that means a deer stands out better when you do see one .
NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196 - Autumn 2017 13