WAPITI DREAMS
I'd been lucky enough to spend over 30 days in Fiordland during the bugle, ten days as part of an actual party and the rest as a tag-along filming for our TV Show. Even though most of this time was theoretically spent ‘working’, there is no place on earth I'd rather have been. Hearing those big creamy-coated bulls voice their spine-tingling bugles and watching them round up their harems of cows in such steep and unforgiving mountains is an amazing and incredibly humbling experience. It’s almost spiritual in some ways.
The year 2018 began with some luck and saw Greg and I draw a ballot, the first period of a core block that tends to produce quality bulls. But as per usual, Fiordland did what Fiordland does and our hopes and dreams of ten good days in God’s country were shattered with a horrific weather forecast.
As beautiful and scenic as Fiordland is on a fine day, it can become very wet, windy, and challenging in an instant - something that needs to be respected. A few extra days were had sipping tea in the video editing room or ‘dungeon’ as we like to call it, but that Wapiti dream was proving irresistible, and since we had drawn such a great block, we headed South and went for it anyway. What followed were numerous days stuck in our cosy three-man tent, sheltering from gale force winds and rain in our expertly excavated rock crevasse. We’d sneak out any time we got a break in the weather and were rewarded for our resolve with the spotting of a very large 15-point bull, one of the biggest Wapiti Greg and Willie had ever laid eyes on. Sadly, he was only five and a half years of age, so we decided to leave him, to hopefully mature and continue passing on his great genetics in this area. The herd still needed this bull more than I did so it was a no brainer decision, but it’s always a little hard walking away from the greatest animal you’ve ever seen. This bull had the potential to break some serious records if he could survive a few more years and reach full maturity.
2020 was a
